Genise Shumaker, a real estate broker at McColly Real Estate, found her passion in helping people find their dream homes. With a strong motivation to serve the community, Shumaker also uses her flexible schedule to partake in an abundance of volunteer opportunities.
“I genuinely love helping people,” said Shumaker. “I love helping someone who doesn’t know what to do or how the process works or how to get the home they need. I help them with their next step in life, and honestly, that’s my favorite part.”
Shumaker has spent her whole life in Porter County. She attended Portage High School before pursuing her associates’s degree in architectural technology with a minor in building construction management at Purdue University Northwest (formerly Purdue University North Central) in 2007. A job as a structural detailer and a residential designer helped launch her educational and professional careers. Shumaker, however, attributes her career choice to being a natural evolution in her life.
“I have always loved homes,” said Shumaker. “Back in the day, my mom would let me buy magazines with floor plans. She would take them to work and make copies of them to bring home for me. I would remodel them with glue and ink. From then on, I became the only girl who took all the engineering and architecture classes. My husband, later, would encourage me to be a realtor because he thought I’d be good at it.”
Shumaker would also be inspired by a realtor, her high school teacher’s wife, who helped her buy her first home in Portage at 22. This positive encounter helped nurture her desire to be an honest face in real estate transactions. Shumaker took the steps to become licensed in Indiana and has now spent around 11 years serving Porter County as a real estate broker.
Outside of her work in real estate, Shumaker takes great pride in her volunteer work. Her experience only grew from her initial volunteer work during her college years with a local organization called Rebuilding Together Duneland. Much of her continued love of volunteering comes from finding happiness in the local library in her youth.
“Growing up, my family didn’t have a lot of money, so a reward was going to the library,” said Shumaker. “You’re naturally going to have a love for it when it’s a reward. When we finally learned how to read, we got our own library card and I naturally became a great lover of reading. As a child, I would accompany my mom when she volunteered for the library, so it’s always been a natural thing for me to volunteer.”
Shumaker has been a volunteer for the Porter County Public Library System (PCPLS) since about 2006 and is now the president of Porter County Friends of the Library. In her role, she assists in funding countless programs for the library system and helps develop scholarships for the library staff.
“We support wherever we can,” said Shumaker. “We raise the funds for whatever the library asks of us. We promote anything that helps the community, like the prizes for the summer reading programs. We have even helped budget for a quiet room, using 10 grand for specialty doors. We love supporting the kids and library staff.”
She also gives her time to Valparaiso Nazarene Church, alongside her husband. One of her biggest voluntary contributions is participating in 500 Turkeys, which starts each January to provide turkeys to families in need for Thanksgiving day. The community collects the non-perishable food items, and in turn, Shumaker and other volunteers raise the funds for the perishables. In 2023, 500 Turkeys provided over 1,500 turkeys for families during the holiday season. She also takes pride in helping out with Night to Shine, an annual prom night for special needs adults.
In reflection of her career and volunteer work in Porter County, Shumaker desires to continue to adhere to both of her passions.
“I don’t really work because I enjoy all that I do,” said Shumaker, “As a volunteer, you’re not paid. You make the choice to improve your community, and that’s the choice I will always choose. I also enjoy everything about real estate, and I’m not giving either up. I am very blessed to be able to spend my days doing both paid and unpaid work.”
For more information about Shumaker’s services, visit mccolly.com/realestate/agent/genise-shumaker/. For additional information about resources or events within the Porter County Public Library System, visit pcpls.org/.