Breadcrumb

UDC Forum: First Generation Professional

UDC Forum: First Generation Professional
  • Hello and welcome to UDC Forum. I'm Dr. Sandra Jowers Barber, Director for the humanities at the University of the District of Columbia Community College.

    Tinisha Agramonte is a highly regarded civil rights champion whose personal and professional mission is to advance equitable opportunities for all. She has 25 years of experience an equal employment opportunity diversity and human relations. Currently Tinisha is Director of the Office of Civil Rights at the US Department of Commerce. She joins me to talk about the department's first-generation professional initiative. During the program we will meet three very impressive first-generation professionals. Tinisha welcome. Thank you, Sandra, it's great to be here and I appreciate the invitation. Now this first-generation project, what is the engine driving it? So the engine driving this initiative is really within the federal government all federal agencies are driven by a diversity and inclusion executive order that mandates that every federal agency endeavor to have a workforce that is drawn from our diverse American population and so with that in mind we want to make sure that every segment of our diverse American society has an equal opportunity to compete for jobs in the federal government and once they get in an opportunity to thrive. Now first generation professional I I fit in that category mm-hmm so what is going to be offered and how do you identify what are some of the characteristics that a first-generation professional brings to the workplace? So probably it'll be helpful to first identify how we've defined a first generation professional, so we've defined a first generation professional as someone who is one of the first in their immediate family to enter into the professional workplace meaning that their parents either held traditional blue-collar positions or working-class positions that didn't require a college degree so from that standpoint it's a definition that I think many can self-identify it's not a label but it is something that describes individuals who are the first in their family to go into this uncharted territory of the professional workplace. Now you say uncharted, what do you need to navigate an uncharted new arena? So one of the things that we found this is the Office of Civil Rights that I lead in partnership with the US Census Bureau which is a bureau under the Department of Commerce we actually partnered to conduct some research and study and the outcome of this study is that there are some common themes that first-generation professionals said where they've experienced some challenges in the workplace one is around unwritten rules in the workplace identifying what those are and learning how to operate within that context in an organization the other is really dealing with self-efficacy managing the impostor syndrome the other has to do with social networks social capital many times people who were raised in a household with professional parents are able to leverage their parents social capital those networks that they've developed and then financial literacy that's another area where if you were raised in a household in particular low income household where your parents may not have had disposable income to save or invest and prepare for retirement there might be some opportunities to improve your financial literacy to make sure that you're adequately taking care of your finances with this newfound money. Now is there any stigma attached to someone identifying as the first-generation professional? So privately at times there aren't we are learning a lot I'm learning a lot from doing this initiative one of the things that I really didn't expect was that there might be a stigma of shame associated with coming from either a low-income background or coming from a background where your parents held blue-collar working-class positions so that is one of the things that we're finding but my message to all first-generation professionals is really captured well in a Frederick Douglass quote and that is we are not judged by the heights we have risen but from the depths we have climbed and I think first generation professionals should be proud that they are trailblazers you know they come from hard-working families and they're expanding into this area of occupations that others in their family have not done and so I think their family members are looking at them with pride that they're expanding the occupations that their family has traversed and are working in. Now let's meet one of three first-generation professionals.

    [music]

    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 in the department of homeland security. I moved to the united states when I was 5 to live with my dad, an employee at eastern airlines, and stepmom, a nurse’s aide. As with most parents, but especially with immigrant parents, education and having a better life and more opportunities than they had, was very important. Although my parents wanted the best for me, they were educated in Guyana, and didn’t know how to help me navigate through college. However, as I grew up, they did instill upon me, the will to be better, study harder and get better grades, so I was able to attend a liberal arts college on a scholarship. I distinctly remember how unprepared I was for college, when I showed up to my dorm room with only 2 suitcases and none of the dorm essentials, like sheets.  College was difficult as I battled the imposter syndrome, had very little money and often feeling out of place, as I was embarrassed to bring friends home on breaks and couldn’t afford spring break vacations like most of the other students, some of whom had Porsches. Through hard work and tenacity, I navigated college and went on to law school also on a scholarship. Since then I wanted to overcome the shame associated with my humble beginnings even though I still live in fear that one day someone will notice that I am not as smart or as capable as they think I am. Law school taught and prepared for a lot of unwritten rules in my career, such as judges expectations, etiquette, dress and appearance, and communication skills. So, when I stated 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 leadership roles. He guided me, had faith in me, and recognized my capabilities and gave me more responsibilities when he thought I was ready and taught me to be an effective supervisor. I always tried to live up to his expectations and through that grit and tenacity I proved myself worthy of promotions offered. Although because of a knowledge gap or feeling inferior 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. Now draw on your background as a strength, and leverage that grit, loyalty and flexibility instilled in you by your parents and empower yourself to realize your full potential. I hope this initiative will lead to programs and workshops to give other FGPs with similar experiences 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 enable them to fully leverage the qualifications they bring, as well as the grit and tenacity from overcoming obstacles and challenges. By doing so FGPs will be able to contribute knowing that the organization values and appreciates their backgrounds and life experiences and enables them to provide culturally competent services in accomplishing the organization’s mission.
    [Music]

    What are some challenges that you hope to address through this initiative? What we really hope to address are those things that I talked about that a first-generation professional experiences on the individual level. So those learning how to navigate the unwritten rules
    building their network hopefully through some mentoring for them to help them learn the lay of the land but while that's critical and important probably what's even more important is addressing the systemic policies practices and procedures that have an unintentional negative impact on our ability to hire and advance first generation professionals for example recruitment bias right so a lot of people may not even think about this but if a hiring official has a very limited lens on how they determine who is the best and the brightest and they think that comes in the form of only attending elite universities top tier universities and completing that degree within four years and getting competitive internships well those might be things that prevent them from considering a first generation professional because what we know is most first-generation professionals matriculate through state universities community colleges online universities not because they're incapable of getting into a top-tier school but because their life circumstances dictated a different path. Now one of the things that we're seeing is that Community College are gaining a new perspective and a new prestige so that may not be a stigma but how do you address the hiring end of it? How are you going to change their view? I think only thing we can do at this juncture is increase awareness of those biases that may exist so if someone for example feels as if you took too long to complete school that that says something about your work ethic or if it says something about your intellect then we want to challenge that and we want to expand that thinking that even though someone may have had a non-traditional career path or academic journey does not mean that they're incapable of thriving and contributing and unleashing their potential in the workplace. So I guess this gets back to also having that first-generation professional prepare a narrative that talks about all of that if it was in extended period of time how they were able to be persistent and and retain all of their enthusiasm to complete. What do you see is the obligation of a community college or an institution to prepare a first – generation professional? I think where academic institutions can help first-generation college students who will be first generation professionals prepare to enter the workforce is by focusing on those traits I think you were just speaking about tenacity, grit, resiliency, determination resourcefulness, those are all the traits acquired by overcoming obstacles and those are really traits that are beneficial in the workplace not only that first-generation professionals especially those who come from lower income backgrounds bring cultural competency to our workplace they come from a background that represents the constituents that we serve at least a third of the public comes from lower income so they bring with them a keen understanding of that population that helps us improve the services and products that we deliver to that community and the American population as a whole. And they're usually bringing that support system from families that want to see them obtain more than what they were able to obtain. Now let's take a look at another first generational professional.

     [Music]

    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 collapsed in 2008 but without a college education, she had challenges finding jobs afterwards. The financial issues that came about due to these challenges made my years growing up hard, especially as on only child, where my single mother and I moved often. My father worked at a convenience store and was shot and paralyzed in an armed robbery during my sophomore year of high school. After my father was shot, I moved in with him and took up a part time job to help pay expenses at home. I had to balance working, with achieving high grades, running cross country in track, and leading community service initiatives. 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 Questbridge 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 am a junior at Harvard studying government with a secondary in comparative religion, and helping run Harvard’s 1st first generation low income pre orientation program. And while my time at Harvard has been enriching, there continues to be institutional challenges, I need to overcome as a first-generation student. 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 extra curriculars I am involved with, it can be hard to relate to many of my peers, who have the connections and network 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 and the support of mentors, I would not be at Harvard today. Coming from a first-generation low-income background, I’ve 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 in asking for help or support, and instead am able to take initiative in doing so. In my classes, extra curriculars, and internships, I shed light on the socio-economic challenges people face in our society. 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. And although I carry myself with confidence, not having the financial backing or social networks that many of my peers take for granted, it is challenging at times to succeed on my will, and tenacity alone.
    [Music]
    Going ahead what do you see as a direction to sort of counter these challenges? So I think key to it is increasing awareness I mean this is a very new area this is a new frontier for diversity and inclusion, so I think increasing awareness of the opportunities and the challenges also making sure that first-generation professionals are celebrated for their successes making sure that we let the world know that they're trailblazers and that they bring incredible talent to the workplace and making sure that they know they're not alone connect them with other first-generation professionals and then also partner with other agencies where we can other nonprofit organizations and whoever's interested in presenting workshops providing mentorship anything that can help first-generation professionals thrive and unleash their potential. And the collaboration I think is going to be key as well because many times if a first-generation professional a first-generation college student on their way to being a professional doesn't make that connection while they're in an academic arena many times they're not going to make it outside of the academic arena so the partnership between the agency and the institution will be important. Do you see this program extending to the institutions and coming in and having maybe an internal program? Absolutely because we recognize that the first touch point shouldn't be when they're already in the work place although our program is aimed at helping first-generation professionals who are already in the work place we think that in order to optimally help first-generation professionals our first touch point should be developing them while they're in the pipeline headed to the workforce so those partnerships and collaboration between the federal government and academic institutions and private organizations that help first-generation college students as they are aspire to be professionals is key. Now this is a new venture did you have any pushback or was there always a top-down approach to supporting this? I have to say within my organization I have had incredible support from my supervisor all the way up to the top senior leaders within the Department of Commerce. They recognized that in order to build a diverse workforce and have an inclusive work environment we must be creative we must be innovative, and they see this as a cutting-edge new diversity and inclusion initiative that should get top priority. Now are there connections made once they get into the initiative how is it sustained, I mean do can they move through an agency and still maintain membership or a connection to the initiative? So right now I think we're really at the infancy stages of the initiative so we're at the building awareness sort of stage we're at the stage exploring how do we sustain this initiative in a way that it not only helps current first generation professionals but future first generation professionals so I think at every stage of one's career there's an opportunity to provide assistance information and resources for their professional career development because at every stage there are going to be new obstacles new rules new ways of operating that will require them to exercise a different set of tools to advance and thrive in whatever capacity that they aspire to function in. It would be interesting as this new group or a new initial group moves through to see how they reach back and give back and mentor it would be ideal if someone going through can come back to an institution and talk about the benefits and also the challenges. Right absolutely so I think that's one of the things we've been speaking to all our first-generation professionals who are participating in this initiative is that we have to pull others up as we climb the ladder right that's important to pay it forward and all of them have made a commitment to doing that. Here is our final first-generation professional.

     [Music]

    My name is David Ziaya 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 1400 people. My town was so small that we didn’t get our 2nd stop light in the county until I was in high school. 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. And 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. I started as a general cafeteria worker and rose to a level 3 kitchen supervisor in charge of students and operations, supporting full time kitchen employees in meal preparation. Having to balance work and school helped me develop a strong work ethic and a determination to succeed. I learned high management skills, and how to develop my social network. I was provided job training and leadership experience that I used throughout my career in the federal government. 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. I was hired under the outstanding scholar’s program after numerous unsuccessful interviews for the HUD intern program. I thought that not being an intern would disadvantage me in terms of getting to know people and the organization and stifle my career progression. I felt inadequate and inferior to the HUD interns, since I didn’t graduate from an ivy league school or have previous federal government or private sector experience, like most others in the program. However, I made it my job to get to know the interns and learn from them. I met and worked with the people they were meeting and made it a point to have them get to know me. I was approached more than once by leadership to rotate in their office and was even offered a lateral opportunity in the office of housing which was blocked by my office director. My tenacity, work ethic and a determination to succeed, despite the feeling of vulnerability, ultimately led to an offer as program analyst in headquarters. 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 that allowed me to walk to work and get to know the city. Although I had never paid rent before, I did the math and based on my annual salary, thought it was fine. But I was informed about things like retirement, life insurance, thrift savings plan, and other deductions that mysteriously appeared on my pay stub. In the end my 1st paycheck barely covered half my rent and I quickly realized this was an unsustainable situation. I wish there would have been programs and 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 in my new-found ability I learned how to be a part of a work place 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 the family, and sacrifices were massive influencing factors on who I am today. Though they didn’t have the college experience to fall upon to relate to me, they did have the experience of valuing and serving people from all walks of life.
    [Music]

    Tinisha this has been so informative and exciting that there is this federal push and lead to do this. How excited are you about this? I am super excited about it, but I will tell you there have been times that even I've second-guessed myself because as I said earlier I'm learning
    so much and how to frame the initiative what it really is who are we targeting what is it that we hope to achieve and then all of the sort of misconceptions that arise sometimes when you embark on a new initiative and so there are a couple that I want to dispel in terms of misconceptions. One, that first-generation professionals do not have deficits this is not about the deficit every professional has opportunities to improve in their career or to have professional development so this is not about deficits they definitely bring talent and traits that are helpful for the workforce. The other one is that this is targeting minorities. No this is targeting a particular group of people who are the first in the workplace and this transcends race, gender, national origin, socio-economic strata doesn't is not limited to one diversity dimension it covers many of them. Well it's wonderful to hear that also that that there's that acceptance because that is such a challenge many times for people who believe that if they identify as a first generation anything that is going to be a negative impact. Thank you so much for being here with us. If you are interested in learning more about the academic programs and events offered by the University of the District of Columbia visit the university's website at www.udc.edu and to learn more about the many degree certificate and training programs offered by the University of the District of Columbia Community College please visit the website at www.cc.udc.edu thank you for watching I'm Dr. Sandra Jowers Barber.

     [Music]

     [Music]

     [Music]