According to Northern Insurance Agency Personal, Commercial, and Life Agent Rachael Strand, life has not always gone the way she expected it to. Fortunately, the skillset she honed as a Bay College student has served as a strong foundation for both her career and her personal life.
Rachael graduated from Escanaba Senior High School in 2011. She became a full-time student at Bay the following fall; however, she had previously taken college classes during her junior and senior years of high school. Rachael took these classes as a participant in Bay’s dual enrollment program.
“I would highly recommend it to anybody—free college courses while you’re still in high school is hard to beat,” she said of this program.
As a full-time Bay student, Rachael majored in communication.
“I have always had a passion for American Sign Language. My goal was to be a speech therapist, but life took me down a different path. Now, I’m confident and happy in the field that I’m in,” she said.
One of Rachael’s favorite subjects at Bay was public speaking.
“That got me out of my comfort zone. I also met a ton of people from out of the area I wouldn’t have met otherwise and had some cool experiences,” she said.
She noted that her teachers were uniformly “fantastic” and voiced her appreciation of instructors such as Crystal Dwyer, Dan Doyle, Jane Kidder, and Brent Madalinski.
“They were very personable, and they did a great job of getting everybody out of their comfort zone and teaching you how to communicate in the adult world,” she said.
Along with her classes, Rachael got involved with Bay’s theater program and theater club as a student.
“I loved theater—loved it. Chicago was one of the musicals I worked on, and it was a real highlight,” she said.
Rachael graduated from Bay in 2014 with an Associate Degree in Communication. She then moved to Wisconsin in the hopes of earning her Bachelor’s Degree, but before long, she returned to the Upper Peninsula to raise a family. There, she worked in the financial industry for about five years before entering her current field—insurance.
According to Rachael, her first job in this industry was at Garceau Insurance Agency. After two years, she transferred to Northern Insurance Agency (Garceau’s partner agency). There, she started out as a customer service representative before earning her current title.
“I service my clients’ insurance needs while also finding solutions to protect their assets,” she said of her job duties.
Rachael’s experiences at Bay have gone a long way toward helping her thrive in this role.
“I find it very easy to communicate with people whether I know them or not, and that definitely stems from the classes I took at Bay,” she said.
She has also found it easier to get involved thanks to her experiences as a Bay student.
“Because of my public speaking class, I am an active member of the Rotary Club, a Delta Force graduate, a softball coach, and a church volunteer,” Rachael said.
Rachael said she is glad Bay College is a part of Delta County.
“In the Delta Force program, we talked a lot about keeping people local. I think Bay does a great job of helping reinforce that idea. There are a lot of opportunities at Bay that could encourage our youth to stay local rather than leave the area,” she said.