Andrea Devine works at Marine Credit Union (MCU) as a Senior Contact Center Specialist. She started at MCU in February of 2021 after having a baby in March of 2020, “the week everything shut down” she explained – due to the pandemic.
“It’s fun,” she said of working at MCU. A recruiter reached out to Andrea in November of 2020, but at the time, Andrea said she wasn’t looking yet for work. “I wasn’t ready,” she explained. But in January, she said she felt it was time. “I had heard such good things,” she said of MCU. “I loved their mission.”
She knew of MCU prior to working there, though, as Andrea explained that she had financial struggles in the early 2000s. “I needed to purchase a vehicle. MCU was able to help me. I have a soft spot because of MCU helping me when I needed it. Somebody believed in me and that was really special.”
Andrea said she felt she learned a lot through that experience. “I struggled,” she shared. “I had tough times. I wasn’t sure how to pay for my lights and rent. I was overdrawn in my account.” Now, she added, that when she sees others struggling, she can recognize the behaviors and share the things that helped her get through it. And she said it’s possible when someone is “open to changing their habits. It helped me out of that place. I went from a lower to high credit score. Knowing how to build up your score,” she added, “the best education was living through it.” She said she used her own experiences to help others.
“It was so hard to live that life. It gives you empathy and understanding of what (others) are going through,” Andrea continued. “There is no shame in sharing those experiences.” Being vulnerable and sharing her experiences with others, Andrea said, “helps to give them hope that they can get there too.”
She shared that just out of high school the market crashed. “Jobs were not stable. I came out at a difficult time and I was not mature enough at that time,” Andrea shared. “If I could have just paid attention to what others were telling me.”
After high school, Andrea’s plan was to study nursing at Viterbo University. “It didn’t work out for me at that time,” she said even though she had a love for hospitals and her mom was a nurse. “I was very proud of her and her career,” Andrea said and added that she decided last year that she is going to go back to school for nursing. “I just know if you don’t do the hard things now, we won’t have the life we want later.”
So, in addition to working full-time at MCU, Andrea is back in school. “I spend an hour or two after bedtime and on the weekends. My kids (a two-year old boy, Dean and a four-year-old girl, Athena) are incredibly motivating,” she added. “They are my why. I want to give them the best that I can.”
Andrea said she doesn’t know where all of this will take her, but she loves working at MCU. “It’s one of the best experiences I have in my life,” she said.
Not to forget her father, Andrea also shared that he was a school bus driver who retired earlier in 2022. “He would wear funny hats and bring the kids donuts and popcorn. He loved doing special things for them.”
