Sara Stevick

Sara Stevick

Sr. Learning Associate-Instructional Designer


Capital One

Mechanicsville, VA USA


If you spend your life trying to fit the mold others have cast for you, you will likely miss out on some of the most profound and happy experiences that would help you come into your own.

Milestones

My road in life took a while to figure out.
Became a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing at a residential school for the deaf for 3 years right after college.
Moved across country to Arizona and became an Itinerant teacher of the deaf for a year.
Transitioned into general education as a high school biology and anatomy / physiology teacher.
Moved back to Virginia after having my son, and starting teaching at a new school in August 2019.
Was diagnosed with a Giant Cell Tumor of bone in my arm in October 2019, and had to go through a limb salvage surgery where they replaced half of my radius using fibula bone from my leg.
When I returned to my teaching position in February 2020, it quickly became apparent it was not conducive to recovery, and I resigned.
Started my journey to Instructional Design in the middle of a pandemic through self learning and a strong work ethic.
Began working as a Sr. Instructional Designer at Capital One in the Audit Department in July 2020
Keep following my journey

Education

High School
Bachelor
Special Education: Teaching of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, K-12
Radford University

Career

Sr. Learning Associate-Instructional Designer

I create instructional materials for instructor-led, eLearning, and blended training courses.

Career Roadmap

Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Education
Design
Being Creative

Day to Day

The day to day for an instructional designer changes, which is part of the reason it is so much fun! Think of it as more project based, so throughout the project life-cycle, you will determine gaps that can be addressed by training, and then you work with Subject Matter Experts and Stakeholders to create a plan of action in how you will address those needs. After the plan is made, you build out the materials needed, and then test them and iterate upon the design.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for everyone

Sign up for a LinkedIn account and start making connections! LinkedIn also has a learning platform where you can take courses to learn about what you need to know. Then just talk to those in Instructional Design—you'll find that there are many paths that could take you there, and you'll need to find the one that works for you!

Recommended Education

My career is not related to what I studied. I'd recommend this path instead:

undergrad
Bachelor
Instructional Design or Educational/Instructional Technology

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Society in General:

"Having come to instructional design as a second career after teaching, I experienced quite a few individuals who were of the line of thinking that people should stay their course, especially if their first career was in humanities or social science."