Cayuga: The Post-Standard / Neighbors
Thursday, April 26, 2007

LORIENNE BEALS-MASNADA is a credit specialist for ITT
Corp. and also director of services at the New York Institute of
Dance and Education.
Editorial assistant Brenda Duncan recently interviewed Lorienne Beals-Masnada, chair of the steering committee of IGNITE, a young professionals group.

Name: Lorienne Beals-Masnada
Age: 25
Where do you live? Auburn

Why do you live in Central New York? I grew up in the area and still have family here, but I also have traveled the world and find that Central New York is an area with many incredible resources.
Do you have a family? I have parents and a sister.
Educational background: I'm an alumnus of Wells College. I also studied at Purchase Conservatory of Dance and University of Paris Nanterre.
Occupation: I am credit specialist for ITT Corp. and director of services at the New York Institute of Dance and Education (NYIDE). I'm full time at both. ITT is an 8 to 5 job. Initially I got this job because I speak French fluently. I have been with ITT for just over three years now. Essentially I'm a project manager and business analyst...by day. I teach dance classes at the Institute Monday through Thursday evenings and Saturdays. I'm also a master class teacher so I do tour around the country to teach classes and provide services for other dance studios... I am also the rehearsal director and a principal dancer with Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre, which is a professional modern dance company that is run by... the president and CEO of NYIDE.

How long have you been involved with IGNITE? For close to two years now. Currently I am the chair of our steering committee.
What activities does the group do? I would say we have three main focuses - professional development, community outreach and networking. Our events focus around those things. We have an Arts After Six program, which is designed to spend an evening at a different arts and culture venue...

We have a professional development seminar series, which is... a potluck dinner and a couple of keynote speakers. For the first seminar our focus is on finding your career path... We'll have another seminar for first-time home buyers in August... and another seminar related to local politics in October.
Beyond that, we try to do a lot of fun events. We're going on a wine tour chartering a bus, we've attended Crunch games, we have a plan to use the deck at a Doubledays game.

It's really about networking, getting to know some new faces and
names. We also do some volunteer work as well. We try to stay
connected to the community in that way as well.

What I like best about my community: I really love how
down-to-earth we can be. I love being in a community where
walking down the street people will say hello to you if you cross
their path.
When you were a child, what did you dream about becoming?
I dreamed about many things. At one point, I really wanted to be a veterinarian but that dream quickly faded when I thought about
having to put an animal to sleep. I've always dreamed of being
a dancer for sure and have made that
dream come true for myself.
If I could spend the rest of my
days with only one person, I'd
want it to be: my grandmother,
because of the wealth of information I
could get from her just from her experiences, the things that she's lived through and the challenges she's faced.

One thing I definitely want to do in my lifetime: Sky dive.
The best advice I ever heard: "Go with the flow." It applies to many different life situations.
One thing about me that would surprise people: I do have free time.