Hello, my name is DeAngelo Crane and this is my story.

So probably about 12 years ago, I moved back home from Vegas to help my mother, she had just retired and retirement can be difficult. A year of transitioning from having money on the regular to having, you know a different type of money when you retire. So I moved home to really help her with that transition. So I applied for a job at Humana because this was one of the largest employers in the city and I came here thinking to myself I was, like I said, I was only going to be here for six months.

One of the reasons was because I came from the non-profit world. So here I was going to work for the big bad man, in my head, but it turned out that I started working with the Clinical Guidance Organization and that really showed me, “wow” all the good things that Humana was doing, and it really did care about its members. And it really changed the way I felt about Humana and working at this company. Along the same time of me deciding this is where I wanted to stay and work at for who knows how long, my mother acquired cancer. So, really, that was like, it was really strange to me and it came together the irony that here I was working for a healthcare company and also now I was going to become a caregiver.

It was just, it was a difficult time for our family but the great thing about it was that, I worked for a company that really was like, do what you need to do to take care of your mom. During that time that really helped me to identify what my purpose in life was and helped me to help her think about purpose. So I remember the day we were sitting there and she was really trying to figure out, what was life going to be like now that she didn't have any kids at home, she just had grandkids and all her life had been working to take care of her children, her four children. That wasn't the case anymore, we were all grown and out of the house.

So I told her, I said, "Hey, don't define your purpose by your role in life, define it by what you want to do. Define your life and your goals in life by your purpose, and so your role, you kind of decide that anything you do, any roles that you do, should fit inside your purpose."

I have a bittersweet thing, I remember when my mother passed away and it was during a time when we were doing these large clinical meetings and I had to miss the first one. So they sent out a message to let associates know I wasn't going to be there and they said, "Hey can we give them your address?" I promise you, I think I got about 200 plus cards from many of the nurses who work at my organization and associates, and many of the associates including my VP came to my mother’s viewing.

So that just really helped me to really process that. To be able to come back to work and everyone was just like, "What do you need? Do you need food? Do you need whatever?" It was totally amazing. So that helped me to process it a lot better and to be able to just make it through that during that time.

What I gave to my mother was what I lived by in life and that has really helped my well-being journey. When I think about any of the positions that I've taken at Humana or things I've done outside of Humana, is it really feeding my purpose? My purpose each and every day was just to make people happy, now it's to inspire people. If I can do that, helping me help others, is really helping myself, right? It's really feeding and driving me to be well each and every day because I'm able to get up and go and inspire and instill in associates, "Hey your well-being matters. Engagement matters and what you do here at Humana matters."

So that really energizes me and makes me excited about life. We know that if you have a positive outlook on life, hopefully your health is going to be just as positive.

My name is Jason Martin. I'm a digital marketing strategist for the Employer Segment and this is my well-being story.

I got into volunteering several years ago, as part of a team outing to volunteer. And it was pretty nonchalant at the time. We just went out and helped the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati during the holiday season, and I didn't think much about it but I kept going back over and over again to volunteer there. And it occurred to me that it had a really strong relevance to my childhood and how I was raised and it meant something to me, rather than just being a volunteer activity that came and went.

Yeah, my childhood was a great childhood but it was very marked by, strongly marked by financial struggles. I was a child of a single parent. When I was volunteering, I recognized that it meant a lot to me because I remembered my mom going out to get help from organizations like that.

Our situation wasn't so dire that it was an emergency situation at all but it definitely helped her to have those resources available to her. I kind of hid all that way as I grew up and once I grew up and got out of the house, it wasn't such a focus of mine because I think we all tend to stray away from negative memories.

Over time, those things really resonate when you come across an organization like that, one that can help you and helps people when they really do need it. When I started volunteering there, I recognized, hey, this really means something to me because an organization like this helped during my childhood.

Being at the Freestore, seeing the people who come in for help, being able to collect food donations, package them up, put them in the cart, take them out to the people's cars and just say, happy holidays or good luck, something to help them feel a little better about their life even in that moment, that just means a lot more to me. More than volunteering for something that just doesn't have this relevance to my life or my childhood.

What I would suggest to others who are considering volunteering – or maybe have volunteered and it was a one-time deal and they just didn't go back to it – is to find an opportunity that really resonates with something in your past or your current passions or something in your work that you feel means something more than that one-time commitment that you can make. That will encourage you to keep going over and over again.

Hi, my name is Nisat Tanjila, and here is my well-being story.

So, I have been working at Humana for more than five years, and the last five years were very interesting, because I have learned a lot from my co-workers, from my supervisor, and from different teams. Currently, I am pursuing an MBA degree with assistance from Humana’s tuition reimbursement plan, and I am really grateful to Humana that way because, nowadays, tuition fees are very expensive.

It is just like a dream come true, because this is huge assistance from Humana’s tuition reimbursement. It was my childhood dream to obtain an MBA degree. I am so happy that I am trying to at least reach my goal with the help of Humana’s tuition reimbursement plan. Next year, I'll be graduating with my MBA degree, and I am so hopeful I can continue my journey like this.

I have been a part of HAPI NRG, and it's been an awesome journey as I am from Bangladesh, and most of the people used to think like I am from India, because I look like I am from India. So when I represent my country in front of thousands of my co-workers, I feel so fortunate that people didn't even know that Bangladesh is a different country. When I get to share interesting facts, history, and some common factors of Bangladesh, I feel very happy that people are very interested to know about Bangladesh.

I want to see myself as a leader... I mean, in next five years. I am hopeful that my MBA degree is helping me to get to that level, so I can learn my leadership skills, my management skills, and operation skills. So in the future, I want to see myself as a leader and Humana's tuition reimbursement plan, and Humana's culture and diversity is helping me to get there and further my journey. I'm so grateful for Humana.