Accounting alumna Darlene Steffen ’76 had been so busy with her family and career – 32 years at John Deere before starting her own financial advising firm, Life Planning Solutions – that she’d fallen out of touch with her alma mater. That all changed when she attended her 40-year UML reunion in 2016.
Not only did Steffen reconnect with former classmate Joanne Yestramski ’76, but she ended up joining the Manning School of Business advisory board. Ever since, she’s made several trips to campus from her home in Moline, Illinois, to speak to classes. She’s also helped endow a scholarship for first-gen business students, and she’s exploring ways to create a mentorship program for them as they begin their careers.
“They are plowing new ground, and they need mentors who can help them network and navigate the corporate environment when they get out of school,” says Steffen, who was a first-gen college student from Connecticut when she arrived on the Lowell Tech campus in 1972. “We all have stories about stubbing our toe in our first job out of college, but it doesn’t have to be that painful.”
Steffen is “totally humbled” to be receiving a University Alumni Award for her efforts.
“I so appreciate the relationship I’ve built with students. I just wish I could do more,” says Steffen, who looks forward to working with new Dean of Business Bertie Greer to continue supporting students. “The advisory board isn’t here for the faculty, the dean or the administration; we’re here for the students, trying to raise money and mentor them.”
Steffen can relate to the financial struggle that many students face. Coming from a “lower-class family,” she chose Lowell Tech over UMass Amherst and UConn largely because of the price tag.
“My parents did their best to help me, but just like a lot of students today, I was focused on dollars,” says Steffen, who served as editor of The Text student newspaper.
She graduated a semester early and landed a job at John Deere, working her way up to become finance director for the global IT division. “How did I navigate that? I took the jobs nobody else wanted. I traveled and transferred. It’s what you’re willing to do,” she says.
Along the way, she got a master’s in organizational behavior from Webster University in St. Louis and an MBA from Northwestern University. In 2008, she fulfilled a longtime dream of opening her own financial advising firm.
She thanks Executive Director of Alumni and Donor Relations Heather Makrez Allen, '06, '08, '21 for making her feel so welcome at the 40-year reunion and helping her reconnect with Yestramski, UML’s former senior vice chancellor for finance and operations. Steffen and Yestramski recently spent nine weeks traveling together with their husbands in Southeast Asia and Australia.
“It was the trip of a lifetime,” Steffen says. “Your connections from UML can be lifelong. Just because they drop off doesn’t mean they can’t reconnect.”