“Sometimes the design hits immediately,” says the Boulder County sculptor, nationally known for making furniture and doors. “Other times, I sit with the wood for a while, then suddenly visualize the piece.”

Shutan originally studied creative writing. (She even had a teacher tell her to “forget art.”) But she wanted to work with her hands and ended up learning from a traditional Dutch woodworking master. That’s where she crafted her first door.

Her teacher died a few weeks later — after telling her, “You don’t need me anymore. Look at you.”

Twenty-eight years later, Shutan boasts custom doors around the country, including many throughout Boulder County. She etches movement and curves into her one-of-a-kind mostly mahogany doors; she wants to call out the “sensuous” nature of wood. She rides the band saw like a pencil across the rugged material.

Each door takes two to four months. Her only limitation is that it must fit in the door jam, she says.

“But within that boundary, I can go quite wild,” she says. “It’s like life.”

Her doors are functional, but with abstract qualities, she says. And as with her abstract sculptures, the results always surprise her, she says.

In fact, she adds, often “the accidents are more interesting than the original idea.”

Perhaps the accidents are the secret hidden inside the wood.

Check out Shutan’s work on display at the Osmosis Gallery, 290 Second Ave., Niwot, and online at www.ashutan.com.

— By Aimee Heckel

Burrows, 42, of Superior, opened her own dental practice in Broomfield, Summit Dental and Orthodontics — but not after overcoming hefty struggles. Burrows, born in Columbia, survived bone cancer at age 16. She lost her right leg above the knee, and she came to the United States knowing no English.

But her resolve and passion for her career inspires us to fight for what we love. Her practice celebrated its first anniversary this summer.

We caught up with Burrows for an extra dose of inspiration:

What is the best advice you can offer other local businesswoman right now — especially in this economy?

There are opportunities in any situation. Although the economy is in a down cycle, that simply means that you need to be more focused and dedicated to the overall vision and objectives of your company. You need to persevere and work just a little bit harder, knowing that things will improve.

What inspires you?

Knowing that every day is a gift that needs to be celebrated and cherished. Waking up and knowing that I have another day to be productive and possibly help someone that needs it makes everything worthwhile.

— By Aimee Heckel

Finding none, she succumbed to glitter and “puffy” paint, then resolved to start her own business. Now Smith, along with art and business partner Jessica Prince, designs and ships removable art decals to the broken-boned, worldwide. Boulder-based Casttoo (think cast-tattoo) also designs decals for prosthetic limbs and knee braces. The idea is that a personalized cast, decorated with colorful images, aids the healing process by encouraging happy thoughts.

“Happy healing,” Smith calls it. “Now people don’t look at your new cast and say, ‘Oh, what happened?’” Smith says. “They say, “Oh that looks cool.’”

Smith receives about 70 Casttoo requests per month, either from one of the 60 domestic and international clinics partnered with her service, or from individuals online. Prices vary depending on the size of the cast. A $20 package fits a child’s arm cast, while the $40 extra-large package fits an adult-sized full-leg cast.

Cornerstone Orthopedics & Sport Medicine in Louisville carried Casttoos. Kathy Perez, an orthopedic technician there, says everyone who gets one loves it.

“They are so simple for the patient to put on, it’s like a no-brainer,” Perez says. “(Patients) come back and say everyone loved them.“ About 10 percent of the clinic’s patients with casts choose to apply the Casttoos, she says. Half of those are adults. In effect, Smith has brought art to yet another medium.

“Photographers use cameras, painters use canvases, and we use broken bones,” Smith says. The waterproof decals, which range from fairies and seascapes to flames and “tribal designs,” work like a heat-activated sticker and are applied with a hairdryer.

Customers can also customize their decals by scanning in images online, Smith says. Although Smith is dedicated to keeping production local, she says she’s eager to see the business expand further internationally. Clinics in Great Britain, Lebanon, Peru and Korea have expressed interested in the decals, she says.

“I love what I do,” she says. “I make people with broken bones feel better.“ On the Web Check out www.casttoo.com.

— By Staff

Lisa Fraser, 51, of Boulder, has been a stylist for 30 years — even longer than the 20-year-old shop has been open. And she thinks she’s got one of the best jobs in the world.

“I get to make my clients look good and feel good about themselves,” she says.

Most of Pompadours’ clients are women, but men are welcome.

“All women care about their hair. It’s a very important accessory. It’s the accessory we wear everywhere,” she says.
Pompadours is an Aveda salon, meaning that they only use and sell Aveda products.

“We love the philosophy of the company,” Fraser says. “Everything is 100 percent natural.”

Fraser moved to Boulder in 1966 when the U.S. Air Force relocated her father to do Reserve Officers’ Training Corps recruiting at the University of Colorado. Fraser still lives in Boulder with her husband of 10 years, Elmar Willmes, 58.

We wanted to learn more about this passionate senior master stylist and what she does when she puts away her shears and locks up the shop. So we asked her six questions:

1. What’s your favorite item in your closet?
My black boyfriend-cut blazer. It is slightly longer and looser cut, and a classic must-have item in my wardrobe. It can dress up jeans or dress down a feminine silk dress. I can’t imagine not having a great black blazer.

2. What’s your guilty pleasure?
Real whipped cream. I have cut refined sugar and refined carbohydrates from my life, but I can still indulge in an occasional treat of a bowl full of berries buried in real whipped cream. It feels so decadent.

3. What’s your favorite way to relax?
I love it when I have a day at home to putz around the house and get caught up, work in my garden weeding and deadheading and then sit in my backyard swing with a good book. I have a sense of accomplishment from getting things done and I can sit back and relax and enjoy how nice everything looks. As simple as it sounds, it is not easy to find the time to just spend a whole day at home. A nice walk and a hot, candle-lit bubble bath at the end of the day would be the perfect relaxing day.

4. What are three things on your “bucket list?” (Things you want to do before you kick the bucket)
Only three? There are so many things I still want to do in my lifetime, it is hard to choose just three.
Travel, travel, travel! There are so many places I would love to visit. As a business owner and single parent most of my life it has been difficult to have the time and money (at the same time) to do much traveling. I would like to learn to play the piano. My father played piano and I used to love to listen to him. I would also love to take art classes and learn to paint, in particular.

5. What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?
I wish I had believed in myself more and not been so afraid to take chances. It was almost 20 years ago that I opened Pompadours. I remember being so scared, and thinking that people who opened successful businesses were not afraid. The most valuable thing I learned is that it is scary for everyone. You just can’t let the fear stop you.

6. What is something about you that we would never guess?
I married my husband while he was in jail. Have you ever wondered who those crazy women are?
This is a soap opera, but the short version is that immigration services stamped his passport with the wrong stamp, despite his indefinite business visa. I married him, and he was deported anyway.

It was a 10-year deportation, but after one and a half years, and two trips to federal court, I finally got him back in the country. This October will be our 10-year anniversary and we are finally going to have a proper wedding. He is the love of my life, and I don’t have a single regret. We’ll have quite a story to tell our grandchildren!

Know an inspirational businesswoman whom you think should be featured in Close Up? E-mail us at speakup@womensmag.com.

— By Annie Brokaw

Camp Bow Wow is a doggy day and overnight camp. Heidi Ganahl, 42, opened the first location in December of 2000 with her brother. She says it’s different than traditional dog kennels. At Camp Bow Wow, the dogs run around and play all day long. They are never cooped up in a crate. Each night the dogs sleep in private “cabins” and receive a campfire treat.

“I always thought we’d have four or five locations in Denver and that would be the end of it,” Ganahl says. “I’m glad I didn’t limit myself.”

Since 2000 Ganahl has opened 100 Camp Bow Wow locations and sold about 200 franchises all over the country. They have cared for more than half a million dogs.

Ganahl came up with the idea of Camp Bow Wow with her first husband Brian. The couple enjoyed watching dogs play at a doggy day care next to her father’s business in Monument, Colo. The couple took this idea and evolved it. They came up with the camp concept and developed a business model.

However, Ganahl’s life and business plan shattered when she was 27. After the couple had been married for a couple of years, Brian was killed in a small plane crash. Ganahl felt paralyzed.

Still, Ganahl received one million dollars in a settlement from the crash. Using the money, she opened two businesses that quickly failed. She also loaned a lot of money to friends and family. After a while, all she had left was $80,000 and nothing to show for it.

Ganahl struggled with guilt after losing most of the money. She wanted to earn it back to honor Brian and what they had dreamed of building together.

“I definitely felt like it was something that was our vision that I wanted to see through after not doing so well with managing the settlement,” Ganahl says. “I wanted to make that money back to show people I could do it. So my goal was always to get Camp Bow Wow to be worth a million dollars.”

This year, the company will make four to five million dollars just in revenue from selling franchises. The total system sales will be around $35 million.

“I’m really proud that I was able to see our vision through,” Ganahl says. “It’s been a wild ride. It’s more than I ever thought it would be, but there’s still so much to do.”

This “adventure” hasn’t been without its challenges. There was one time when Ganahl’s friend embezzled from the company. There is also the challenge dealing with dozens of dogs at one time, each with unique personalities and problems.

“I thought I knew a lot about dogs, but I didn’t have a clue what canine cough was, or all the different diseases, or all the things that can happen,” Ganahl says. “It was a big learning curve. You can’t just expect to throw a bunch of dogs in a room and expect everything to be OK, which is kind of how we went into it.”

The business also has the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation, which pays for the camps to sponsor “foster dogs.”
The foundation also provides funds to the Colorado State University animal cancer research center.

Ganahl lives in Louisville with her husband Jason her 13-year-old daughter, Tori, and their two dogs. As of this writing, she is pregnant with another daughter who is due in August. She also has a book coming out in November called “Tales from the Bark Side,” which chronicles her life as a single mom and entrepreneur.

Women’s Magazine wanted to know more about Ganahl, who was named one of Entrepreneurs.com’s top 50 leading ladies in business. So we asked her five questions about her life as top dog.

1. What message do you have for women entrepreneurs who are just getting started?

Don’t be intimidated. Really believe that you can succeed. One statistic that really bothers me is that there are only half as many women-owned companies that earn more than $1 million in a year as there are men. I think that’s because women don’t aim as high. They’re happy with less success or they have a lower bar. I say raise the bar and go after the big success. There’s no reason you should be any less successful than men are.

2. What is something you’ve learned from experience that you wish your teenage daughter knew?

Probably that you really have to love yourself before you can be in love with someone else or be in love with your career. You have to be really grounded and understand yourself. And that just takes time and going through experiences. So you have to get beat up a lot before you get to that point.

3. Which is more difficult: starting a multimillion-dollar company or raising a daughter?

(Laughs.) The teenage thing is hard. It’s really hard. Probably raising a child, but in effect owning a franchise company is a lot like being a parent. I mean, I’ve got my 30 team members that I keep organized and on track, and I feel like a mom in that aspect.

4. What is the best quality about dogs that humans don’t have?

The ability to listen. To just shut up and listen. I think that’s why a lot of people like dogs. They don’t talk back.

5. What are you most looking forward to re-doing as you raise a second daughter?

It’s just so fun watching them change and grow, like the first time they talk and developing a personality, and I’m really curious to see if she’s going to be like Tori or not. So that’ll be interesting. Having kids is an adventure.

To learn more about Camp Bow Wow or to find a camp near you, visit www.campbowwowusa.com.

—By Jessica Warnock

Know an inspirational businesswoman whom you think should be featured in Close Up? E-mail us at speakup@womensmag.com.

Fun, affordable and different. These three words are what brought Holly Dennis and Susan Gallo together to start their business, FortyLoveTennis, in 2004.

Dennis, 54, and Gallo, 52, both of Boulder, met through the Boulder Tennis Association, with the shared desire to bring attractive and affordable clothing to the local tennis scene. Out of that dream came a line of tennis wear, spanning bold prints, polka dots and florals, giving women an option beyond the boring, standard, expensive duds.

For $28 for a skirt — almost half the price of most tennis skirts on the market — you can afford to buy multiple skirts and wear them until you’re sick of them or they’re worn out.

“That way, by the end of the season, if you want to burn it, burn it. And come back for more,” says Dennis.

All of the attire is made in Colorado by one seamstress, and Dennis and Gallo pick the fabric themselves, noting that there is a limited supply of each print.

“It’s kind of fun because if a gal buys a skirt, it’s kind of one-of-a-kind,” Dennis says.
You can also toss a skirt over a swimming suit and head off for lunch, or wear it to play with the kids.

“My business partner and I think women always look better in skirts than shorts,” Dennis says.
We couldn’t agree more.

To learn more about these two go-getters, we asked them some questions. Oh, and please remind us to steer clear of Holly when she’s feeling like a prankster.

1. What’s your favorite item in your closet? (And you can’t say FortyLove.)
Holly: My new skinny jeans from Banana Republic.
Susan: My Patagonia skorts. I have them in all the colors.

2. What are you reading right now?
Holly: “Child 44,” by Tom Rob Smith.
Susan: “You Are What You Love,” by Vaishali.

3. What’s your favorite way to relax?
Holly: Watching junk TV. I like “Desperate Housewives,” “24” or “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Susan: Lying on my big bed, talking to my kids and laughing with them.

5. What is your favorite quote?
Holly: “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today,” by Thomas Jefferson.
Susan: “Friendship with oneself is all important, because without it, one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world,” by Eleanor Roosevelt.

6. What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?
Holly: Getting older really does make you wiser.
Susan: I wish I’d known about the strength I have within myself that I probably had all along.

7. What drives you to do your job?
Holly: The ever-changing crazy fabrics available for our skirts.
Susan: Passion for what I am doing at that time.

8. What is your greatest achievement?
Holly: It’s corny but true: raising my kids to be decent young adults.
Susan: My children and being a firefighter on the city of Miami’s fire department.

9. What is something about you that we would never guess?
Holly: I have a wicked sense of humor and love a good practical joke.
Susan: I enjoy my privacy and alone time.

10. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
Holly: I would like to be like Elizabeth Montgomery in the TV series “Bewitched.” She did the most awesome stuff by wiggling her nose.
Susan: I’m not sure.

Where to find FortyLove
www.fortylovetennis.com

— By Annie Brokaw

That slice of cheese in your refrigerator may have caused Kelly Shea to spend countless nights in hotel rooms and thousands of hours on airplanes.

Nearly a decade ago, Shea joined Horizon Organic, a Broomfield-based company specializing in selling organic dairy and eggs. At Horizon, Shea rose to the ranks of Director of Organic Agriculture, acting as the company’s liaison to the broader organic industry.

When Horizon merged with Broomfield-based WhiteWave Foods, the company that makes Silk Soymilk, Shea became the Vice President of Industry Relations and Organic Stewardship, responsible for shaking hands with legislators, jet-setting to conferences and serving on the boards of a handful of organic and soy trade groups.

Not only is she one of the highest-ranking women at WhiteWave Foods, she’s also the hardworking mother of two teenagers.

So what does Shea like to do in her spare moments of solitude? What — besides work and family — makes her smile?

We wanted to know more about the face behind the cheese. So for this month’s Close Up, we asked Kelly Shea 11 questions. Because 10 just wouldn’t have been enough.

1. What do you order at a coffee shop?

I’m a purist. I never have a mocha skinny fluffy anything. I always drink black organic coffee.

2. What’s in your purse?

I can’t go anywhere without a book. I’ve been known to leave the house without my driver’s license, but I always remember a book.

3. What’s in your refrigerator?

Lots of Horizon Organic milk (of course), lots of fruits and veggies for the kids. But everyone has their weakness. The one non-organic thing you’ll find in my fridge is Miracle Whip. I eat it with everything — even peanut butter and bacon.

4. What’s your favorite item in your closet?

My idea of a great souvenir is shoes. I can say, ‘Oh, I remember, I bought those pair of boots in 1992 in Paris.’

5. What would a closet organizer throw out first?

I used to go to work in vintage clothing. I went though the 1930s, the 1940s and the 1960s, and I still have a huge collection of hats and vintage purses from those eras.

6. What’s your guilty pleasure?

Organic dark chocolate and red wine are my favorite guilty pleasure combination. I was so happy when I heard they’re actually good for you.

7. What do you hope to achieve before you “kick the bucket?”

Two things. One is learning how to fly-fish. Since moving to Colorado, I can’t catch fish — I have to go back to Minnesota to get a bite. The second is voice lessons. I know the words to just about every song on earth, but I’m challenged on the tune.

8. What makes you laugh?

My sister. She’s half Carol Burnett and half Kelly Ripa. That, and my own stupidity. You’ve gotta laugh at yourself before anyone can.

9. What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?

I’m 47, so when I was 27, I wish I knew then how long life is. When you’re young you’re in a hurry to do so much because you don’t realize how much time you have.

10. What’s society’s biggest challenge?

To live in the present. Some people say “I loved it when my kids were young,” or “I can’t wait for them to grow up.” In the present we can always say, “My kids’ favorite age is today.”

11. What is something about you that we would never guess?

My degree is in ancient Japanese theater. I was the first generation in my family to go to college, and I designed the degree program myself. I lived in Japan for two years during college, staying for a while in a home without a flush toilet. I worked very odd part-time jobs in Japan. For awhile I was the pom-pom girl for a horse racing association. I also played rock-paper-scissors with people who bought cameras. If they won, they’d get a discount.

Know an inspirational businesswoman whom you think should be featured in Close Up? E-mail us at speakup@womensmag.com.

Kim Troy’s small, athletic presence emerges from the Purl Knit Cafe’s kitchen at Water Street, where she’s making her Bliss Organic Ice Cream. She’s wearing black shorts, a white T-shirt and heels. Throughout the next hour with Women’s Magazine, she’ll graciously take interruptions from customers, many wondering about upcoming knitting events.

In the beginning, she studied at l’Academie de Cuisine under White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier, who served under both presidents Carter and Clinton.

“Afterward, I noticed breads were becoming very popular, and I wanted to see clean, artisan- and European-style bread here,” Troy says.

She went to Capitola, Calif., where she studied with Joe Ortiz, who wrote “The Village Baker.” That book started the artisan phenomenon in the United States.

In 1995, Troy co-founded Breadworks in Boulder. She brought a person from Spain to hand-build the oven, and the store took off from day one.

She later returned to California to learn how to make ice cream. Soon came Bliss Organic Ice Cream, and Whole Foods sought it as a product. Troy now supplies between 36 and 50 gallons of it per week to Whole Foods, King Soopers and her cafe.

After moving to the Water Street location two and a half years ago, Troy decided to add her passion for knitting to the business. Today, the cafe also sells yarn and hosts community knitting groups and classes.

The curious mixture of yarn and ice cream made us wonder more about Kim Troy. So we stopped by the shop to ask her 10 questions, plus one — you know, to give us extra time to order one more scoop.

1. What dessert have you recently invented for serving at home?

A tart with cranberries, caramel and almonds that is great for Thanksgiving and melts in your mouth.

2. What does the Purl Knit Cafe serve other than ice cream?

We have breakfast items, sandwiches, salads, dessert truffles and my peanut butter bars (Pixie Delights) with melted chocolate on top. There are freshly made waffle cones, quiches and soups. We do a full service coffee shop, including espresso and pearl tea (containing tapioca balls) that students line up for.

3. Being around Pixie Delights and waffle cones all day, how do you stay so trim and solid?

Making and delivering ice cream is very physical work. I do five to 9-mile hikes a couple of times a week. Every Saturday of the season I ski. Otherwise I hike.

4. What’s in your refrigerator at home?

Vegetables and fruit. I’ll eat salads with fruit and protein in them. That’s it. Come the weekend, I eat anything I want.

5.What’s in your closet?

I have a lot of outdoor clothes that I get at lululemon athletica, REI, Prana and Outdoor Divas. My favorite item of clothing is my “bling” ski jacket from my boyfriend. It’s navy blue, very form-fitting and has all these silver zippers (hence the “bling”).

6. What would a closet organizer throw out first?

I went to prom in 1971, and I bought a pair of pink suede platform shoes at Matson’s on the Hill. They’re spectacular. I wear them on Halloween. It’s my favorite time of the year. I make chocolate truffles that look like eyeballs.

7. What’s your guilty pleasure.

Eating a giant slab of tiramisu at Pasta Jay’s. For my boyfriend’s 40th birthday party, I bought Pasta Jay’s whole tiramisu cake.

8. What do you hope to achieve before you kick the bucket?

I’d love to become a master gardener and also to spend a summer based in Italy, traveling in Europe.

9. What makes you laugh?

“Mama Mia” made me laugh until I cried. Seeing a woman my age, or Pierce Brosnan, with a paunch, un-selfconsciously living life with gusto is a great experience.

10. What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?

I wish I’d known that things work out for the best, even if you don’t do anything. You can worry and lose sleep, but honestly, if you just relax, things have a way of working out.

11. What is society’s biggest challenge?

If I had to do something completely different, I would go into politics. Global warming will change the way we live if we don’t do something now. And the United States needs to become kinder to our own, and to all people. There should be more of an “I’ve got mine, and how can I help you?” stance.

The SkirtSports office is much how one would imagine it: pink walls, pink shag throw rugs, fit employees donning the cute wares they peddle. Seated in the front conference room is Nicole DeBoom, a barefoot blonde wearing a hot pink and white HolidayTank and a white and lime green RollerGirl skirt. Resting in the corner is her 10-year-old lab, Annie.

DeBoom is the founder and CEO of SkirtSports, a Boulder-based company producing activewear for women. A former professional triathlete, DeBoom started SkirtSports with the intention of providing women something inspiring to wear on the trails, in the water or at the gym. What started as a mere concept has grown into an entire culture of women whose lives are being changed by SkirtSports’ innovative and stylish athletic wear.

We wanted to know more about the woman behind the skirts. So for this month’s Close Up, we asked Nicole DeBoom 10 questions — plus one, for fun.

1. What do you order at a coffee shop?

I tend to switch drinks regularly. Right now, it’s a Shot in the Dark. Mainly because no one could make my Americanos strong enough.

2. What’s in your refrigerator?

I’m running the gamut. My fridge is full of banana’s foster bread pudding, low-fat plain yogurt, chicken salad, chocolate milk, half and half, coconut rice, Red Bull, flavored seltzer water and seasonal fruits and veggies.

3. What’s your favorite item in your closet?

Definitely something “Skirt.” (But of course.) My favorite SkirtSports product for fall is the ToughGirl skirt, which is a pair of boot-cut pants with a skirt attached over top.

4. What are you reading right now?

I have about five books I’m halfway through. I am reading mostly business-related books such as, “Chasing Cool,” by Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman; “The Fred Factor,” by Mark Sanborn; and “The Four Agreements,” by Don Miguel Ruiz.

5. What’s your guilty pleasure?

Pull-N-Peel Twizzlers, People magazine and now I just recently got hooked on “the Denise Richards show” on E!

6. What’s your favorite way to relax?

Through exercise. I enjoy hiking and swimming, anything outside. I’m not a big just-sit-on-the-couch-and-breathe person, because then I start working.

7. What inspires you?

I’m actually inspired by people who stay true to what they believe in and follow it to the end. I try to take inspiration from everyone around me because I believe everyone has something they do well.

8. What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?

Maybe I wish I knew how important relationships are in my life so as not to take them for granted — that I should take care and pay attention to my relationships.

9. What is a misconception that people have about you or what you do?

I think a lot of people assume Skirts is a hobby for me. They don’t realize this is a major company that’s budding, and it’s in its infancy. There’s no way this could just be a hobby for me.

10. What’s your greatest achievement?

Probably being married so long. (DeBoom has been married to pro-triathlete and two-time World Ironman champion Tim DeBoom for 11 years.)

11. What is something about you that we would never guess?

I can’t burp; I don’t know how. I don’t like ice. I don’t like lids. These are my quirks.

Know an inspirational businesswoman whom you think should be featured in Close Up? E-mail us at speakup@womensmag.com.

Know an inspirational businesswoman whom you think should be featured in Close Up? E-mail us at speakup@womensmag.com.

“Patience” — a name, a life, a vocation — and also a characteristic of Patience Schuetrumpf, founder of the Patience Montessori school in Boulder.

The school, at 3600 Hazelwood Court, opened last February as the newest Montessori school in Boulder.

The school is unique in its dedication to include the study of foreign languages and cultures, as well as sign language, in its basic curriculum, available to 2- to 6-year-old students.

Schuetrumpf’s own childhood educational opportunities were limited by her gender and her family’s financial situation. She was born in Nigeria.

“I remember spending almost every day hiding in a mango tree near my grandmother’s house, and watching other children going to school,” she says. “I remember being envious of the books they carried, and of their school uniforms.”

So began Schuetrumpf’s early dream of going to school, and eventually gaining an education that would allow her to travel beyond Nigeria. However, she and her six sisters were expected to marry and have children as soon as they reached puberty; Schuetrumpf’s mother was married at age 13.

Schuetrumpf’s luck changed when she was age 6. Villagers collected money for her to attend a school run by Catholic missionaries.

She got pencils, rulers, a uniform and a storybook, which became her favorite possession for many years.

“I was jumping up and down with excitement about going to school,” Schuetrumpf laughs. “And at night, holding a ‘bush light,’ I would look and look at the pictures in my book. The story was about a little girl who lived on a farm, and then went to school like me. I tied it [the book] with a rope, and took it everywhere with me.”

When Schuetrumpf was 13, she went to another city to help her sister raise her children in exchange for school fees.

After school, she began studying German on her own to gain acceptance into the Goethe Institute in Munich. But there, Schuetrumpf’s attempts to support herself as a nanny were often rebuffed because of her race.

“I would appear at a potential client’s door in response to an ad,” she recounts, “and see the surprised look of the person who answered the door with some comment like, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize that you were black.”

Yet Schuetrumpf maintained her positive disposition and hopefulness; her future husband, whom she had met in the meantime, began accompanying her on some of her interviews. Schuetrumpf finally met Gabi, a German mother of three who welcomed her with — literally — open arms.

Schuetrumpf switched her studies to IT. She was accepted to the University of Colorado in Boulder and graduated in December 2001. She worked at IBM for 10 months, before she was laid off.

A newspaper ad for a “Montessori teacher” caught her eye, and Schuetrumpf applied, based on her experience in caring for and teaching children.

On the Web

www.patiencemontessori.com