A former music teacher retrained as a Salesforce admin after a brain injury using Trailhead and community support. She earned 417 badges, volunteered teaching Salesforce to underrepresented communities, and returned to the classroom to teach it instead of music.
2011
417
I got into the salesforce ecosystem completely by accident. I had been a music teacher. In 2011, they discovered I had a brain injury that required brain surgery. Fortunately, it saved my life. My love of music teaching had to stop. I just was not physically able to be in the classroom anymore. I was really kind of broken and lost. I was able to volunteer for a music education nonprofit called little kids rock. While I was there, they introduced me to Salesforce.
When she got involved with salesforce, she found literally a new passion in life.
There is no other place I've ever heard about like the trailblazer community. The compassion and willingness to help. I had the support to do whatever I wanted. I studied. I used trailhead. I was able to become a salesforce admin. I was able to start to see hope again for myself, to be able to rebuild my life. I have really embraced trailhead and now getting to 417 badges.
I'm completely and totally inspired by her work. To see her go from knowing nothing about a product to all of a sudden being honored here at the world tour.
Salesforce is not just a technology platform. It's a family. I have met some really great people inside the trailblazer community. One of them is Cheryl Feldman. She happens to volunteer for an organization called pep Up Tech. Pep up tech offers salesforce skills to underrepresented communities. I was able to volunteer for pep up tech, and now I'm back in the classroom. But now, instead of music, I'm teaching them salesforce skills. My love of education and what I really wanted to do in life, to have that completely taken away and to now have it back again, I can't even describe how important that is to me. Sam.
