REVIA Magazine Issue #11

FIRST GENERATION AMERICAN
Drinks & Dialogue with
Corinne Meier
By: Ania Jablonowski
God works in wonderful ways. As some
of our readers know, I volunteer with
the networking group, Connect.Inspire.
Grow. Each month our group meets at St.
John Brebeuf Church in Niles for a packing
party to assemble lunches for the homeless, on
behalf of St. Vincent DePaul’s aggregate food
drive. Many parishioners know this as “Uncle
Pete’s Food Drive”, in loving memory of Pete
Zonsius. One day, I randomly stationed myself
at the brown bag table alongside Corinne
Meier, a first generation Swiss-American.
After discovering how passionate Corinne was
about her cultural experience, I invited her for
an interview. Here is her story.
“I was born in Switzerland, but raised in
Coral Gables, Florida. My entire family and
lineages are from there, so there’s only one
American-born member in our family and
that’s my brother,” says Corinne.”
Corinne’s father had a business concept
he wanted to launch, which her mom supported
as she was not partial to the weather in
Switzerland. “Life there is heavenly. It’s one of
the most beautiful countries in the world. The
weather can be like Chicago though, longwinded
winters where you don’t see sunshine
for days. The decision to launch the business
was perhaps a bit influenced by the consistent
sunshine that Miami could guarantee.”
Her parents packed up their belongings
and moved to the States when Corinne was 3
months old. “My father rented, sold and leased
used station wagons, vans, motor homes; any
car for traveling and sightseeing. The kind that
you could go camping in, where you could see
the entire United States. It was called Swiss
Am Drive”, she continues. “From the European
perspective, when you visit the US, you
want to see the entire country. They have the
train system [in Europe] so he thought of his
business the way customers would want to see
the US – in its entirety. The economy was so
strong in Switzerland in the ‘80s and ‘90s that
people were able to afford it, and so it worked
out well.
It was this experience that exposed Corinne
to the entire US landscape, from a Swiss-
American perspective. She says, “It was one
of the most beautiful ways to see the United
States.”
After her parents closed the business, they
separated shortly thereafter, and Corinne’s
mother moved to Chicago, while her father
moved back to Switzerland. “As a licensed
massage therapist and energy healer, my mom
came here for the progressive alternative healing
scene in Chicago. Her whole life’s intention
revolves around building a natural healing
practice. She currently works with cancer
patients, right after chemo, to children with
A.D.D. through LaHoChi Energy Healing, and
she is also a Law of Attraction coach, hosting
workshops in Chicago. She continues improving
lives with all that she does.”
Corinne remembers how she only had
immediate family in the US for holidays. “We
quickly built a tie with a huge Italian family in
Miami, the DeNunzio’s. They treated us like
we were part of their family, inviting us on all
major holidays like Thanksgiving and Easter.
They were European themselves, so it was
almost as though they really were our family.”
While visiting family in Switzerland,
Corinne recalls, “It’s amazing. You land and
everybody knows you are there. You got to
see every member through a sit-down meal.
Breakfast at one person’s house is followed by
lunch at the next family member’s house. Food
and conversation are a huge part of Swiss culture,
where life is dedicated to large amounts
of time for deep family bonding. In many parts
of the country, the father will come home from
the office to meet the kids and family for lunch
while the children are in school. ”
Before my interview with Corinne, I honestly
did not know much about Switzerland.
One element of these FGA interviews I truly
appreciate is the Cultural 101.
Corinne shares, “Switzerland as a country
is divided into four areas. Italian, French,
German and this little Romanian sliver, and
regardless of the location, the directions on
packaging for products to street signage are
written in all four languages. In the German
part, you speak Swiss, but read and write in
German. Swiss is a dialect that flexes depending
on what Swiss part you are in. Language
is big and learning another language is a
mandatory part of the school system. It is
a country of precision, from homes being
highly clean and organized - to never being
able to say you were late because the train
was late. A Swiss person is simply timely and
well mannered. It’s ingrained in us at an early
age, because people still live in small villages
where everyone knows each other’s business.
There are more unspoken rules than you can
count and anything that bucks the system
is immediately noticed. Standards are high
for everything from education to business.
A Swiss product is considered a high-quality
product because they do not believe in cutting
corners. Everyone has a true respect and love
for nature. There is a deep understanding of
waste management and how to be “eco”. For
example, you have to pay per garbage bag. No
matter where you go, you are surrounded by
nature – from the city to the countryside. The
air is fresh and they work hard to maintain
that delicate balance. ”
Corinne attended IB German programming
from 3rd to 12th grade and has a minor
in German from Florida State University. “I
was lucky to inherit the Swiss language from
my parents, giving me a head start on my
German language fundamentals. This placed
me into advanced language classes early on,
which consisted of endless reading, writing
and translating of poems. There was a beauty
to this art of translation. I mean, the way the
translation made us cross-compare the German
versus American cultures. It was intense
and often there was no direct English translation
that would capture the same meaning;
both interesting and challenging.”
Directly influenced by her parents successful
entrepreneurial spirits, Corinne decided to
combine her passions for digital marketing,
design, networking, fitness and dance into
her own flourishing businesses. In addition to
volunteering with Connect.Inspire.Grow, and
Share Your Love, Corinne runs two exciting
and unique brands. v
Corinne Meier is the CEO and Founder of
Meier Marketing, an inbound
marketing agency working with Fortune
500 companies to start-ups.
Connect with Corinne at meiermarketing.com
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revia reviamagazine.com #11, 2015