I'm the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership. We manage all the federal job training, job development, and job placement funding for the city and the county. But we serve job seekers and employers. We work with more than 2,000 employers throughout the city and the county. To date, we have put to work more than 70,000 people, we have managed more than $300 million. And we put that money back out on the street through programs for young people, for seniors, for people over 50 who would like to get back to work, and everybody in between. So that's us, sort of in a nutshell. My parents divorced by the time I was two. So I was raised by my mom as a single parent. We moved 19 times by the time I was 18. And many of those were due to evictions. She worked really, really hard. She worked long hours, and I remember being a kid, saying, you're never home, you don't go to my stuff, right? And that was my shortsightedness, cuz as a kid, it was like, I want you to do these things that I like, I need these touch points. And for her, it was about trying to make ends meet, to make sure we had a roof over our head, and that I stayed in the same school. That at least if we moved around, I could still be in the same school environment and have some stability in that respect. I was a good student, I loved school, and I wanted to go to Northwestern. That was the school I wanted to go to cuz that's where the smart kids from my high school had gone, and I was like, I wanna be just like them. And so I wound up going to Northwestern, my dream school. I wound up becoming the second African-American student government president there, and so I graduated from college in 1991. Well, in 1990, this great new program sprang up for young adults called Teach for America. And I was selected to go teach in Compton, California between the years of 1991 and 1993, in the midst of the riots. So we had three drive-by shootings on our campus in the first five weeks of teaching, there were bullet holes in my classroom. I had 36 kids in my class, my kids were brilliant and underprivileged, and it was a phenomenal, life-changing experience. 

2019 ATTY
raised-by-single-parent
first-in-family
advanced-degree

Research! Be curious. Learn about the industry, identify people in it, and read about their journeys. In this digital age you can access almost anyone. Reach out to people, do informational interviews, make contacts. If you find it hard getting the initial job in the industry, volunteer at an organization in the field. Building a network of professionals in the field, coupled with building a reputation as a dedicated, curious, hard worker will all eventually lead to opportunity.

I struggled during my first year of law school. I missed the students I taught through Teach for America. I cried often and didn't know if I made the right decision. My former students sent me hand-drawn encouraging pictures, which got me through it.

While working as a litigator, I was diagnosed with a neurological disorder and lost my dream job. I was housebound, devastated, and had to move back home. It took a while, but I regained my health and went back to work.

No two days are the same. My days involve lots of meetings: some with my staff where I listen to their suggestions and ideas while providing guidance; some with elected officials; some with funders who support our initiatives; some with Board members or business leaders. The most important aspect of my work is building or modifying the framework that makes connections between people seeking jobs and employers seeking to hire them.

You won't be any better of a lawyer than you are a teacher.

Experience

My Journey Into Teaching

Did you ever have a moment where you felt like you were down and you probably had to reach to somebody else to help uplift you? &gt;&gt; Man, I've gone through so many I don't wanna do this anymore. It took friends that understood me as an individual. They didn't judge me. They would just come and say, hey, Di, how are you doing? Even when I became a machinists, it was more or less of me being in the community of Rogers park on the north side of Chicago. A couple of other females in the neighborhood happened to ask me, if I would like to go to an event that was going on. It was called a woman in workplace, and we got a chance to talk with women who were construction workers. Masons, plumbers, electricians, so on so forth, women is telling you, hey, I make $35 an hour. I'm ready to flip the table. I wanna know how you make a $35 now, how are you doing? Whoa, you know what I'm saying? But I happen to come across one of the coordinators here at Jane Addams Resource Corporation and as I was thinking of going into pipe fitting. I think I got about five six cards from Jane Addams, like hey here, you might want to check it out, so I came in their skill training that is given out for free in welding, CNC, which is Computer Numerical Control, metalworking skills. And you get all assets training hands on in order to be able to go out with the skills to be able to get full time employment. I learned a lot and it wasn't even so much as the skill of manufacturing, been able to cut wood, paper. It was the skill of having the confidence to be able to go out and be able to get a job. For me, it is hands on, I am very hands on, I prefer for you to give me the answer, just tell me what it is that I need to do. Because once I know this, we can work together to be able to make it easier, so I can give the answer to the next person and make it easy on them and we can keep it going and going that way. Pay it forward. 

Do your research. With the technology we have today, anyone can find positive resources. Utilize the organizations, libraries, churches, and schools in your neighborhood, city, and state.

Life was unstable growing up. My parents struggled with alcoholism. My mom was in a toxic relationship with my sister's dad. We often didn't have gas/heat at home and were in and out of shelters. At 18, I moved in with a friend to turn things around.

I enjoyed all four years of high school but unfortunately didn't end up graduating because I didn't have the stability I needed in my home life. I eventually got my GED and it's still a goal of mine to get a college degree.

Home Health Care Provider

You're fat. You're poor. You're Black. You can't afford it.

Talent

How I Became A Machinist

Why did you choose the name Year Up? &gt;&gt; So, conceptually it was a year in which students could go up, right? So, there's a progress they could do well. And so I tried to test that name, I brought a group of young people together and just about everyone said, I get it, it's a year program, you go up. I think the question is, why a year, right? And I think the year to me was a symbol that this is not a one, two week program, right? We're working with folks who are developing their attitudes, their behaviors, their communication skills. It's experiential, you don't just get taught it. You have to live it, and as you live it, it becomes who you are. If you do a habit enough times it becomes your character. And so at Year Up, it's really helping young people to take those habits, turn them into their character as to who they are. 

Work for a great social entrepreneur as their assistant, even if it is a job you think you are over-qualified to hold. You will do and learn a bunch of interesting things, get great exposure, and make some awesome contacts.

Financial challenges have a way of focusing the mind. In my case, I vowed that I would get myself out of debt and was pretty focused on achieving that. Once I did that, it was a lot easier to turn my attention to fully serving others.

Half my time is external with donors, corporate partners, and other key stakeholders. The other half of my time is spent internally on culture, strategy, management, and people.

CEO 

Character

Starting Year Up

My journey into adulthood, I have been quite lucky. I have a huge support system behind me. My family is incredible. My community, I'm just so lucky to be surrounded by great people. I was born and raised in the Bronx, a single parent, so my dad wasn't around for much of what I remember to be my childhood, but honestly, I really just remember the good things. I remember hanging out with my mom a lot, eating dry cereal, watching TV at the box. I remember playing with my bike indoors. But in retrospect, now that I'm an adult and now that I'm a mother myself, I can see where the hardship were, like the sacrifices my mother made or what she might have been going through at the time. I was playing indoors because we didn't live in a good neighborhood. We were eating cereal out the box because maybe she couldn't afford the milk at the time. So growing up and acknowledging those things, it makes me feel like I need to make all those sacrifices she did worthwhile. 

Hands-on experience is valuable in this field. I suggest shadowing or providing coverage for a local assistant.

My doctors realized that I might have been experiencing some postpartum depression with my second pregnancy. The pregnancy was actually pretty hard for me. Fortunately, I have a very strong support system at home that really helped me through it.

There’s never really a typical day. There’s no telling what kind of tasks I might be expected to manage on a given day. Over all, I am responsible for making sure my executive is working at their most optimal level and has everything they need to be fully efficient. 

Senior Executive Assistant

Family

Using Past Experiences As Motivation

How did your parents life choices affect you growing up? &gt;&gt; It's interesting because now that I'm 28 years old, you're going to get a different answer than you would have got for me when I was 18. And it's because having a mother who deals with a drug addiction, is a little shameful, you know when you're in class and like parent, teacher conference comes up and your parents don't show up. And then the other parents of the other children do. And it's like why, my mom not here? And the kids are like, I never met your mom, and I'm like, well yeah, well I don't see her often. And as a kid, it's really hard to articulate that kind of stuff. Watching them make those mistakes and knowing what was happening, it made me never want to do that. So, to this day I've never used a drug and I've never been to jail. Because, I see the destruction that happened in their life. And when you come from these kind of backgrounds, you understand that these are not traditional backgrounds and the outcome is really weighing against you, is probably nine times out of ten gonna be a negative outcome. And we see this happen across this country day in and day out. You have to rise above it. That's what it really becomes. It's like, what am I going to be like, just another statistic and it's like somebody's got to break their curse. And I think that's been my calling to politics. If you give people options they will take them, it's when people don't have the options they do normalize you know cultural norms. Lived experiences has dictate the way I view the world. The way I will position myself in conversations or the knowledge that I will offer comes all from the lived experience. And that's what's the difference between being 18 and being 28. Time is the best weapon you will ever, ever possess. Because once you lose it, you can't get it back. But the circumstances that I've been through, have been able to give me opportunity to obtain this knowledge. I made mistakes, I made a lot of mistakes. There's things still to this day I could think of and just be like. If I knew then what I know now, I would have done something totally different. And I think it's also about being honest. You got to be honest in your faults. You got to remember, even if I made a mistake today, I would still look at it like I'm 28 years old, I'm young. As long as it ain't like life altering devastation. I can bounce back from that. You're going to make a lot of mistakes. Because it's going to happen. Your job is to learn from those mistakes. 

Network and volunteer. Try your best to get hands-on experience. I suggest starting by volunteering on a few local races and then identify what part of a campaign you would like to do.

My mother struggled with addiction throughout my whole life and my father was incarcerated for most of my life, so I was raised by my grandmother. I used my parents as examples of how I didn't want my life to turn out.

I was the first in my family to graduate from high school and go to college. My first try at community college was a struggle and I dropped out because I didn't have enough support. Years later, I gave Year Up's program and try and graduated.

My grandmother passed away from liver cancer shortly after I graduated high school. I was suddenly on my own and had to fully support myself. I dropped out of college and waited tables in multiple restaurants for years before going back to school.

I schedule events, interviews, community events, and meetings. A lot of my schedule is spent on "call time" to raise money for the campaign. I also spend time canvassing and knocking on doors in various neighborhoods to raise awareness about the campaign.

Political Campaign Manager

Struggle

Rising Above Hard Life Experiences

Can you tell me how it was stepping into your first internship or corporate experience? &gt;&gt; I felt like it was really intimidating at first, because I was at a big corporation. I definitely felt it walking in I was just another intern and a lot of that gives like this perception to others that you can't do the full workload. And I felt that a lot, at first. So I was actually the first intern at that corporate partner. So they were still trying to navigate the relationship and figure out what it looks like. And I feel like a lot of organizations struggle with this like, okay, we have this intern here, we're doing a great thing. But what are we really enabling to do? Are we just gonna give him some busy work and I really wanted to do more and what really made a difference for me just was wanting to be involved. So I would talk to people and say like hey is there anything I could pick up from you, anything I could do, anything I can learn? And we actually had like a huge backlog, so it was a ticketing system and backlog cases and I said, you know what, I'll take these one by one. No one wanted to do them and I just did it one by one and I finished the whole thing and they're like, wow you're done and I'm like yeah I'm done. Like what else can I do? I just kept on coming back, what else can I do? What else can I do? What else can I do and I was like on it like, all the time. And even sometimes on the weekend, [INAUDIBLE] weekend projects and I wasn't getting paid for that, I was just there. I wanted to be part of the team. And I think until you realize that you are part of the team and they realize that you also can be part of the team too, that relationship is never gonna be successful. It's definitely a two way street. But I remember leaving there feeling really empowered feeling like yeah, I learned something. Yeah, I did something really great. 

Pursuing certifications can greatly accelerate your career and make you more appealing to employers. Also, remember that a job interview isn't just for a potential employer to get to know you; it's also an opportunity for you to interview them and figure out if you could be happy there.

Both of my parents are immigrants and didn't speak English well. A lot of my childhood was spent helping my family navigate life in the U.S. It was tedious at times but I realize now that all the work is to benefit my family and create a better life.

I graduated from high school shortly before the 2008 recession. I had a newborn baby and was struggling to make ends meet. I felt like I had very few options until Year Up opened up doors for me.

I spend most of my time having conversations with customers and understanding their needs. This can be a combination of conference calls or on-site meetings. During our conversations, we could be discussing an upcoming project / initiative or I could be demonstrating an AWS service that is of interest to them.

Solutions Architect

Desire

Determination

My First Experience As An Intern In A Corporate Setting

So I come from Chicago, south side of Chicago. I grew up right by the water. My mom had me young so I kind of felt like we were raising each other in a lot of ways. She had me in 19. And had lost both her parents by the time she was 21. So, it was kind of the two of us against the world in a lot of ways. And, she ends up getting remarried to my stepdad and having my little brother. And so, life wasn't always easy, I would say. I think they always tried their best to make sure that we had everything that they could give us. And, while we couldn't afford a lot of plane tickets to fly places, they always make sure that we hopped in the car and could get away. Cuz getting away was really their biggest push for us to show us things and give us access to worlds that they didn't have. And, I think the theme of access is really the piece of it that I latched on to at a very early age. And I realized access is what sets us apart from one another, right, like what we've been able to see and experience versus people who sit right next to us. I went to my high school went to Kenwood Academy in Chicago, and that's another kind of access point, right? So it was not my neighborhood school. My neighborhood school was not a place that my parents wanted me to attend. So, I had to figure out a way to get into the school. So they come home and they're like, great news. We got you in school. The only catch is that you have to take a foreign language for all four years and I said, okay, Spanish, French, and they're like Japanese, I'm like what? So I had to agree to take Japanese for all four years. And I think that's what access comes up again for me. You don't see very many folks that look like me who speak Japanese. And I got an opportunity to do things that my parents really couldn't afford for me to do, but sacrificed so that I could have experiences that really lended themselves to my ability to kind of get out and see the world. So I got a chance to go to Japan. I'm a minor in Japanese in college. It wasn't super easy. I thought the only thing I had to do was like show up to college, and the rest would figure itself out and that is just not how it worked and I messed up and got bad grades. [LAUGH] Like my freshman year college and my mom was like, you got to come home. And so, after two years, I found myself back in Chicago having to work in a back office that had no windows with people who were very disgruntled. And, it was probably the single most eye opening experience because I had a choice to make, like do I want for this to be my reality? Or do I want to figure something else out? I kept saying to myself, what's the one thing you know, what's the one thing you've learned and all of these experiences? You know that opportunities are out there and you know that experiences create pathways to access. And so, how can I give other people the gift of access? And so I thought teaching was the best way to go about doing that 

Shadow someone in the field through an internship or summer job. Talk to people and network. Remember to be polished and professional.

I struggled to adapt when I moved away for college. I ended up dropping out, moved back home, and got a job but knew I didn't want to be stuck there. I eventually went back to school and worked hard to graduate at the same time as my former class.

I serve as the face of Per Scholas in the National Capital Region, representing Per Scholas in regional conferences, meetings, and media opportunities. I develop and lead our local fundraising strategy as well as the implementation of our annual operating plan. I lead a team and facilitate regular performance management, professional development, and team meetings. I also prepare, manage, and grow the annual program budget.

Managing Director

Are you sure that's what you want to do? There's no way you're going to succeed at that.

Education

Opportunity

Opportunities Create Pathways To Access

What role do you think that, I don't wanna call it luck but coincidence, plays in any individual success? &gt;&gt; What do they say, fortune favours the prepared? Unfortunately no, its what, 90% hard work- &gt;&gt; Where opportunity meets skills? &gt;&gt; Yes, exactly, between having done land development work, and being a small business owner, and having worked in Washington, DC, and in the political environment where I understand the politics of that. Having the public civil engineering background, working at the city of Las Vegas, but then having served as president of ASC where it was all over the nation I did interviews for BBC, I did interviews for NBC News, I did interviews for CNN, all of that prepared me for this role. Now, could the timing have been different? if there wasn't a new administration, I mean, timing definitely played, that all of that lined up to the right timing. &gt;&gt; Do you think that'll happen naturally for everyone, if you're doing the right things to prepare? &gt;&gt; I think if you're prepared, you're going to have a much better chance of having alignment of success. All of these things led to me being able to be available and ready for the position when it was ready for me. 

Meet with an engineer and ask what they do and why. Then meet another and ask the same questions. Our career is very broad so while one area may not be interesting to you, another might exactly line up with your passion.

I think the key to work-life balance is realizing that you can do it all over time but you can't do it all at once. I've sacrificed relationships in order to pursue my interests, but that's a choice I made because I wanted to pursue those things.

My day includes a lot of meetings and preparation. The issues being discussed are largely big picture policy items and not the tactical day-to-day decisions, though some of those happen too. The focus is on how to best spend the limited resources we have (primarily human and funding) to ensure that the state's transportation system is best meeting the needs of everyone using it.

Director

You switch jobs too frequently. You're intimidating.

Experience

My Journey Into Teaching

My Journey Into Teaching

Karin Norington-Reaves

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