Where will you be living next year, and what will you be doing?
Jax

What will you be doing?
In 1989, I dropped out of law school to co-found our real estate company as operating broker. I was 23. Some 35 years later, after meeting milestones professionally and successfully co-guiding our youngest and sixth child into college, I decided to pivot within our company to expand on a small, but vibrant component of our company-community advancement. I stepped away from brokering commercial real estate acquisitions between a seller and our company as buyer. Instead, I brokered connections by identifying gaps or needs in our community and partnering our substantial commercial/professional tenant base with our resources to solve problems. Our team became very adept at ameliorating immediate community problems in the short term. However, it also became apparent that we were not adequately prepared to address chronic stressors that were often a part of the broader issues in the populations we served: housing/food insecurity, addiction, neglect, mental health issues, etc. I made the decision that to be a better servant, I needed to return to school. Three years later after choosing HES, my capstone was a workshop series/facilitator handbook for First Generation Low Income College Students to Motivate Positive Spending/Saving of Scholarship/Award Monies Through the Lens of Navigating Multiple Identities. The program was developed through empirical data which reflects the unique obstacles that F.G.L.I. college students may be at a higher risk for than their continuing generation student peers: imposter syndrome, family achievement guilt and survivor’s guilt. I created the program to compliment the framework of FYSEP at Dartmouth College that addresses cultural capital gaps for FGLI college freshmen. I am actively working with Dartmouth to implement the program next fall. I am hopeful that the knowledge and skills I acquired through the outstanding HES faculty, teaching assistants and student peers, will be used for good. I fully anticipate and am committed to the program’s inaugural implementation at Dartmouth and that it will be adapted to other colleges and universities throughout the country.

What advice do you have for Harvard HES students, now that you have graduated?
When I first reviewed the requirements to the program, I almost didn’t apply because of two words: Intermediate Statistics. I had not taken a formal math class since 1986. Then I regrouped, assessed my weakness and decided to enroll at the local junior college to take Intro to Statistics before I tackled Intermediate Stats. I cringe to think that I may have missed one of the most dynamic experiences of my life because of a temporary gap.

In what ways has your Harvard Extension degree impacted your career?
My Harvard Extension degree has poised me to be a more efficient and effective public service leader. Through creative initiatives, I now have the resources and empirical evidence to better serve.