by Lauren Korn
Spring is the season for renewal and new starts. My season of new beginnings started while we were still in fear of having snow days. My name is Lauren, and I have 
been a stay-at-home mom for the past 10 years. That phrase took a long time for me to be able to say with pride! I trained as a lawyer, but I “retired” when my oldest son was born in 2006. This wasn’t a tough decision at the time. I was working at an unfulfilling job and was lucky enough that my husband’s salary could support our new family of three. While I was so happy to be home with my baby, it was much harder to justify my choice to the world. Most of my peers decided to keep working when they started a family, and many people couldn’t understand or relate to my choice. I kept very busy, and one baby boy became two baby boys in 2008, and then three baby boys under the age of five in 2010.
While prioritizing staying at home, I still wanted to pursue meaningful work outside of my family. I worked as a legal writing professor at my law school and spent time volunteering at various non-profits helping women and families. My plan was to “go back to work” when my youngest entered kindergarten. This past fall, my baby started kindergarten, and I dusted off my resume and tried to imagine what my next steps would be. I began interviewing, over coffee, any friend I had that worked in the non-profit community to try to understand this new world that I wanted to break into.
One of these coffees had me reconnecting with a friend from my Jewish youth group days, Carrie Bornstein, who happened to have a short-term project at Mayyim Hayyim: helping to coordinate the first ever gathering of like-minded mikva’ot in order to build a national network. I said yes, without much hesitation. How could I say no to working for a friend at an amazing organization that wanted me to work there? This is how I ended up working at Mayyim Hayyim this past winter. I could not have been more lucky! As I tried to navigate this new world of working part time while still managing my family, I was surrounded by the most dedicated, thoughtful, funny, and energetic group of women.
Every day I am more impressed by the staff at Mayyim Hayyim. Not only were they so welcoming to me, but they were patient and encouraging as I learned about mikveh from scratch. As I learned about how each of them came to work at Mayyim Hayyim, what their skills and backgrounds are, I fell in love with this gem of an organization in Newton and with the people who are in front of and behind the scenes. Each member of the staff brings a unique energy and passion to their work. As a Jewish community, we are so very lucky to have these amazing people running this very special place. Personally, I am beyond blessed to have landed at Mayyim Hayyim as the next step on my professional journey.
Lauren has lived in the Greater Boston area for the last fifteen years after moving from New York to attend Boston University School of Law, where she met her husband Jerald. Lauren is finishing her two year term as the Parent Association Chair and a term on the Board of Directors of Solomon Schechter Day School where her three boys go to school. Lauren also enjoys teaching an introduction to mahjongg class through the City of Newton’s Adult Education program.