Female Founders: Karen Scheeringa-Parra of Hearts In Motion On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Creating a legacy to pass on to the next generation — My daughter, Julie Stevens, will take over as executive director of Hearts In Motion when I retire. She will continue to ensure that the organization delivers outstanding care and services and maintains its reputation as a dependable, resourceful and compassionate nonprofit respected by a network of government agencies and service organizations.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Karen Scheeringa-Parra.
Karen is the founder and executive director of Hearts In Motion (HIM), a nonprofit focused on serving families in need, celebrating more than 30 years of service with a mission to provide care and medical treatment for children, families, and communities through its programs and sponsorship in the U.S., and Central and South America. She planted the seed of the organization that has helped empower thousands of volunteers to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in poverty, at a serendipitous meeting in 1982 at an airport waiting for her adopted child to come from Korea.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I was at the airport to pick up my adopted daughter, Julie, arriving from Korea and met a woman who helped sick children from around the world receive medical care. She really inspired me and I thought, ‘this is awesome, I can do that!’
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
I was really tired at one point; I had been doing this a few years and was burnt out, but a little boy, Victor, came in from Columbia who was in an electrical accident which left him with no arms or legs. I brought him to the United States to regain his arms and legs and his depression disappeared. I saw the work I did made such a difference and that story helped me regain my energy and realize how important my work was. He graduated high school and college and now is a trilingual educator in Colombia at a French school and supports his whole family. This was a kid no one thought would pull through.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My funniest mistakes in this work is not being able to speak Spanish and through learning it totally destroying the language. For instance, I’ve learned that a lot of words sound exactly the same. One has to be careful asking for a comb in Spanish. I was with five doctors in a mountain village and had lost my purse. Every morning I asked one of the doctors if I could borrow their comb, pronouncing it wrong, and instead asking them if I could borrow a particular part of the male anatomy. The word for this male anatomical part and the word for comb sound exactly the same to an American gringa. When I finally figured it out, I was so embarrassed but now think it is hilarious.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
His name was Mario Aquino. He was an orthopedic surgeon from Guatemala who was the granddaddy and medical director of the hospital when I was in my 20s. All of the doctors were very polite to me but nobody thought I had any pull or power to make real change in Guatemala. They just saw a young woman with a big dream.
Mario had a horrible accident. He fell out of a second story window, broke his neck and became paralyzed. In Guatemala, there was no help for him so I arranged for him to come live in the United States in my house for six months. I made arrangements with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to take him on as a charitable case and they worked with him for months so he could learn to work out of his wheelchair.
He was able to operate again. We got him an operation table that was lower to the ground so he could operate in his wheelchair. Because I had helped Mario, I gained all the respect of all the doctors in Guatemala and all these doors began to open for me to do the work I do.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I think it is fear of failure. We are afraid of making mistakes and afraid to try. Our mistakes are different than men’s mistakes. We are held more accountable or feel we are more accountable for our mistakes.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Things seem to be changing now. There is more equal opportunity for women in government. Seeing women rise up in government positions gives me hope that it is going the right way. I see more women now on boards, in political power, and that makes me more hopeful. Having a better work/life balance can also help bring more women to the table. Better support systems in place to let women work from home or bring their kids to work, etc. gives more opportunities for women to be leaders in business as well as a mom.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Women work with heart. There is a different sense of compassion that women bring to situations than men do and it is important to have that perspective.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
One of the biggest myths is that you need huge funding to get ahead. Having the right people is more important. You need passionate people who care about the same thing you care about and it will all come together.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Founders need to be creative and visionary. Not everyone has vision. A leader has to encourage the worker bees. They need to give inspiration to others and not be afraid to fail. I never lose. I have either won or learned.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Creating a cohesive and sustainable mission from a simple idea — My idea to start Hearts In Motion began with a simple mission statement: Empowering our volunteers to positively impact the lives of people in need. We started by establishing a headquarters in the state of Zacapa, Guatemala that is home to the organization’s nutrition center, children’s home, senior center and three therapy centers. Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. It has a population of approximately 17 million people with 59% living in poverty and 23% living in extreme poverty.
- Finding new ways to expand your mission — Mission trips to Guatemala were halted for the past two years due to the pandemic. Hearts In Motion pivoted to focus on local charity work and launched New Directions in March of 2021 to help individuals in the Midwest in all types of difficult situations, from house fires that have left local families homeless, to those who have left their significant other in a domestic abuse situation and want a fresh start. New Directions has partnered with 24 local nonprofits and fire departments throughout Illinois and Indiana to provide support for families in need. The program was awarded a Legacy Foundation Grant to create a charitable legacy.
- Getting and giving inspiration to volunteers — I personally go on more than 30 missions a year with our volunteers. Being there with them and volunteering alongside them helps build lasting memories and relationships. Trips consist of many different projects including surgery, general medical, vision, dental, and cervical screening clinics, Helping Babies Breathe/Helping Mothers Survive seminars, firefighter training, construction projects and rehabilitation services. Volunteers have the opportunity to work side by side with locals from the area they are serving. We’ve been blessed like crazy. Our volunteers are the lifeblood of our organization and their experience helps them see the impact just one person can make.
- The importance of gaining new experiences — Volunteers can take a short mission trip to help with any of these activities. We have an upcoming one in mid-October, 2022 that is open to everyone. You can find out how to volunteer for your own Hearts In Motion trip by visiting our website. If you can’t travel for a mission trip you can get involved by participating in one of our Sponsorship Programs. A monthly $35 donation to the School Sponsorship Program can help children attend school from daycare/preschool through 12th grade. A monthly $15 donation to the Weekly Feed Program helps approximately 150 children to be fed every week on a consistent basis.
- Creating a legacy to pass on to the next generation — My daughter, Julie Stevens, will take over as executive director of Hearts In Motion when I retire. She will continue to ensure that the organization delivers outstanding care and services and maintains its reputation as a dependable, resourceful and compassionate nonprofit respected by a network of government agencies and service organizations.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I am the mother of 12 children, 11 of whom are adopted. I am also a foster mother and have fostered close to 400 kids over the past 30 years and participate in approximately 33 mission trips a year to Central and South America. I strive every day to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives and use any resources I can to make it happen.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I started as a volunteer and the Rotary Club in my area helped me pay for the plane tickets for myself and the little girl I adopted all those years ago. I say this to show that anyone can do something, anything, to make the world a better place. All it takes is a kind heart and the desire to help others.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
If there was anyone in the world, I could have breakfast with it would be my grandmother. I want her to be proud and know the work she did for me paid off. Unfortunately, she is no longer with us.
Dolly Parton has come from great poverty to great wealth and uses her wealth to help those in poverty. She also understands how important education is and her philanthropic work focuses on poverty, education, and literacy. She is giving kids the ability to create a vision and have an outlet to imagine themselves to be something better and different. She and I have a lot in common.
Warren Buffett also comes to mind because he is very philanthropic and believes that investing in people can change lives. I believe if he understood what we are doing as an agency he would be excited about Hearts In Motion.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Karen Scheeringa-Parra of Hearts In Motion On The Five Things You Need To Thrive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.