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My name is Majerica Rainey. I grew up in the Hill District, so I went to A Leo Weil for pre-K and then kindergarten through 5th grade. I went to Madison elementary up there and Sugar Top on the Hill and after that I went to Frick in Oakland and that’s where I graduated from in 2012. So at Slippery Rock in my undergrad, I studied criminology and criminal justice. So I earned my Bachelors of Arts in criminology and criminal justice. I worked for Allegheny County Juvenile Court, and I was working with juveniles on electric home monitoring systems like, house arrest and I kind of had a career change and I worked for Pittsburgh Public Schools, so I wanted to go back and get my Masters degree in education and right now at Duquesne, I’m getting my masters degree in education with a focus in English as a second language.
I would say my family and the way that I was raised, inspired me to become the person that I am today. Anything that I felt like I never had. I want to go and get it myself. So everything that I have experienced growing up in my family contributed to me being the person that I am today. I’ve seen a lot of positive changes in the neighborhood. Especially growing up around the Wesley Center that Cares I have attended the Wesley Center that Cares when I was younger and I’ve worked there when I was old enough to work there and now I’m back, you know, still giving back. So I would definitely say in my neighborhood, Wesley has affected me in a positive way, and I’ve seen positive things. The Hill is definitely changing. You know, different landmarks like the Mellon Arena for example. That’s no longer there and that’s something that I’ve grown up and I’ve known that to be there my whole life and now it’s just not there anymore. The projects where I’ve grown up at and actually lived there, they’re definitely changing. They’ve torn them down completely and rebuilt them back up completely different. Streets, still the same name, but it’s a different place. Like it’s not the same. It’s not the same picture you would go back and look at, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s kind of a memory loss. You know you can’t go back to that same place and be like this is where I did this at and it’s a different place.
My cousin got murdered two years ago on the Hill. She was murdered by her boyfriend, so that opened my eyes to a lot of things. As far as life and men, it definitely affected me in a way where I’m going to be cautious.
I helped my grandfather take care of her kids. Try to care for him, show him the love that you know what, mother supposed to get to give him, he doesn’t have that around, you know, it’s just my grandfather. But I’m trying to bring some positivity out of it and spread my positivity onto her sons. Young kids that are going through something, I would just say for all young kids to just be your own person and express yourself in the way that you want to express yourself. It’s OK to be your own person. You don’t have to be like anyone else and just whatever you set your mind to, you can do.