New Powerhouse Team Member
Hannah is thrilled to join the Powerhouse Planning team as a guest services manager. With a five-year background in different marketing roles, mostly in cybersecurity and B2B networking, she is excited to pivot her skill set to be more customer oriented. Along with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and cognitive science, Hannah also holds a master’s degree in marketing and management from the University of Virginia.
Hannah is based out of the Charlottesville, Virginia area, although she has spent the last year traveling with her husband and cat in their self-converted school bus RV! After visiting 20 states and 25 national parks, she is excited to be back on the East Coast.
Coming from a military family herself, Hannah has always had a love of travel and hopes to continue to explore new places, both in her bus and via plane.
When she’s not hiking or checking out new landmarks, Hannah likes to read, pick up any and every craft, and try new foods and drinks.
New Powerhouse Team Member
Janice is very excited to join the Powerhouse team as a guest service manager. She has a bachelor’s degree in computer science as well as digital media and web technology. Additionally, she holds an associate degree in chemistry. Janice has many years of experience in customer service as well as data and property management. She feels she can contribute her great skills in assisting the team. Janice is a military spouse with three beautiful children. Over the past 12 years, she has lived with her family in four different countries around the world. During free time, she loves to travel and bake.
POWERHOUSE PLANNING RECEIVES AWARD FROM OPERATION: JOB READY VETERANS
Powerhouse Planning, LLC is honored to announce that it received the Outstanding Appreciation Award from Operation: Job Ready Veterans. This award recognizes the five years of dedicated services Powerhouse Planning has provided to Operation: Job Ready Veterans and its mission.
“We are proud to be the recipients of this award,” said Jessica Bertsch, Powerhouse Planning’s president and founder. “This award also signifies the careers that this partnership has provided to military spouses on our team over the last five years, and for that I am grateful.” OJRV’s mission to bridge the transitional gap for veterans, military members, and military families speaks to Powerhouse’s own passion for providing remote careers for military spouses and veterans. Powerhouse is honored to play a small part in the big work OJRV is doing.
Learn more about this partnership here.
LEADERSHIP SPOTLIGHT
Celebrating 50 Years of FPSPI with Executive Director April Michele
By: Heatherlynn Akins
Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024. Dr. E. Paul Torrance founded FPSPI in 1974 based on activities he and his wife Pansy introduced, and it has grown to an internationally beloved problem-solving program for students grades 4 through 12. We recently sat down with FPSPI Executive Director April Michele to discuss what makes FPSPI so successful and find out how they’re planning to celebrate 50 years of equipping problem-solving, ethical leaders.
Ms. Michele began her own career in education teaching elementary school and gifted education. While teaching, she was introduced to the benefits of Future Problem Solving and leading students to competition success. In 2012, she had the opportunity to serve FPSPI in an official capacity, and she hasn’t looked back. From developing curriculum and coordinating competition materials to serving in her current role as executive director, April has thoroughly enjoyed her time and experiences as part of a student-driven organization designed to promote students as leaders. “Our students inspire me and drive my work!” she says. This passion is clearly present in the challenging curriculum the FPSPI team has continued to develop during her time with the organization.
“I’ve taken my background in advanced curriculum studies, highly engaging learning techniques, and pedagogy and strategies for critical and creative thinking and applied them to the principles of FPSPI, along with [working with] an amazing, passionate team. I’m constantly amazed by the students in our program, and they’re the reason we’ve been around for 50 years,” Michele says. Which is why when it came time to think about how to commemorate 50 years of guiding and molding students to become creative, critical thinkers who can adapt and improvise well, FPSPI thought the best way to celebrate would be to create a program designed to reach even more students worldwide.
Empowering the Homefront
We kicked off the final phase of our Empowering the Homefront (ETH) Share the Goodness initiative, and it’s our most popular yet! Our ETH Mentor Matchup program started last month. Military spouses looking for remote career/entrepreneurial mentorship are actively meeting with Powerhouse’s powerful mentors through February. Want to know more about ETH and how you can still be a part of all the goodness?
Check out this video that will answer all your questions.
Join our next ETH event in partnership with LinkedIn Social Impact in December! Looking for help in the meantime? Powerhouse has a free resource you can download to help you optimize your LinkedIn experience.
POWERHOUSE OUT & ABOUT
Powerhouse President Jessica Bertsch will once again be lending her years of military spouse experience to the online PILLAR conference. This year, she will be joined by her husband. After 25+ deployments, they have some tips and tricks to share! PILLAR was designed for military spouses and centered around creating a safe, digital space to meet and share tips, lessons learned, and all things military life. PILLAR has something for everyone, whether you’re a brand-new military spouse or a seasoned veteran.
If you are a military spouse, or know a military spouse, be sure to check out this year’s conference and consider signing up. The conference will take place November 17 – 19, 2023. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for Jessica and Fritz Bertsch’s guest appearance!
