Meet Lauren Pasquini | Founder of ElevateU

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lauren Pasquini and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
For as long as I can remember, I always knew I wanted to work with children. The automatic career choice was to become a teacher because that is what I knew and was familiar with. As I got older, and being the child of an entrepreneur, I began to have dreams of owning my own business that allowed me to work with children. I never knew what that would look like and so I decided to become a teacher and figured that would give me the experience I would want for whatever this business was that I dreamed of creating. I went through my credential program, landed my first job as a third grade teacher in San Jose, California, and to be honest loved every part of it. I lived and worked in San Jose for four years, and eventually made the decision to move back to Bakersfield, California to be closer to family. I took a job as a first grade teacher and began learning about my new school, district, and grade level. I worked here for three years, but always felt as if something was missing. I was beginning to lose that spark and love for what I was doing. I decided that maybe I needed a change, so I accepted a new position as a fourth grade teacher within a new school district. I was excited for this new endeavor and the opportunities it would bring. Then March 2020 came, and like everyone knows and is familiar with, the whole world changed. In the middle of a pandemic I had to pack and move my classroom, start a new grade, and learn the policies of a new school and district. My new school did not bring students back until the end of March 2021. I had an entire year without physically having students in my classroom. That entire year was downright painful. COVID took away the best part of my job, the kids. Zoom teaching was a nightmare. I’m not even going to sugar coat it. I would be lucky if I had 10 students online with cameras and participating. The countless hours of grading, making and creating online assignments, attending staff meetings on Zoom for new COVID policy updates or district requirements for attendance taking and grading was incredibly draining. I found myself not wanting to get out of bed every morning my alarm went off. I now dreaded the job I once loved. I just want to point out here, that this has nothing to do with the people I worked with or the school/district. Everyone there was fantastic, and to be honest we were all just trying to survive the school year. However, I was raised by my father who taught me that I should wake up and love what I do every day because it is what you are going to be doing the rest of my life. Eventually I went to my dad and talked with him about how I no longer love what I do, but had no idea how I was going to leave behind the stability that the career of a teacher brings. Through the help and support of my parents, prayer, and honestly my therapist, I made the decision that it was time to make a change and to see if me going out on my own worked, and if not, there would always be a teaching position available for me. Once the school year ended, I began to research what my program would be and eventually created ElevateU. ElevateU is a educational consulting company that helps parents, educators, and children elevate to their highest self. We help families and educators jump into the driver’s seat in providing alternative education programs for children. Not only do we provide educational consulting and academic coaching, but we also provide enrichment programs that help build upon student’s individual skills.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My educational career started at Bakersfield College. After two years I transferred to Chico State where I obtained my BA in Child Development, MA in Education, and California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential. While obtaining my degree in Child Development, I had to complete many field hours with children 0-5. Because of that, and my teaching experience in public schools I was able to obtain my California Child Development Program Director’s Permit to run centers from infants to school age. I have eight years of experience as an elementary school teacher in first, third, and fourth grade. My journey to becoming a teacher was not easy by any means. I am someone who is not a good test taker, and if you are familiar with what it takes to become a credentialed teacher, there are A LOT of tests. I had to take one of the tests nine times before passing. I wanted to quit, but luckily I had my parents who reminded me that passing a test does NOT make you a good teacher. I believe my struggles with school is what has helped me connect with children when they are struggling with something. I believe what I have learned along the way is that failures do not define you. I would want the world to know that if you want something bad enough, don’t give up. Push through every fear and failure. One day you will look back and be glad that you did.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My dad, Marc Pasquini (owner of Pasquini Engineering), deserves a special shout out in my success story. From day one he has been my biggest cheerleader in whatever I have come to him with. As a child and even now as an adult, he has always made me believe that I can do whatever I set my mind to. Growing up he taught me that when it came to choosing a career path, that whatever I decided to do had to be something I loved doing, something that I was excited to wake up and do every day. When I was struggling with what I now realize was depression, I came to him and shared that I no longer loved what I was doing. He provided me with the opportunity to take the leap and start ElevateU. At first I told him no, and he was okay with that. But as conversations continued, he would bring it back up and ask me, “why not now?”. When I decided to pull the trigger, his first words to me were, “Whether you succeed of fail, the fact that you are here trying is more than most people can say they have ever done”. He has been a sounding board and now business mentor. He is always the first one to share what it is I am doing with complete strangers and isn’t afraid to put me on the spot with his own clients so that I can share my program. He believes in me even on the days I don’t believe in myself, and I am eternally grateful and lucky that I also get to call him dad.

Website: www.letselevateu.com

Instagram: @elevateu.inc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevateu.inc

Other: https://linktr.ee/elevate.inc Email: lauren@letselevateu.com Phone: 661.379.7270