"Like many mothers, I thank God every day for my family,” began Commissioner Daisy Lynum (District 5, Orlando) as she reflected on her relationship with her two sons, Sean, 33 and Juan, 29. Lynum, who was privy to a strong dose of family life, is one of eight siblings, two of whom were old enough to be her parents.

As a mother, Lynum enjoys the company of both her sons––listening to their version of their childhood stories, and about her child-rearing practices.She finds it strange that their memory of their formative years is so different from hers.

Obviously, perspective is key to their differences. For example, says Commissioner Lynum, “I stopped cooking many years ago (my ex-husband was an excellent cook, I wasn’t), but I could have sworn Juan was older than 10 years old. I know I taught them to cook and do laundry, but at age 10?”

Among her fondest memories is the timE That Sean, then 16, was fired from Wendy’s. “I was away on a trip and he didn’t think he was supposed to go to work in the rain,” said Lynum laughing as she told the story.

Commissioner Lynum and her boys lived in the home that her father and ex-husband built over 30 years ago. Her husband, a builder and ex-chief of police in another Florida city, was away from home most of the time. So the famed mother and sons trio became content doing what mothers and sons do best––the sons playing tricks on Mom, and Mom insisting on cleanliness and academics.

According to the Commissioner, it was not hard to steer Sean into the direction of academics. He was educated in private schools, and loved it. Juan would have no parts of private school. Rather, he insisted on attending Jones High School, where he flourished. The younger Lynum was selected out of all other Orange County high school students to be an engineering intern at Lockheed Martin. He was elected “Mr. Senior” and SGA treasurer during his senior year.

Now among the ranks of Jones High Schools up-and-coming notable alumni, Juan attended Florida A & M University, where he majored in mechanical engineering. During his junior year, he changed his major to business administration. He earned two of the top internships - spending eight months in IBM Financial Co-Op program in New York in 1997, and eight months with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s sales internship program in Buffalo, NY.

As an intern in Buffalo, Juan achieved top 10% market share growth with Plavix. He received an offer to work with BMS upon graduation. He accepted the offer and moved to Frederick, Maryland in 1999 as a sales representative. Juan began working on his MBA at Hood College at night, and then he attended Mount Saint Mary’s College. After being named “Rookie of the Year,” he was promoted to Regional Sales Manager of the New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia region. At age 24, he had become the youngest sales manager in the company.

Juan finished his MBA in accounting, during the summer of 2001 at the Rider University in Lawrenceville, He later studied global business in Budapest and Paris. From there, he pursued international opportunities with the company in Spain, where he studied Spanish full time, and worked as an international marketing intern in the Madrid office. Story Continued...