By Christine Bethke/reporter
Whatever aspirations women can envision for themselves, they can achieve, a financial planner for Prudential Financial told students Nov. 2.
Mary McMahon presented Women In Control Taking Charge In 2012 — Exploring Our Options Together, hosted by the South Campus Women in New Roles program.
Speaking to an audience of 20 women, McMahon voiced the agenda for the seminar.
“[I want to] empower women to take on their natural positions of leadership in every area of life that is important to them,” she said.
Women have always had the ability to take control of their priorities in life.
They just need to learn what steps to take to make their goals real, McMahon said.
Each woman has unique talents and gifts, but women need to ask themselves what makes them valuable, she said.
McMahon said her inspiration for taking control of her own life is her mother, who lost a husband to cancer in the ’70s and was left to raise six children on her own.
McMahon’s mother started college a year after her husband’s death. She graduated summa cum laude, obtained her master’s, became a published author and appeared on The Phil Donahue Show in just a few years.
McMahon remembers the struggles her family endured growing up.
“It was not easy,” McMahon said. “Doing what she did was not easy, but she had a purpose, and she had a mission.”
McMahon herself has been successful in two careers but has always had an enthusiasm for finance.
“I was born with two passions — a passion for finance and a passion for shoes,” she said.
To organize goals, McMahon suggested students use a business organization chart with the woman at the top of the chart as CEO.
South student Greta Fowler said the story of McMahon’s mother inspired her.
“It’s really an amazing story,” she said.
As the seminar closed, student Sondra Hill summed up what she learned from McMahon.
“I can create anything I allow myself to create,” she said.
