Mike Marvin
- Founder, Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker
Mike Marvin has over 45 years’ experience in multiple industries including manufacturing, education, and technology. He’s committed to maintaining diverse environments by removing barriers and focusing on the strengths of every person he meets.
His real time, continuous feedback loop has been the the key to maintaining an inclusive environment where everyone is part of making it work.
Christina's Story
1975-1985
Born in Queens, NY – Christina was considered a hyper-active tom-boy. She loved to play outside running around, doing cartwheels, riding bikes, playing soccer, and skateboarding.
Her father died of his 8th heart attack when she was just 7 years old. He took her to many libraries and encouraged her curious nature. He had mentioned the Harvard 100 and she spent the next few years reading all of them hoping to find answers to the many questions she normally would have asked him.
Her family moved around a lot – flipping houses before it was a TV phenomenon. She had bad handwriting and at 8 years old fell in love with the fonts on computers. She has been hooked ever since then and her attention was always drawn to the latest and greatest.
1986-1996
She got an Apple 2gs when she was 11, aced her 8th grade programming class, and was often found in the library playing “Oregon Trail” and trying to design her own “tools” before shortcuts were the norm.
She finished her last two years of high school through correspondence school and took a semester of community college for Studio Art – initially hoping to get a degree in Graphic Art.
Christina learned to ski when she was 19. She spent over 100 days on the ski hill and became a ski instructor the next year. She also secured her first soccer coaching position for the local boys 17 and under summer team.
1997-2007
Mike introduced Christina to The Virtues Project™ in 2006 and she became a certified facilitator that same year.
It proved to be a catalyst for many successes in developing and maintaining inclusive environments.
Christina and Mike became certified Master Facilitators of The Virtues Project™ in 2012 giving them the authority train other facilitators.
She hoped to be a cycling official at the Atlanta and Salt Lake City Olympics but they required too much time off from college and work. One of her greatest accomplishments was being the highest ranked women downhill race official at the Goodwill Games at Lake Placid.
Christina was a student ambassador and orientation leader where she learned she is an INTJ – a rare personality type, especially for a woman. She finally had an explanation for her lack of interest and inability to fit in. Eventually she learned to make it into a superpower.
It was time to update the ecommerce website as it was not able to keep up with the constant changes in browsers and database changes. She helped document the current processes and future needs. Many companies refused to bid and those that did, placed multi-million dollar bids but it would require all their programmers so it was difficult to name a start date. They also estimated the project would take two years to complete and were not sure they could deliver the full scope of the project.
At the same time, Mike Marvin was considering a sabbatical to gain industry experience with the latest programming languages. An Alcas supervisor had taken a programming class with Mike and after a series of interviews, Alcas hired him and named Christina the lead for the project.
Christina designed a new way to handle requests and updates from the IBM AS400 system to the web servers. This core legacy system was designed to keep up with the constant changes in browsers and business processes.
In 2006, the website was delivered, on-time, under budget, and with many more features beyond the original scope. That website is still considered state-of-the-art to this day.
2008-2018
She finally found a doctor who took her seriously and she spent 6 months undergoing extensive diagnostics. Her internal organs were fused together with scar tissue. It took 2 surgeons over 8 hours to remove the scar tissue. Recovery was slow and it was over a year before she was able to have a normal day of activity.
The swelling continues to limit her ability to engage in the sports which were such a large part of her life.
They have developed strength based materials for corporate managers, college campuses, youth groups, rape crisis volunteers, and survivors of sexual assault and their families. Their blogs have been featured on The Good Men Project and they presented their keynote address on various college campuses including Stanford University.
Mike and Christina mapped out their ideas on a whiteboard. Mike had two kids with tech talent and had always wished there were something in the area that could challenge them. Christina added her understanding of how the sports industry develops talent.
TECH Unleashed for 13-17-year-olds started in 2012 as a two-week summer camp. The following year, we started meeting once a week in addition to day camps during the school breaks. This was the first attempt at cross industry ideation.
Initially hosted at the local community college and BOCES, the need for a community technology center became evident. It was time to develop the younger age group programs which would feed into the proven teen program.
As soon as the pilot tech center was established, representatives from the NYS DDPC toured and asked if we could put together a similar program for inclusive 17 and over workforce development. They funded the first two years as a pilot program.
2019-today
Stay tuned for the story of how Boundless Connections expanded to Rochester, NY.
Everyone has an ongoing pandemic story. Christina usually thrives under constant changes which is why the tech industry has held her attention. This was different. Unpredictable and no end in sight meant a major shift in approach and constant setbacks. This is not the forward momentum Christina is used to and she is taking things one day at a time.
They have developed strength based materials for corporate managers, college campuses, youth groups, rape crisis volunteers, and survivors of sexual assault and their families. Their blogs have been featured on The Good Men Project and they presented their keynote address on various college campuses including Stanford University.
At the end of 2011, the co-chair of the economic developer of the WNY held a meeting to hear ideas about developing a tech talent pipeline.
Mike and Christina mapped out their ideas on a whiteboard. Mike had two kids with tech talent and had always wished there were something in the area that could challenge them. Christina added her understanding of how the sports industry develops talent.
TECH Unleashed for 13-17-year-olds started in 2012 as a two-week summer camp. The following year, we started meeting once a week in addition to day camps during the school breaks. This was the first attempt at cross industry ideation.
Initially hosted at the local community college and BOCES, the need for a community technology center became evident. It was time to develop the younger age group programs which would feed into the proven teen program.
As soon as the pilot tech center was established, representatives from the NYS DDPC toured and asked if we could put together a similar program for inclusive 17 and over workforce development. They funded the first two years as a pilot program.
Interests
- Pets
- Ologies (bi, psych, soci, tech, etc.)
- Skiing
- Volleyball
- Music
Speaking
- Disruptive Leadership
- Cross Industry Ideation
- Tech Literacy
- Sustainable Solutions
- Talent Development
What's next?
We’re still standing… yeah, yeah, yeah! ♪♫
First a salute to all the other small businesses and entrepreneurs who are navigating this unpredictable world and making it happen.
Every business would do better with a tech literate workforce. We are now ready to pursue our business to business outreach strategy and developing our employee benefit memberships and sponsor opportunities.