I hesitated to write this, but through Carol’s encouragement, I am writing about the circle of my life.
We all have a circle of life…as I write this, it comes more clear to me how the experiences I will share with you have impacted my circle and have caused me to be the person I am today.
My Circle…
Being born in Birmingham, Alabama during the height of segregation in the 1940’s was a time when the Southern section of our country was in a state between post slavery and the end of World War II.
As I became conscious of this over the past years, I have realized that I was blessed to have been exposed to the experiences that the time and place of my birth offered me. As a child I knew that we were under a deeply oppressed environment, while at the same time there was a dignity among my people that transcended the oppression we experienced.
I was blessed to have a grandmother who constantly told me how smart and intelligent I was. She allowed me to discuss issues with her from religion to politics. She was very political and was always a Republican! She became a voter in Birmingham pre the civil rights movement.
I remember when she went to the court house to take the voting test. Boy, had she prepared for it! She basically had to remember the entire Constitution of the United States in order to past the voting test. As most of you are aware, pre the voting rights act, African Americans in the segregated south were not allowed to vote unless they passed an extremely difficult test. Well she passed it!
She also took me on train trips when I was young. Trips to New York City, Washington D.C., and Massachusetts are the ones I remember the most. I remember how proud she was when she got the chance to meet Vice President Nixon…had she lived to see him as president, not sure how happy she would have been.
On one of these trips, Nan (my grandmother’s name), met May (a Caucasian lady from Missouri). They became great friends on that trip. They both had so much in common…crocheting and naturopathic medicine. They were constant companions on that trip!
When we returned home, they continued their relationship by phone and mail. My grandmother went to visit May, and met her family. I remember my grandmother discussing May coming to visit us with my grandfather. My grandfather said no! “We can’t have no white lady coming to visit us!” My grandmother cried, and I cried. I never forgot this and was very mad at my grandfather.
As an adult I grew to understand his reasoning. This occurred during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham. If you remember from history, Birmingham represented the heart of the segregated south! The things that were happening there were not pretty. My grandfather’s not allowing May to visit was based on the above reality. My grandmother and May remained friends until my grandmother’s death.
A lesson I learned from this, is that love has no racial boundaries. (Although, as you will see later…as a young adult I became a staunch Black Nationalist!)
During those times other lessons I learned were the importance of honest work and that ALL work as well as all human beings have dignity; in school we were taught that we had to be the best academically; and that there was nothing that stood in the way of our achieving our goals!
The segregated high school I attended had the worse football team in our league…know why? Because we had a principal who was about 5ft. 6in. tall, and did not allow any craziness at all! To be on the team you had to have at least a B- average. It was so funny, because the boys in our band were larger in size than the boys on the football team!
Because of the times I grew up in, and the influence my grandmother had on me I wanted to be a Lawyer. She said that by becoming a lawyer, I would be in a position to help “my people”. In high school there were no counselors… much less career counselors!
So, off to college I went and majored in Political Science, with every intention of going to law school after getting my Bachelor’s degree. My parents with assistance from my grandparents sent me to college.
To assist with my tuition and other expenses, I got a job from the newspaper the summer after graduating from high school. I was 17 years old, and full of confidence! I had sought employment that summer in Birmingham, but no one would hire me. I did not have the typical southern African American attitude or speech pattern, so even work as a maid was out for me.
The job in the newspaper was for work in New York. My father was vehement that I should not go to New York at my age and lack of experience. However, my mother backed me up and I went.
This was an experience I will never forget! I went to New York and worked as a mother’s helper for two summers and as a hotel maid for one summer. As a mother’s helper I met older African American women who always encouraged me and were proud that I was in college. They took me under their wings in those formative years.
(Some of the other experiences I had during those summers would not be appropriate to share in this article. So, my father had a point about lack of experience…lol.)
The hotel experience was great! It was a small facility (motel/restaurant) on Long Island, and was owned and run by an Italian family. The food was fantastic! Once again I found support! The lady whose family owned it encouraged me in my efforts, and at the end of the summer, she bought me an entire wardrobe for the next school year!
Because my jobs were live-in ones, I saved enough money each year to pay one quarter’s tuition, and buy my clothes for the coming school year. While doing this work I never felt like a loser!
Some of our young feel like losers simply because they do not want to go to a four year college! Or when they can only find what we call menial labor jobs. We have to come up with a real definition for loser! Because not going to a four year college or doing certain kinds of work does not a loser make.
Today, it is so important for our young people to understand the dignity of honest labor, no matter what the work may be. Opportunities are always around us. It pains me to see how many of our young feel hopeless.
My first career after college was as a Social Studies teacher in Detroit Michigan. I taught at the middle school level. I fell in love with this age group! They are so energetic, and honest. This is where I changed my career goal from law to counseling.
After teaching for a year, I felt I could better help my people by becoming a counselor. I saw kids who were floundering in every way. The principal asked for a volunteer from the Social Studies department to provide students with information on careers. This is around 1968. I volunteered for this task. I then enrolled in the graduate counseling program at Wayne State University, with the intention of becoming a school counselor.
My life as a middle school teacher is another entire story, but it has influenced the rest of my career/life up to this very day!
This is also when I became a Black Nationalist, began to wear my hair in its natural form, and gave heart burn to my parents and anyone who knew me who was not a Nationalist!
I moved to San Francisco, California in the early 1970’s. San Francisco took my breath away! I had never seen a place like it. This multi-cultural environment was simply awe inspiring for me!
I lived with members of my family when I arrived. My aunt told me about the city and did the best she could to assist me.
The first place she took me was to the San Francisco Social Services office. I asked her was this a place where she thought I could find employment. She said no, I am taking you here because this is where we take all the family members when they come out here. (Her household was where all of our family made their first stop when any of us moved to California.)
I asked her, “why?” She said, “in order to get welfare”. I said, “Get welfare!” She said, “Yes, everybody applied for it and got it.” (Her family was not on welfare. My uncle owned a small salvage company.) I said, “You know, I don’t think that will work for me.” (I had no clue what welfare was really. In Alabama when I grew up welfare was unheard of! There was no such thing, at least as far as I knew.)
She took me there anyway. When I met with the social worker, and discussed my situation with her, she said, “Well, here is what we can do for you. We will buy you a bus ticket back to either Michigan or Alabama and give you $20 for food.” At this point she and I both fell out laughing, she wished me good luck in California, and I left the office.
Next my aunt, knowing I had been a teacher in Detroit, thought I might be able to get a teaching job at San Francisco State which was walking distance from her home. I laughed, and told her: “I don’t think I can get a job teaching there, but I will go down there and look around.”
That’s exactly what I did! I was blundering around the campus, and asked someone where I could find the personnel office. I guess they mistook me for a student, and directed me to the placement center.
I went there, and just began to look at the job posting they had on the board. The secretary in the office noticed me and started to talk to me. We had quite a conversation, and I told her about myself and my past experience including work with middle school students on their career goals while teaching. She said, “Wait here a minute I am going to speak with the assistant director of the placement center.”
When she returned, she asked me if I would be willing to speak with him. I said, “Of course.” I went to meet with him. He offered me coffee and we had a great and relaxing conversation for about 45 minutes to an hour. Then he asked me if I would like a job at the placement center. I said, “what!?” He laughed and said yes, here.
Needless to say, I was floored and elated! I began my job as a placement counselor at San Francisco State the following week!
(This was my first experience in doing a job search. I was recruited from Tennessee State by the Detroit School System while still in college, so I hadn’t looked for employment since discovering the summer jobs in New York. I was practicing what I later learned was Dick Bolles’ theory of the hidden job market without even being aware of it.)
In fact the hidden job market is how I have gotten most, not all, of my jobs during my career.
One of my co-workers at the placement center told me about a career counselor opening at Mills College in Oakland. I contacted them and was later hired as the career counselor at the newly opened women’s center on campus. While there, the center sent me to Overland, Kansas to what I think may have been one of the first training sessions in Skills Identification given by Richard Bolles!
That was truly an enlightening experience! I have been a believer in this process ever since! It actually works! It works when you and your client(s) are willing to put in the time and effort it requires. The discoveries you mine are career and life changing. To me, this process is timeless.
From Mills, I joined the staff of a program that was funded under the CETA Program in San Francisco. The director of the program contacted Dick Bolles, and asked him to recommend someone who he felt could assist him in setting up a job search program based upon Dick’s Skills Identification Process. Dick recommended that he contact me. This was shortly after the Overland, Kansas training I had attended.
The program was structured around a two week classroom environment where students were taken through an intense skills identification process based upon a written account of their past accomplishments. These accomplishments could have been gained through legal or illegal endeavors.
The classes were composed of ex-offenders, new immigrants, current welfare recipients, and other unemployed citizens.
This process is extremely empowering for those who feel that they have no skills, and are therefore unemployable. They leave this process with a much more positive self-concept.
During this time I got married! My husband and I were pretty wild people during this time of lives, but it was lots of fun!
Career wise, I worked for Oakland Unified School District as Assistant Affirmative Action Officer. My task was to work with buildings and grounds primarily in getting women jobs with this crew. I remember working with this young Caucasian woman who filed a complaint because she was denied employment as a gardener with the district.
It was great doing the investigation. I took her over to the University of San Francisco where she was given physical tasks including lifting, bending and stamina routines, all of which she passed with flying colors! Need I say…she was employed as a gardener with the district! She and I went out and celebrated together.
Next, I accepted an opportunity to work for the Urban League in Berkeley, California. In this position, I placed clients in training programs. Man was this interesting! I placed someone in deep sea diving school. I got the chance to visit the school and try on the gear… it was so heavy, I couldn’t move!
As an aside, I had learned how to work the hidden job market, and I was moving from position to position fairly rapidly. I was having a great time!
Now if you notice from a career perspective, after leaving teaching… all of my career opportunities were in some realm of job and training placement; and then career counseling.
The discoveries I made were that neither my gender nor my ethnicity were ever a barrier. This learning is critical when we work with clients today, many of whom see so much of life as a barrier. As I move through my career experiences, I am recalling how just having the nerve to venture out will often lead to success.
One Saturday afternoon my husband returned home with a Holy Quran. I asked why… “Well, I’ve been curious about Islam for a while, and just decided to purchase the Holy Quran to learn more”, he said.
Needless to say, I became quite animated, and said in no uncertain terms, “well if you think I am going to walk five steps behind you, and become totally submissive, you are very mistaken!” I then took the book from him, marched into our bedroom, locked the door, got on the bed, and open the Holy Quran. I noticed it was in chapters. I began reading Al Nisa, which means The Women in English.
When I completed the chapter, I went to my husband and gave the Holy Quran to him. I said, “I am ready to become a Muslim.” He nearly fainted!
About a year and a half later, we decided to leave California.
We landed in Florida, after a few adventures, I will not share in this article. Florida was beautiful and sunny and we were unemployed. So, it was like an extended honeymoon until we ran out of money.
I checked the newspaper and saw a job at a place called the Florida Sherriff’s Boys Ranch. It was for a married couple, who would be relief house parents. I decided to apply.
The Ranch contacted me and asked us to come up for an interview. My husband was both surprised that we got the interview, and did not want to go to the Ranch for it. He had issues with working at a Sheriff’s Ranch.
I talked him into going, and away we went. It was located in a little small town in the Florida Panhandle area. The Ranch was absolutely beautiful! The grass was tall and so dark green it looked almost navy blue.
The interview was an overnight stay. We were applying for a relief cottage parent’s position. The person in charge of hiring was Mr. McDaniel. We had a meeting with him after dinner. After this initial interview, he took us to visit the cottages which needed relief parents. We meet both the boys and the regular house parents. The boys called house parents mom and pop-last name.
At one of the cottages (by the way, a cottage was a very large brick range style house), we were introduced as Mom and Pop Griffin (our last name at that time). A little blond haired boy about six years old, looked at us, then looked at Mr. McDaniel… and said, “Mr. McDaniel, we got to call these “N” words, mom and pop?” Mr. McDaniel turned five shades of blood red, and Jahmal and I fell out laughing. It was a hilarious situation to us.
Mr. McDaniel, asked Robin, the little boy who used the “N” word to apologize.
Afterwards, we asked McDaniel if the ranch had ever hired an African American couple as house parents, he said no…none had ever applied! He hired us that night. This is around 1978.
The Ranch was a very interesting, experience, and worthy of a short novel. Most of the house parents were retirees. The regular parents lived at the cottages they managed. Each cottage had between 10-14 boys. What surprised me was that none of these boys were orphaned or foster children. They were all brought to the Ranch, by parents or guardians. We worked there about five months.
When we left, both us and the boys, we worked with cried. We loved them, and they loved us. Remember Stevie Wonder’s “With a Child’s Heart”…
Career Lesson: These jobs at Sheriff’s Ranches can be a viable employment option for retired couples; or couples who don’t have children. They are located in many states.
Now I get to what has become the heart of my career path. It’s as if everything up to this point was a preparation.
I was hired as the Career Information Liaison for the Florida Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (FLOICC) in 1979/80. My position was one of insuring the data quality of the Florida Career Information Delivery System (FLCIDS). This is when computerized career information systems were in their infancy.
This marked my first exposure to computers. I took a few computer science courses, and much enjoyed my work at the FLOICC.
Eleanor Morgenthau was the FLOICC Director. Eleanor allowed me as well as the entire FLOICC staff, to travel and learn. She provided us with a very empowering environment, in which I thrived. I learned that I truly enjoyed career information, the data behind career decision making. The taxonomies that we dealt with on a daily basis became like an art for me. I realized that this was where I belonged. I was like a fish that had finally found water!
I had been working at the FLOICC for approximately two years, when an announcement came across my desk from Montana. The Chancellor’s Office of Higher Education was seeking a director for the Montana Career Information System. I found the job description interesting and took it home to discuss it with my husband.
He said, “Why don’t you apply?” I responded, “Montana?” His response was “sure, you can do it!” I wasn’t sure. We did some research on Montana, and realized how remote, yet how beautiful it was.
Being the adventurous spirits that we were, I decided to apply. I was invited up for an interview shortly after my application was received.
The interviewing team was composed of a group of the most wonderful people I have ever known! Just thinking about the experience brings tears to my eyes. This is in 1981.
It was an enjoyable interview, but a difficult process…however the committee was determined. It seems that the chancellor could not understand why the team wanted to hire me all the way from Florida.
I guess it was kind of strange to him, considering that I was an African American Muslim, and living way down south in Florida…go figure! The determined interviewing team won, and I was hired!
When we told friends and family about the move, they all asked us these two questions: “Why do you want to move there? It’s cold, and there are no African Americans or Muslims there! So why are you leaving here?” My husband and I jokingly told them: “You’re right! And that’s exactly why we are moving there!” They all thought we were crazy and just stared at us.
My Montana experience is something I will treasure until the day I die. Because of the people and the environment that I grew to love, I am so grateful to God for the time I spent there.
Once again, my career is stirred by just having the nerve to try!
I am currently director of the EUREKA Career Information System in California. As a very dear person in Montana said in a banner he made for my going away party, “The shortest distance between Florida and California, comes through Montana!” That statement has always resonated with me, because the beginnings of this lifelong passion started in California, and just may end here. (smile)
Marilyn Maze, the creator of the MicroSkills career assessment strategy was instrumental in my coming to EUREKA. Marilyn was the original director of EUREKA.
Unlike a lot of the early state based career information systems, EUREKA was and remains a 501-C3 Non-Profit Corporation. When Marilyn decided to resign, she sent me a copy of the job announcement, I applied, and this is where I have been since 1986.
EUREKA as an organization represents life in the United States at its best! It was founded by a group of counselors from high schools and community colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area. They took it upon themselves to find a tool that could better assist them in the delivery of career guidance services to their students. This was in 1977/78.
Through research they found a computerized system that was being operated at the University of Oregon, and was developed by Dr. Bruce McKinley, a pioneer in the field. Through contacting Dr. McKinley, they were sent computer tapes which would deliver the content to the participating schools.
NOTE: Remember, this is the late 1970’s. Computers are in their infancy, especially in educational environments at the secondary school level. There was no competition, information was freely shared. The CIS system was one of the first and perhaps the longest lasting original system that is still fully operational.
The EUREKA founders were fiercely independent and refused grants from the state that would have placed EUREKA under state control, and thus we remain an independent organization today.
Being the independent character that I am, EUREKA was/is an ideal fit for me. And it allows us, as a staff the freedom to try to come up with a level of out of the box thinking that we are just now beginning to embark upon. We are no longer just in California, but have sites in other states, and as well as a few outside of the US. The field of career information delivery has changed tremendously.
From a career perspective, this is the both the best of times, and the worst of times. I am now faced with the realities of what a business is like in a highly competitive market. It is exciting as now at such a “young age”, I have the opportunity to learn how to think and behave like a young entrepreneur running a go fast start-up! Please wish me well in this new role.
As Muslims we are taught that life means learning from the cradle to the grave… and I now know this to be absolutely true. I am now learning to think like an entrepreneur, after having the mindset of a teacher, counselor, and researcher for this many years.
In summation, through all of my career experiences, I still find so much of what John Krumboltz and Richard Bolles have so eloquently prescribed through the years, to be so true!
We recently sponsored a webinar for college students. The fear levels of both our young and old are so high! The current doom and gloom atmosphere in the country is so depressing for so many of us, it just makes me MAD! Here is a direct quote from one of the participants: “Wow, you guys are amazing. I’ve been my industry for 15 years and was recently laid off. I’m trying to get over the fear for something new. I am so glad I decided to attend today. Thank you guys!!”
We as professionals know that life is never hopeless! People are gaining or learning ways to survive every day. Never have we as a profession been more needed. If we can just assist our clients and students in first just seeing, and then taking advantage of the “Acres of Diamonds” all around them; (This is especially true when working with people who feel disenfranchised.); we can then go to the hereafter knowing we have indeed performed a job well done!
It is my sincere hope that this little piece of my life, neither bored or disturbed you, and that my sharing will assist you in some small way with appreciating yourself and your work even more than you may already.
With much love,
Sumyyah.
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