Happy Mother's Day to everyone!! Today's post features my beautiful mother, Elaine Thompson, in honor of Mother's Day! Be sure to check out my other Mother's Day post in honor of my Grandmother, Mary Jo Depena! To me, my mom, Elaine Thompson is an all-around fantastic woman. She is a great wife, mom, daughter, sister, and friend. She works extremely hard with everything she does, whether it be at work, supporting her children, or helping out friends and family, she does it all whole heartily. She is a well rounded, smart, and loving person. When asked who her greatest female inspiration is, she attributed it to both her grandmothers, Marrion Inserra and Sylvia Depena. She explained this is because they were both very successful in their homes and personal lives, as well as within their professions.
Elaine Thompson is CFO of Seaport Federal Credit Union, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However, that is not the beginning nor the end of her story. She was born in Patchogue, New York (on Long Island). As a younger child, she and her family lived in New York, Virginia, and eventually made their way to Scotch Plains, New Jersey where she remained. She went to middle school and graduated high school from Scotch Plains. From there, she attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick. She graduated from Rutgers with a degree in Economics. For most of Elaine's career, she worked in Credit Unions, starting at Rutgers Federal Credit Union (FCU) part-time as a teller. Over time she moved her way up from a teller to working in the accounting department, and when she graduated they took her on as a full-time employee. After about 2-3 years there full time, she decided to venture out and take her career outside of Credit Union's and landed a job at a software company. She quickly found that she did not like it. From there she began to look for work at Credit Unions again and through that search, she found Seaport FCU, where she has been for the past 16 years. During the interview, Elaine spoke on some of the hardships women face in the work world such as women being more likely to not make it far within companies. She noticed this while working at the software company, she said, "I could see it clearly, that I wouldn't make it as high as some men, just based on being a woman." She does note that it depends on the company, based on her own experiences she believes that the credit union atmosphere is better with women in that aspect. However, she has seen that because Seaport FCU is a predominately women staff, they can be treated differently when dealing with outside people. Some of her own obstacles she has had to overcome included not being taken seriously because of her age, as well as only being judge based on her being a woman and not on what she brought to the table as a person. Throughout her career Elaine, especially when applying for jobs, struggled with employers not taking her seriously because she was young. None the less, over time she proved her credibility and responsibility through her hard work and dedication. I think this should be a lesson for everyone of all ages. For those who are young; don't be afraid to go after your dreams, there is no age limit on responsibility and determination. As for those who are older, remember that age doesn't define a person's abilities, their actions do. We all could miss out on so many opportunities if we don't take chances with people; no matter who they are, where they come from, or how long they've been on this earth. Another challenge Elaine has been presented with throughout her life has been trying to get people to see her for her knowledge, skill, and abilities; rather than just her womanhood. I can only imagine this must be such a challenge for so many women out there. While we are women, it is not our only defining feature. Women bring so much more the table than just their gender if anything I would say being a woman makes everything else that we do just a little better. As a society, we all should do a little better in remembering that at the end of the day we are all people with many different and wonderful skills. However, despite all challenges she overcame and all the achievements she's made, when asked what she would attribute her greatest achievement to, she said having her kids. She says it's because we are apart of her, my siblings and I, and she tries to help build to be the best we can be. While there have been good times and hard times in her life, she has enjoyed them all and with the endless support of her husband, she said in 10 years she sees herself as "hopefully CEO of Seaport FCU, doing just as good a job as Lisa". Thank you so much for reading! I hope you all have a great day and be sure to subscribe below if you like the content! Feel free to comment and like the post too! You can also follow us on Twitter and Instagram to partake in other fun stuff we do throughout the week!
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