YOUR MONEY
CREDIT, COLLEGE, TAXES AND REAL ESTATE
PRINT
EMAIL
DEL.ICIO.US
DIGG THIS
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and Dream In You, a firm specializing in career transformations, have selected three winners in their jointly sponsored national Dream Job Contest. Each winner will receive a prize package valued at between $16,500 and $21,500 to help them transform their careers into the dream jobs they described in their winning entries.
Knight Kiplinger, editor in chief of the magazine, and Elizabeth Kanna, co-founder of Dream In You, will present the prizes during an awards ceremony at Kiplinger's Washington, D.C., headquarters on April 8, 2006. Each award includes state-of-the-art computer equipment, $5,000 in cash, individual skills analysis and career counseling, and guidance from celebrity mentors in the winner's chosen field.
The finalists are Richard Ahlquist, a commercial airplane pilot from Woodbury, Minn., Jean Duane, a chef from Centennial, Colo., and Cecilia Hilkey, an occupational therapist from Torrance, Cal. They were chosen from more than 3,500 entries in the online contest. Contestants were asked to submit a 500-word essay describing their dream job and what steps they had taken in the past to make it come true, such as taking classes to develop new skills, launching a sideline business or identifying an untapped market. Twenty-five semi-finalists chosen in February submitted short videos expanding on their aspirations.
| Richard Ahlquist | |
 |
Ahlquist, 50, says his current dream job as a pilot for a major U.S. airline, "is exploding in bankruptcy" and his next dream job would be to operate his own business. He wants to put his M.B.A. and law school experience to good use and capitalize on the outsourcing trend by creating a paralegal business that would perform routine back-office tasks for law firms. |
| Jean Duane | |
 |
Duane, 48, is a passionate cook, but discovered years ago that she cannot tolerate dairy products or gluten, eliminating most processed foods and restaurant meals from her diet. She wants to help millions of other Americans with dietary restrictions to prepare easy and delicious meals by using natural ingredients like vegetables, beans, nuts, fruits and grains. She envisions creating a series of instructional DVDs, each focusing on a specific type of food, such as breakfast items, ethnic meals and desserts -- without eggs, butter or wheat flour. |
| Cecilia Hilkey (and husband Jason Hilkey) | |
 |
Hilkey, 32, conducts occupational therapy sessions for children with disabilities. Her husband Jason, a former computer engineer with Disney Feature Animation, teaches special educational students how to use computers. Together they want to create a resource center where children with disabilities can participate in therapy sessions and play on specially designed gym equipment, and where adults with disabilities can test-drive new adaptive technologies. |
"Some of America's most successful people are risk takers, people who took a chance and followed their dreams," says Fred Frailey, editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance, who will join in congratulating the winners at the awards ceremony. "These three winners display a clear vision for success."
Kanna says all three winners will benefit from professional guidance with marketing and business plans and door-opening relationships with mentors in their field. "Their lives will never be the same," says the Dream in You founder.
Kiplinger Poll | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Reprint Article
|
|
|
|
|
