Alumni Spotlight: Raigon Wilson

This month we resume our monthly 21CL Alumni Spotlights with Alumna Raigon Wilson, a graduate of Marietta High School (2014) and of Howard University (2018). Raigon currently works alongside non-profits and NGOs as a nutritionist and community advocate for food security in oppressed and repressed populations. She says that she always cared about helping others and 21CL gave her the skill set she needed to really affect change!

Paint a brief picture of what you are doing now.

I’ve been working as a nutritionist and community advocate in public health and anti-hunger spaces. Alongside non-profits and NGOs, I develop and assess programming that promotes food security in oppressed and repressed populations. My career allowed me to serve in academic and professional fellowships in India, and most recently, Germany, through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange. The pandemic saw me back in the States earlier than expected, so I’m using this transitional period to become TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certified and volunteer with Marietta YELLS (Youth Empowerment through Learning, Leading, and Serving).

How did participating in 21CL transform you and lead you to where you are now?

I always cared about helping others, and 21CL gave me the skillset I needed to really affect change. I learned lessons as a high school student that built my confidence pursuing leadership positions, networking, and communicating with the public today. 21CL taught me the power of servant leadership, which is integral to the type of work I do.

How did 21CL prepare you for your next steps? Going into college and taking on leadership roles, heading into a new era of professionalism, etc. What skills/tools/perspectives have helped you along the way?

My senior year of high school, I was humbled to be recognized for my fundraising and community advocacy as a recipient of 21CL’s Georgia Youth Leadership Awards. This honor solidified my desire to begin a career of social justice. I knew how to sell myself through various application processes – for scholarships, e-board positions, and eventually, jobs – because I got to practice with professionals at 21CL. Now, tasks like leading grant projects seem like second nature to me.

Which programs did you participate in, and when? What skills did you gain or improve through those programs?

I participated in G5 @ Goizueta, the Emory business summer program that is known now as SYLI, in 2011. It was incredibly motivating to practice teamwork and public speaking with other ambitious students.

What was a memorable or ‘aha’ moment in 21CL? (Particular program, meeting a professional and diverse peers, speaking in public for the first time, etc.?

I will never forget the talent show we put on during the summer program! I remember thinking, our generation of leaders is smart, innovative, caring, and incredibly silly.

Did 21CL assist you in developing a leadership style that makes you an effective leader? if so how? And have you recently learned something else about leadership? Please share!

The mentorship I received through 21CL helped me to realize how my more “introverted” traits – perceptiveness, patience – can be used to be an effective leader. Leadership is such a fluid skill; I’m learning to find balance and be more adaptable in how I show up for myself as a professional, and for the causes I care so much about.

Alumni Spotlight: Jordan Schwartz

21CL Alumna Jordan Schwartz is a graduate of Atlanta Girls’ School (2011), of Bryn Mawr College (2015) and of University of Oregon (2017). She is a veteran stage actress and producer that began acting in 2nd grade and has appeared in about 32 productions. She is the founder of The Children’s Bilingual Theater, a student run theatrical outreach that since 2004 has been bringing bilingual programming to venues in the metro Atlanta area. The Children’s Bilingual Theater has produced 6 bilingual musicals and 15 storytelling and literacy events and has lead more than 200 volunteers as cast and crew that have reached over 6000 audience members. Jordan is also one of our 2008 Georgia Youth Leadership Award recipients and currently works as Associate Producing Director at Fonseca Theater Company in Indianapolis.

Paint a brief picture of what you are doing now.

I am Associate Producing Director, Fonseca Theater Company. In addition to logistical support of our main season (contracts, schedules, etc.), a lot of my focus is on nurturing our community and educational programs. Right now, we offer a youth drama class for ages 6-12, where students develop their own original play based on a theme – our most recent class focused on mysteries and detective stories. I also handle a range of daily administrative things within finance, development, and marketing.

How did participating in 21CL transform you and lead you to where you are now?

I was a Georgia Youth Leadership Award recipient in 2008; a lot has happened since then. After graduating from high school in 2011, I went to Bryn Mawr College from where I graduated in 2015 and then went on to the University of Oregon and in 2017 received my Master’s in Arts Administration with a concentration in Performing Arts Management.  After graduation, I joined the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis as Director of Literary Programs and Outreach. In 2018, Bryan Fonseca the Producing Director Emeritus of the Phoenix Theatre launched Fonseca Theatre Company and I joined this venture as Associate Producing Director and have the honor of also being an artistic director. The innovative structure of the company includes four artistic directors working with Bryan to bring diversity and inclusion from the arts community. The mission of the new theater is to “give voice to the disenfranchised in our community. The sharing of culture is essential to our nation’s health, and we will focus on work by and/or about minority artists to bring together the city’s growing minority communities.”

How did 21CL prepare you for your next steps? Going into college and taking on leadership roles, heading into a new era of professionalism, etc. What skills/tools/perspectives have helped you along the way?

The experiences and opportunities from 21st Century Leaders gave me the tools to continue on my learning and career paths. Leveraging Diversity is the most important skill I learned from 21CL. My work with The Fonseca Theatre Company brings my vision and work with The Children’s Bilingual Theater to a wonderful intersection. Our educational program is roughly 60 percent Latino, 30 percent African American, and 10 percent White/Other. Being culturally-focused, our shows have also brought together some of the most diverse audiences in the city and engaged a lot of first-time theatre-goers. Our collective reflects the community, and it’s important for folks to be able to see themselves reflected in an organization and on stage and being well received by minority artists’ community is very fundamental to my driving force. Art and culture are so deeply connected and working on a project rooted in your own experience makes for a better artistic product and a more satisfying process. Several of our artists have identified their experience with us as among the most impactful in their careers, both artistically and professionally.

What was a memorable or ‘aha’ moment in 21CL? (Particular program, meeting a professional and diverse peers, speaking in public for the first time, etc.?

It was wonderful getting to meet all the other motivated high school students across Georgia and hearing about the amazing work they were doing! Digging into community work and specific projects can be all-encompassing, and 21CL was an important reminder of the other talented young people working to make the world better. The experience was both motivating and empowering, but also humbling and I just know everyone from 21CL has gone on to do amazing things!

Did 21CL assist you in developing a leadership style that makes you an effective leader? if so how? And have you recently learned something else about leadership? Please share!

Leveraging Diversity has been my foremost guiding principle. As an arts advocate and community leader and especially as a young woman of color that lives with a congenital disability (I was diagnosed with Turner’s Syndrome when I was 12 years old) I have a unique voice and have acquired a body of experience to share with other youth! I continue to use art to advocate and to give voice to the disenfranchised in our community. The sharing of culture is essential to our nation’s health, and I focus on work by and/or about minority artists to bring together minority communities. I have lived in Philadelphia as a college undergraduate, had jobs, volunteered, had fun, moved to Eugene Oregon for grad school, worked, volunteered and went to football games, traveled to seminars in Portland, St Louis, Chicago, Boston, Orlando and have always found a way and that is what I would like to convey to future 21CL youth. Find a way and find your way!

Alumni Spotlight: Cristy Jones

Our first alumni spotlight for April 2020 is Cristy Jones, a graduate of Westlake High School (2014) and of Spelman College (2017). After graduating from Spelman, Cristy was selected among many applicants for the Cleveland Foundation Public Service Fellowship and served as a Culture and Strategy Fellow at Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) supporting the implementation and expansion of district-wide talent initiatives designed to improve educational outcomes for 39,000 of Cleveland’s public school students. Cristy currently serves as a Talent Management Partner with Cleveland Metropolitan School District and is a graduate student at Cleveland State University. She was also a 2014 Georgia Youth Leadership Award winner!

Paint a brief picture of what you are doing now.

Currently, I serve as a Talent Management Partner with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Cleveland, Ohio. By embracing the challenges of leadership, I have been able to successfully impact the lives of our scholars and flourish at Cleveland Metropolitan School District by assisting the Talent team in hiring excellent teachers, principals, and education administrators from diverse backgrounds. Working alongside CMSD leaders, I strategically support 88 central office hiring managers to improve staffing and talent management outcomes by counseling educational administrators on a broad range of human resources issues including professional development, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, retention and employee relations. My work extends from managing our Cleveland Teaching Fellows program to launching one of the District’s diversity pipeline and retention programs, Men of Color sHaping Academics (MOCHA), which was established in 2018 to create programming designed to increase engagement, retention and leadership rates for male staff of color within Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

How did participating in 21CL transform you and lead you to where you are now?

21st Century Leaders played an integral role in my formation as a leader. Before participating in my first summer leadership camp in 2011, the G5 @ Goizueta Program (now called SYLI) at Emory University, I had great leadership potential but I was very insecure about my ability. G5 @ Goizueta was my first opportunity to cultivate relationships with like-minded individuals who shared similar college and career aspirations. Once I completed the program, I was hooked. From that experience, I participated in Leadership Unplugged, served on the 21st Century Leaders Youth Advisory Board, and with the Music Legal Department at Turner Broadcasting as the Turner Voices Intern. During my senior year at Westlake High School, I was honored at 21CL’s Georgia Youth Leadership Awards as a 20 Under 20 award recipient. Participating in 21st Century Leaders enhanced my self-esteem, my comfort with public speaking and challenged me to take on more leadership roles.

How did 21CL prepare you for your next steps? Going into college and taking on leadership roles, heading into a new era of professionalism, etc. What skills/tools/perspectives have helped you along the way?

21CL’s leadership institutes enhanced my commitment to service and leadership within my school and community, and as a result I was selected to be a part of Spelman College’s Bonner Scholars Class of 2018. The Bonner Scholars Program is a service-based scholarship that is awarded to students who exemplify an attitude of servant leadership, a commitment to creating solutions for positive change in our society, and a passion for leading others in service. As a Bonner Scholar, I have served as a Teaching Assistant for Spanish classes at M. Agnes Jones Elementary, a Congressional Intern for Congressman John Lewis, and on the Summer Leadership Team for 21st Century Leaders. The Bonner Scholars Program has instilled invaluable life lessons and allowed me to engage in stimulating dialogue through seminars and workshops while bonding with other students whose passion lies in service.

While at Spelman, I interned with NBC Universal for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This experience was mainly inspired by my participation in 21st Century Leaders’ Leadership Unplugged Program with CNN in 2012. When I was in Leadership Unplugged, I was fascinated by CNN’s commitment to journalistic integrity during the summer broadcast of the 2012 Olympics and I desired to receive an international internship that provided similar leadership training and exposure that I received within 21st Century Leaders. The networking skills, elevator speeches, and business principles that I learned in 21CL helped me stand apart from my peers in Rio and led to my success in the NBC internship program.

After graduating from Spelman College in May 2017, I was selected as a 2017-2018 Cleveland Foundation Public Service Fellow and a Talent, Culture and Strategy Fellow at Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). The Cleveland Foundation Public Service Fellowship provides recent college graduates the opportunity to immerse themselves in the public sector at a variety of agencies throughout the city of Cleveland. Out of 110 applicants from 20 states and 62 colleges and universities, only five fellows were selected for this program.

Which programs did you participate in, and when? What skills did you gain or improve through those programs?

The first program I participated in was the summer leadership camp at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 2011; from then onward I participated in all the 21CL programs until I graduated from high school in 2014. I also served on the Youth Advisory Board during 2011-2013. From these experiences, I gained skills in public speaking, networking, facilitation, and time management.

What was a memorable or ‘aha’ moment in 21CL? (Particular program, meeting a professional and diverse peers, speaking in public for the first time, etc.?)

My “aha” moment in 21st Century Leaders occurred after I graduated from high school. While I was in college, I interned with 21CL and was able to witness firsthand the amount of work and the dedication of the staff into the programming of each summer camp and event. From this experience, I realized that the success of the 21st Century Leaders program was due to the genuine leadership of Bob, Kate and Jasmine and their commitment to encouraging students to step outside their comfort zone and be fearless leaders

Did 21CL assist you in developing a leadership style that makes you an effective leader? if so how? And have you recently learned something else about leadership? Please share!

My experience at 21CL has helped to showcase the determination, confidence, positivity, ingenuity, and collaborative nature that I exemplify as a leader. By embracing the challenges of leadership, I have been able to successfully flourish in my leadership roles.