all right so now you get to see in the
beginning you saw this wonderful welcome
video and I really have to thank it
Stacy leak here hey Stacy
so why I'm thanking Stacy leak and also
I want to thank is anyone here from the
University of district Columbia okay
yay yes oh we have the president from
the University of District Columbia and
Dr. Jarris is that you I know my glasses
on okay I don't have my glasses on but
University of District Columbia came to
me and said we'd like to interview you
for our cable show and if you give us
three first generation professionals
we'd like to highlight them as well so I
was very deliberate about selecting two
senior executive service members and
also someone who was starting their
first generation professional journey an
individual who attends Harvard and was
my son during my summer intern so I want
to show you a video of them now but why
I pointed out Stacy lega Stacy I don't
know maybe nine months ago wrote to me
she said Tinisha I heard you speak
somewhere and we got a record you we got
to get a professional recording of you
and I want to do that I was like okay
that sounds cool never got back to her
she wrote me again like two months later
she does so I just want to let you know
that offer still stands and I'd really
love to help you promote this and so
Stacy's team took you DC's video plus a
presentation I did there and they helped
slice it all together so it's because of
them that we have this clip that I want
to show you now but I want to make sure
Sahil
Dave and Ronnie know I love you to death
I thank you for being the first to share
your stories with me on such a big scale
here they go
my name is Veronica Ronnie venture I'm a
first generation professional from
Guyana and I'm currently the deputy
officer for civil rights and civil
liberties and the director of EEO and
diversity at the Department of Homeland
Security as with most parents but
especially immigrant parents education
having a better life and more
opportunities and they had was very
important although my parents wanted the
best for me they were educating guiana
and didn't know how to help me navigate
through college I distinctly remember
how unprepared I was for college when I
showed up to my dorm room with only two
suitcases and none of the dorm
essentials like sheets college was
difficult as I battered the imposter
syndrome had very little money and often
feeling out of place as I was
embarrassed to bring friends home on
break and can afford Spring Break
vacations like most of the other
students some of whom had Porsches since
then I've learned to overcome the shame
associated with my humble beginnings
even though I still live in fear that
one day someone will notice that I'm not
as smart or as capable as they think I
am the law school taught and prepared me
for a lot of unwritten rules in my
career such as judges expectations
etiquette dressing appearance and
communication skills so when I started
my career as a law clerk and became a
trial attorney I was much better
prepared than I had been for college my
mentors and social networks were not
only important in showing me how things
worked but also pushed me to my full
potential and provided necessary
encouragement I had a boss who took me
under his wing and pushed me to take a
lot of the leadership roles he guided me
had faith in me recognized my
capabilities and gave me more
responsibilities when he thought I was
ready and taught me to be an effective
supervisor whether because of a
knowledge gap we're feeling fear as a
FGP I still find it hard to self
advocate for myself in these situations
but it's important for FGPS to remember
you are worthy you are capable and you
do have the qualifications I hope this
initiative will lead to programs or
workshops that give other FGPS a similar
experience that I had in regards to my
support system whether that be a mentor
colleague that will help FGPS navigate
right off the bat and then enable them
to fully leverage the qualifications
they bring as well as the grit tenacity
from overcoming obstacles and challenges
my name is Sahil Lauji and I am a
first-generation low-income college
student from Atlanta
Georgia my mother worked in the real
estate industry until the market crash
in 2008 but without a college education
she had challenges finding jobs
afterwards my father worked at a
convenience store and was shot and
paralyzed in an armed robbery during my
sophomore year of high school when
college applications rolled around I was
left alone with deciding what schools to
apply to and how to go about the
application luckily I came across
programs such as quest bridge that
exposed low-income students like myself
to top tier institutions across the
country with the support of my father
and an assistant principal I applied to
top-tier universities and was accepted
to schools such as Harvard Princeton and
Duke and now I'm a junior at Harvard
studying government with a secondary in
comparative religion and helping run
Harvard's first first-generation
low-income pre-orientation program
aside from often being one of the only
people of color in many of my classes I
am also often one of the few students
from a working-class background in
academic settings and extracurriculars I
am involved with it can be hard to
relate to many of my peers who have the
connections and networks that I just
don't have people from my background
often do not think about applying to
schools outside their state so without
outreach programs in the support of
mentors I would not be at Harvard today
coming from a first-generation
low-income background I faced challenges
with navigating school resources feeling
supported and adjusting to social life
on campus on the other hand my wealthier
peers went to prep schools and had
parents that attended college who could
support them despite this I learned to
not have shame and asking for help or
support and instead I am able to take
initiative in doing so coming from
humble beginnings I knew early on that I
needed to be self-motivated
and resourceful in order to succeed and
propel myself forward in this
challenging academic environment my name
is David Ziya and I am currently the
chief administrative officer of the US
Census Bureau I'm a first generation
professional from a small rural based
community in Michigan of roughly 1,400
people my father worked at the local A&P grocery store 50 miles away as a
stocker/checker in the evening shift my
mother worked as a medical
transcriptionist at the local hospital
to help supplement income once my
brother and I were old enough to be home
alone going to college was always part
of the plan for me as my parents wanted
me to do better and more with my life I
earned some scholarships as the
salutatorian of my class and the
scholarships covered about half of my
room and board and tuition so I
supplemented my financial aid with a
work-study program having the balance
work in school helped me develop a
strong work ethic and a determination to
succeed my first job in the federal
government was in the Chicago office of
public housing as a housing management
assistant gs-7 with the promotion
potential to the gs-12
there are many ways in which I was
inadequately prepared for my career but
this example of financial illiteracy is
one I will never forget I found a great
high-rise apartment allowed me to walk
to work and get to know the city
although I had never paid rent before I
did the math based on my annual salary
and thought it was fine but I wasn't
informed about things like retirement
life insurance Thrift Savings Plan and
other deductions that mysteriously
appeared on my pay stub in the end my
first paycheck barely covered half of my
rent and I quickly realized this was an
unsustainable situation
I wish there would have been programs or
classes to help think about this and
felt foolish for not thinking about it
when deciding where to live my mentors
and supervisors helped me learn skills
that allowed me to be confident and my
newfound abilities I learned how to be a
part of a workplace culture and how to
successfully navigate within that
culture through observation commitment
and being genuine to my colleagues and
the mission at hand I think that my
parents example of hard work to provide
for their family and sacrifices were
massive influencing factors on Who I am
today
wasn't that video amazing and again
Thank You Stacy Thank You University
of District Columbia for that help so I
want to highlight just for a minute Sahil
so Sahil because we all have
embraced him because he's starting that
journey right and so this summer I was
looking for some interns to come intern
in my office and he and I immediately
connected when he told me he was a
first-generation college student and we
just talked for hours on the phone
before he actually came here and intern
and so one of the funny things we talked
about was how resourceful
first-generation professionals can be
and I'm going to give you an example of
that one day I went down to the
cafeteria and Sahil was down there
eating with his friends but his food
looked different than what they were
eating just the container it was in I
was like where did you get that and he
goes oh last night I went to an event
and I knew they had this leftover food
that they were just gonna throw away so
I packed it up and knew that that would
be my lunch he said it's the
first-generation thing right
and I was like absolutely because I
could think back to when I was in
college and when I tell you working
three jobs to put myself through school
because apparently in California if you
made eleven thousand dollars a year at
that time that was too much for any kind
of grants Pell grants or anything like
that so I had to work three jobs to put
myself through school and I really
vividly recall french fries 35 cents for
a little thing of french fries a dime
for a cup so what I would do to get
through my school day is I'd buy two
things of french fries and I fill up
that cup with water so it could expand
the french fries so that I would be full
and I could get through school until I
could go to one of my jobs that I was
very strategic about working in group
homes because I knew I could eat at the
group homes that's being resourceful you
know and that is what we bring to the
workplace so what I want to do right now
a reason I brought up Sahil is because
there are three organizations with us
today that I want to acknowledge these
organizations are helping to are helping
first-generation college students start
their journey and making sure that they
have the information resources and tools
they need to graduate and successfully
transition into the workforce so I want
to first acknowledge the Kevin Durant
college track program in 1997 college
track was founded with 25 students in
East Palo Alto I happen to know where
that's at and today we serve today they
serve more than 3200 studies students
and communities across California
Colorado Louisiana most recently the DC
metro area in partnership with the Kevin
Durant charity foundation in Prince
George's County Public Schools college
track opened college track at the Durant
Center in Kevin's hometown of Prince
George's County and fall 2018
welcoming 69 students from Suitland High
School this year they will open their
second Center in the district's Ward 8
followed by a third Center in 2021 to
change the narrative for students living
in and around
our nation's capital I want to tell you
about two representatives here from
there
Holly called her she comes from a family
of eight and she's a first generation
college student she earned her
bachelor's degree in political science
and communications at the University of
New Mexico where she also finished her
MBA and strategic management and public
policy we also have with her Khadija
al-amin Elle who's also a first
generation college graduate from Prince
George's County Maryland she earned a
bachelor's degree in economics from
Boston College and an MBA from George
Washington University School of Business
as director of development for college
track she is excited to secure
philanthropic resources to help students
like her attain a four-year college
degree please join me in welcoming Holly
and Khadija to our audience
oh there they are they're standing in
the back thank you for coming
the next organization is the community
Scholars Program of Georgetown
University they have led efforts to
promote social justice for 50 years by
enrolling a more racially and
socioeconomically diverse student body
managed by the Center for multicultural
equity and access the program provides
enhanced educational opportunity for
multicultural cohort of first-generation
college students who have achieved the
dream of higher education through
personal initiative service and academic
excellence the community Scholars
experience begins with a five-week
academic summer program prior to the
students first year at Georgetown
designed to aid their transition to
higher education so during the summer
they take classes for credit attend
orientation workshops and begin forming
bonds with one another teachers and
administrators that will help sustain
them through their college career and we
have representatives from that
organization and also to
first-generation college students Mickey Haywood and Zach Hubings if you're here
please stand and be acknowledged
and finally but not least we have I'm
first I'm first again remember I talked
about going on the internet and trying
to find research and looking for all
these things I found I'm first and I was
blown away by the information they had
on their website because of the way that
they characterize first-generation
professionals and first-generation
college students it was the first time I
saw it in such a positive light so I
want to share with you a little bit from
their website it says there's something
special about being the first the first
in flight the first man on the moon in
the first african-american president
first kisses first impressions first
place being the first in your family to
attend and graduate from college is
special to I'm first publishes the only
college guy but designed uniquely for
first-generation college-bound students
and the UM first website features
stories campaign collecting video
testimony testimonials from
first-generation college students and
graduates as well as a blog written by
current first-generation college
students from across the country we're
honored to have representatives of um
first with us today Terry Roberts is a
first-generation college graduate from
Knox College and earned a master's
degree in public administration from
Syracuse University she is the director
of special projects for um firs Chelsea
at Jones is a first-generation college
graduate from Howard University she
started with um first as an intern
during college and then joined the staff
as a program director for six years
she's now working as a program
coordinator in the administration's
office at her alma mater please join us
in welcoming Terry in Chelsea ax and
Mike are you here Terry and Chelsea yay
please join us in welcoming them
and my understanding is they might have
some little giveaway Imfurst stickers to
give out to first-generation
professionals so as a reminder we have a
huge photo backdrop in the lobby that we
want all of you to take selfies with and
maybe have those stickers on and take
those selfies so thanks again for
joining us today so now I'm gonna wrap
this up with a bro we've heard some
amazing first-generation professional
stories today but before I get to this
well actually she was part of my thanks
in here but my boss is here Lisa
Casias who is the deputy assistant
secretary for administration and she
wanted to come up here and make a couple
of remarks so Lisa Casias come on up
I'm gonna steal her thunder for just a
second though she also is a first
generation professional so can we give
it up family so my my main purpose
because I know at this point Tinisha was
doing all the thank-yous and I know
there were some thank yous at the
beginning maybe by KDK or DEP SEC but
really this has been a journey and
Tinisha has been amazing and when she
says being resourceful everyone here
knows federal budgets and Tinisha has
done everything to make this happen
she's worked with the Census Bureau to
have sessions she has done everything
possible to make this a success she's
made those partnerships those networks
and that's why we have wonderful
speakers here that were on the panel we
had you know others come and join us so
I really just wanted to take a moment to
recognize Tinisha and all the efforts
she has done and I think it's exciting
in the way ahead that she'll be talking
about there's a lot more to come but I
really wanted to recognize Tinisha right
now
thank you so much Lisa and one of the
things I will tell you is member earlier
I was talking about that deer in the
headlights look that was actually at her
meeting with all my peers in there and
to be honest with you Lisa at first was
like okay I think okay I think I'm
getting in I'm not really clear she
would ask these probing questions on it
but one thing that she always did was
said I'm gonna support you and she did
she didn't just support me with her
words she supported me with her actions
and so she made sure that I had the
financial resources to do this she made
sure that I could make the connections
needed to make this a success everybody
should want a boss who supports them
like that so thank you Lisa
all right so I'm just gonna talk about
real quick a couple of lessons learned
so remember I said I struggled at first
it was epic failure so a couple of
things that I've learned is that FGP
span the continuum of the definition and
I think that's what you all heard today
and it's really about
self-identification one of the things
that was most amazing for me to see
today is the pride in being a first
generation professional and that was the
one goal that I had and I think we
accomplished that so I'm so happy about
that
the other is that this is not about
deficits but it's about differences
there are so many different pathways to
the professional workforce the only
thing that I'm trying to do is get us to
shift the paradigm expand our perception
in our perspective on who is the best
and the brightest that the best and the
brightest comes in many different
packages it doesn't mean that you have
to get through college in four years it
doesn't mean that you have to attend an
Ivy League school it doesn't mean that
you get under you know those coveted
unpaid internships that really are
driven by economic factors because how
many people can come to DC take an
unpaid internship and sustain themselves
for three months six weeks however long
it takes to get out here we know that
that's an active and economic barrier
for some people I'll never forget an HR
director after I spoke said to me
Tanisha you're really making me think
but I have a first generation
professional who just graduated from
Howard University excellent academic
credentials but all his work experiences
at a fast food how do I sell him to a
higher and official as being the best
and the brightest I'm gonna tell you we
don't have all the answers but we're
seeking the answers one of the things
that I do know is let's talk about his
tenacity grit Drive resiliency
determination other factors that got him
to the college campus and to graduate
how do we work that into the competition
factor right so we know we're working on
things like that so next step
today we officially started the
conversation but I'm asking you to
continue the conversation we need to
continue increasing awareness of how
social class markers and indicators may
prevent full and fair consideration of
first-generation professionals we need
to find a share best practices to
improve inclusion and we need to help
shift that paradigm so here at the
Department of Commerce we have three
very concrete action items on the
horizon one is we're going to build a
strong network of F GPS and allies like
establishing an employee resource group
and I want to go big or go home so I'm
looking at Allison wise who is from the
Office of Personnel management's office
of diversity and inclusion and I'm not
putting on the spot I'm just saying I'm
looking at her
I just wanted to recognize she's in the
house but for me going big means having
a federal government employee resource
group of first generation professionals
having a chapter at every single federal
agency because what we know is that it
takes a community right to provide that
support and I'd really love to see that
the other thing that we're doing is
providing information and resources so
if you go on OCR's website which i'm not
sure if we have that but OCR website
will be sent out to all attendees on
there you'll see soon this whole program
will be on that link the UDC cable show
is on that link the promo that you saw
is on that link our our US Census Bureau
researchers in here right here hey
and Patricia Gorham hi these are the
individuals who spent months almost a
year just doing the framework for the
research that we conducted with
first-generation professionals at
commerce that research has been
published that's on our website can you
give a round of applause to these
researchers for that
so that's the information and resources
and then workshops and seminars so
already and I'm looking at Peter Henry
over there from the Securities and
Exchange Commission Jo Linda
are you here Jo Linda Tia Butler you
here right there Monique Fortenberry are
you here
okay Kenny Bailey and now go back to
Peter Henry all these people have
already signed up to facilitate
workshops I'm looking for more call me
okay
but let me tell you about the Securities
and Exchange Commission event that they
have so as a follow up to this summit
they have agreed to collaborate with the
Department of Commerce and be the first
federal agency to kick off the official
FGP series that we hope to continue so
on October 10th the Securities and
Exchange Commission will host a first
generation professional workshop which
will explore the themes of vision
journey and opportunity the event will
include investor education the science
behind networks and adopting an
entrepreneurial mindset in addition
participants will have the opportunity
to hear from F GPS and senior positions
at the Securities Exchange Commission so
please visit the Department of
Commerce's website for additional
information about what's coming up with
the Securities and Exchange and I just
want to thank you for all the support
you've shown me I appreciate you
alright we got about 2 minutes left and
after that two minutes me and my 12
original contributors we're gonna have
an adult time after this and really
celebrate and put our arms up but before
that I want to give a huge thank you to
my team the Department of Commerce's
Office of Civil Rights I could not have
done this without them please give them
a strong
I want to thank Lisa Tom and the deputy
secretary for all their support I want
to thank all the F GPS for sharing their
stories I want to thank all of you for
coming out here today and supporting
this initiative so now my ask to you as
we leave I want to invite you to join
this journey we are better together
please reach out and let me know how you
can collaborate with us to make sure FG
peas are welcomed into our work spaces
thank you so much for coming today
oh wait hold on real quick I have to
acknowledge my auntie is in the front
row along with my best friend and
trained me but auntie Janelle
Leonard is here supporting me and I have
to say thank you to her I love you so
much thank you for being here
