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My name is Ashley Comans. I am from Wilkinsburg. I am 30 years old. I went to four different elementary schools, so I started at Turner Elementary School in Wilkinsburg from kindergarten to 2nd grade, and then I went to Penn Hubbard Elementary School for half of 3rd grade. Then I moved to Atlanta, GA with my mom ,
and I finished out third grade and my 4th grade year at Brown Elementary school. And then I moved back to Pittsburgh for my 5th and 6th grade year, and I went to Ben Fairless Elementary School, which is in the Woodland Hills School District.
My parents separated and divorced, so growing up, that’s why I moved to Atlanta because my parents had separated and my mom needed… She just needed a new setting, so I left. I have an older brother. He stayed here with my dad. Watching my parents go through their separation and their divorce was hard on me as a kid, one because I didn’t really understand those kind of adult problems. All I knew was my mom was hurt. Because of that, my dad and I had a very roller coaster relationship.
My childhood was busy. I was a kid who always was doing something, whether it was cheerleading, I did pageants growing up. I don’t know if you all ever heard of Miss Black Teenage, the last year of it was in like 2007 or 8 maybe, and then it transitioned into Miss Ebony Teenage. I did those. I also did two cheerleading teams. I was on my high school team, and I also did a competition squad, so I was busy. I played the flute, did a lot of stuff when I was a kid. Just like my childhood, I was busy in high school. I was just very ambitious. When I graduated college, I was 21. After I graduated, I actually worked at a girls’ emergency shelter, so that was a big eye opener to me to see how many young people do grow up with different kinds of trauma that they experience. That space kind of put something in the back of my mind that I always wanted to give back. After that I went from working at a shelter to working at WPXI. I worked at WPXI for three years, I operated the robotic camera. So, you know, when you’re watching the news and you see, like, the camera shift, that was me behind the camera working them. But it was actually like a robot, so I sat at a station, and it was like, joysticks that I operated. I also did studio lighting, film production. So when the Macy’s parade would happen, and now it’s the WPXI parade, I would work the streets and help produce and get people through the parade. Then I worked in insurance, so I learned a little bit about Medicare, which was helpful for like, helping like my grandparents and the decisions that older people have to make. It was kind of like babies need help and so do old people, so I was able to get that perspective. And then God said “I’m going to put you on the Hill, Ashley,” and I started this role. So, for what I think is the most interesting is that I’ve had such a broad background in my work experience, which has helped to make me well-rounded and just able to offer different experiences from what I’ve gone through.
Working in the Hill District, for me, is new. My perception of- from growing up and what I thought the Hill was to now working in the Hill, I do see a lot of people who care about the community and want to make changes so that young people can achieve as much as you can. Adding me into the mix was a good thing because I enjoy being able to work over there and all the different people that I meet. There’s so much history on the Hill District, and to know that the community is working to revive it and make sure it’s not forgotten is really cool.
I always have new goals. On top of doing this work with you all, I also have a blog and it’s called “Renee Around the Way”, my middle name is Renee, and I started the blog after I left WPXI because I wanted to still have a platform to share current events and news that’s happening, but I wanted to do it on a platform where it uplifted black people, you know, after working at the TV station and constantly seeing negative images and writing that doesn’t tell our story, I felt like I can do this myself. Expanding my blog and pushing my blog is one of my goals, and I am also a school board director in Wilkinsburg, and I have some goals with that to really help transform our elementary schools that we have and to lift up my community.
And I want to start a family one day. So that’s another goal in the near future, to start a family with my husband and have a little mini me running around at some point. Testing of faith brings perseverance, and I got that from my Reverend, Reverend Grayson, who is actually a Hill District staple. I go to his church. He actually married my husband and I, and after that quote he shared, I wrote it down in my notes, and I’ve been sharing it ever since. I love that quote because, in life, you have faith that good things will happen or-or a certain goal you may have set, you will accomplish it. But at times things don’t go as planned, so you’re tested. But when you make it through, that goes to show how much you can persevere and push through and still be successful with whatever it is I’ve set out to do.