So, David tell me a little bit about your
Y journey? So my first shot with the Y was actually as a summer camp counselor
and that was in I think like 2011 and that eventually led into an internship
with our business office. I loved it so much
that I had asked around the business office to see if anybody knew of any job
positions opening up and that's when they referred me to
work at the Rauner YMCA. I got the interview, you know got the job,
did membership at the front desk. I was the supervisor at the front desk.
Angel was Executive Director at Rauner and he got moved over to lead McCormick
and I was one of the people that he brought over to work here at
McCormick. So that's what kind of led into me
eventually becoming a Membership Director here
which is definitely a great opportunity for me.
You know when I was a teenager in the Y,
you know I was actually part of black and latino achievers.
They gave us opportunity to go on a college tour during spring break
they packed I think it was about 30 kids or so
into a coach bus and took us all the way from Chicago, you know the South Side Y,
all the way to Washington DC. We saw quite a few colleges.
It was honestly one of the first times I had to get a trip like
that out of Chicago. Something I wouldn't have been able to get anywhere else.
Especially living
in the South Side of Chicago. You know it's not like we had the
resources to be able to go on these college tours. Some kids get
that opportunity. Definitely not something that was readily available to
us. Those programs helped me a lot
and they did prepare me to be you know a better man.
So being able to come back into the Y in a
leadership position has given me this opportunity to bring back a program that
helped me that's my story too in terms of
how do I help develop me. So I think it is continuing the tradition if you will
of what organizations that steeped in the youth development work. I mean
that's what George Williams did when he first founded the YMCA. He was thinking
about those young folks so that principle, that practice
that is still part impartial about who we are. It's in our DNA. So I'm glad to
see and hear that you're putting forth a very
extremist effort to bring that back effectively.
You know you have a lot of experience moving up in the Y,
what kind of advice would you like to give me
in regards to you know growing as a leader? So I would say to you one
continue to broaden your skill set that you're doing internally learning
different aspects of your operation. Two don't limit yourself to the YMCA at
Metropolitan Chicago because there are great opportunities outside because as a
YMCA professional those skills are transferable. You can work anywhere.
And three, continue to be curious because
I see that in you that curiosity and that's a great skill to have because
it's going to help you build the kinds of skills you need to be successful.
So if I come back here five years from now,
what's going to be different about McCormick YMCA? What I'm looking to do
right now especially is just to listen to the members and to listen to the
community. We're positioned to really help this community. You know we have a
fantastic facility with a great leadership team. You know a very
young and passionate team. So I'm hoping that we can just make strides to just
reach out to community and serve them in whatever way they feel is best
especially with this experience of becoming a director and seeing how
things you know work at the management level.
I'm just very excited to be with the Y and to stay with the Y so it's an
experience that I'm extremely grateful to have. Well one of the things that I'm
proud of is it's really exciting to see the talent
that we have in our organization and that to me is what's going to make the
organization continue not to just survive but I think the talent that I've
seen the passion the skill sets that each of you bring to the organization
will give us the opportunity to thrive futuristically and so I'm extremely
excited about that. I just know that the Y's in great hands.