Jenna Pugliese is the environmental manager at Stratton Mountain Resort. After coming to Vermont for a summer job right after graduating college, where she initially fell in love with the small-town charm of Stratton and the beautiful weather.
A 32-year-old homeowner, Pugliese is active in several young professional groups and travels to Brattleboro frequently for events.
The upstate-New York native hasn't yet found a romantic partner and finds that her rural lifestyle can be isolating.
On difficulty staying up-to-date with technology
"I think there are some big challenges to having spent so much of my young professional career here. We're catching up to speed, but it seems like we're almost centuries behind sometimes when it comes to technology.
I had a presentation Monday that I was giving for work. I got to the conference room and had to bring my home laptop, and couldn't get it set up. Thankfully, I knew enough to have a hard copy in hand. I don't know that that would fly in a bigger work environment."
On the Vermont dating scene
"People often talk about a dating pool. I joke and call it a puddle with a lot of mud in it. It's few and far between.
A lot of the population that's my age is already married. Unlike a city life, where I think it's kind of normal to be single in your early thirties, here I feel a little like a leper. Maybe that's a little dramatic, but it definitely isn't the norm. "
On isolation
"It's a lonely place to be, you feel isolated. Honestly, if I knew a young professional that was thinking about moving here I probably wouldn't advise it.
It's a tough place to be, and it's a tougher place as a young professional on your own. "
On the parenting community
"There's a community that's built into having children that I don't really understand. I might have friends with children, but play dates, and the reliance of transportation of other families and things like that. I think you get your built-in network when you have children, that you don't so much when you're single."
