Million Girls Moonshot
Rose Schooler’s Drive for Fitness and Technological Harmony
By David Allison
“A movement had started…a movement within Intel.”
What Rose Schooler, Corporate Vice President of Global Data Center Sales, was referring to when I interviewed her for this blog was not a political, religious, or environmental movement within the global expanse of Intel. No. This was a movement, which organically came to bear because as human beings we have a biological need — yearning — for human connection. And how does one accomplish that during a global pandemic where two-dimensional video meetings, remote isolated home offices, and nearly zero business travel are the new norm? The answer for now 325 Intel employees across the world is and came to be Peloton.
Like many of us who have made exercising part of our daily ritual, when the pandemic hit in early 2020, we were not sure what to do to keep mentally and physically healthy. Was it safe to run or cycle outside with our friends or even on our own? And with gyms, yoga studios, and pools closed how were we going to stay strong and limber?
As Rose put it when first thinking about purchasing a Peloton, “I was a little concerned about the isolation migrating to that sort of platform.” But to her pleasant surprise, “It ended up being a really positive experience.”
Pedaling to a community
There was no internal marketing push to get employees of Intel to be on some sort of Peloton training group. People, Intel employees or not, were not intentionally looking for a community but for a way to simply stay in shape while being shuttered in for an unforeseeable future. As humans have done throughout time, we started to adapt to the limitations of a changing environment brought on by the pandemic. Thus, many of us started creating home gyms, watching YouTube HIIT or yoga videos, or purchasing one or more of the thousands of exercise apps out there in the market today. And some bought a Peloton cycle. Slowly throughout Intel, people were asking each other if they liked Peloton and would they recommend it — all word of mouth. As more people made the cycle purchase, they formed an Intel training group within the platform.
And while the argument continues whether social media platforms are more divisive than unifying to our society, when it comes to fitness social media platforms, there appears to be more people trying to uplift others in their personal exercising efforts rather than finding ways to tear them down.
Rose agreed on this sentiment of community within Intel’s Peloton group:
“You’ll be in a [virtual] working meeting and someone will say ‘I’m XYZ, this is my Peloton handle.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh! I know you! We’ve high-fived in a workout session before.’”
Rose also feels without a doubt that this organically grown Peloton group has in fact extended relationships for her and others as well as reinforced a strong sense of community, which may not have occurred without this virtual fitness platform.
Data and fitness
Rose absolutely loves data and uses multiple exercise apps to keep in shape and to stay motivated. As Rose explained, “The foundation of technology and exercise has really come together brilliantly through the pandemic…and created opportunities for us to get a lot more focused on our health and wellness.”
When asked about what is emerging within fitness and technology, Schooler indicated that the creation of so much data related to our physical and mental well-being allows us to have a better hold on our own health issues. She elaborated, “The immediacy of the data, the connectivity to do the health and wellness monitoring can be proactive in some of the signaling of possible future [health] issues…Between the compute technology, the connectivity, the rapid development of applications, the real-time nature of the data and the ability to do a mash-up of all that data, we’re going to be able to run analytics on it, were going be able to do much better proactive trending.”
Schooler continued that when you add in information about our own DNA and combined with this real-time influx of fitness data, we are much more informed and can be far more proactive about our personal health and fitness.
Data for weekend warriors and elite athletes
While professional and Olympic athletes have always used data to optimize their performance, today anyone from the exercise “weekend warrior”, to the daily early-morning swimmer, or the serious masters club runner has access to the data needed to figure out how to get fitter, faster, leaner, and stronger.
Moreover, between wearable athletic devices to the gamification included in many exercise apps today, there are a plethora of reasons why we want (and expect) access instantaneously to our average daily run mileage, weekly resting heart rate, or past month’s sleep cycle. That is where technology comes in. All this data needs to be managed efficiently and safely and that is where Schooler sees a need for compute.
“Managing, analyzing, and storing all this data drives…the insatiable need for compute. Compute on your device, your network, and in the infrastructure. A lot of these applications are developed in the cloud …every time you get new applications that application requires server, network, storage, and all that server network storage is running on some amount of compute.”
She continued, “…So from the device to the connectivity of the device, to running the applications to storing and analyzing the data it’s all a big driver of compute.”
Intel has a big presence in mobile computing, network infrastructure, storage, and the cloud, which means they are, and have been, an important player in the explosive growth of health and fitness technology.
How technology brings harmony and goodness
Schooler uses technology for good when it comes to her own mental and physical well-being. Because of Peloton she came across a saying by Jess King, one of its live trainers:
“I used to let the chaos interrupt my practice — now I let the practice drown the chaos.”
This is why Schooler now packs her gym shoes instead of an extra pair of heels when she goes on a work trip. This is why she utilizes meditation apps regularly to help her stay balanced. This is why she believes data and technology, when it comes to personal health, can create harmony both physically and mentally.
After speaking with Rose, it came across quite clearly that she is a confident, intelligent, goal oriented, fun, and thoughtful person. It is not surprising that she has found great professional success within Intel over the past three decades — all throughout our interview her passion for technology and the way it can be used for good was palpable.
And her passion for technology was further illustrated in the way she thinks young girls and women should approach STEM fields careers as she has:
“You can and you will. I think there are always questions in a career of a technical female around self-confidence, confidence in your abilities. It’s normal. You can and you will do what you whatever you want to do.”
So as Schooler continues her drive for high-tech fitness harmony, whether that be closing her rings for the day on her Apple Watch or helping to navigate the next generation of health and fitness data, you can and should believe in her unwavering confidence that technology can benefit us all when it comes to our mental and physical well-being is — And I personally find a lot of comfort in that.
Million Girls Moonshot
Beginning Q3'2021, reading Intel Tech stories with the kicker Million Girls Moonshot will generate donations for the Million Girls Moonshot. Intel will donate $1 per unique views of stories with the Kicker Million Girls Moonshot until Dec 31, 2021. We will announce the funds raised in Q1'2022 post. Don’t forget to show your support for these kids and clap.¹
Notices and Disclaimers:
¹ Start dates for this Intel tech program may change without notice. All product plans and roadmaps are subject to change without notice.
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