Natalia Schmidt

“Working with learners humbles me”

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When Natalia Schmidt started grad school in the United States, she found it difficult to navigate the higher ed system as an Afro-Latina from Brazil. Through persistence and dedication, she earned her master's degree in applied linguistics. Even though she had been an English educator for speakers of other languages for 10 years, her journey to her master’s degree was challenging.

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When Natalia learned about coaching opportunities at InsideTrack, she realized this would allow her to provide the kind of learner support that she would have benefitted from when she was in school. Coaching also appealed to Natalia because she enjoys collaborating with learners in their process.

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“InsideTrack has taught me to facilitate specific and tailored support resulting in people-centered meetings. I support people where they're at, instructing people, mentoring, facilitating, and problem solving.” This gives her access to a wide variety of approaches to help people access resources — and tap into their inner power. “Coaching is groundbreaking,” she says, “because it literally breaks walls and promotes accessibility to higher education.”

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Natalia wishes more people could access and would be open to giving coaching a try. “See how far you can get when you can collaborate with a coach to help carve the way. This goes back to my personal story of someone who had to navigate hard pathways to get where I wanted to go. Giving a coach a try, being vulnerable to share challenges, obstacles, is really, really a powerful way to achieve goals. We can just go as far when we go alone, but just much further when a coach is there to help us open doors and understand the path ahead of us.”

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As Natalia tells it, she has found a true home with her work at InsideTrack. Known for being a collaborative teammate, she works with her colleagues to ask questions, develop better workflows, and streamline processes — always with the learner in mind. “I'm also known for the person who brings donuts to the office when we get to work together in person,” she says with a smile. “So when I can involve food, I will be that teammate as well.”

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“Working with learners humbles me, every time they're vulnerable to share their stories with me, their purposes, their goals, their whys and sometimes challenges. It’s amazing that they trust my ears and my role as a coach. It impacts me every single meeting.”