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Transcript
My name is Omar McCord and I am 12 years old.
My name is Mark Fancher. I am 13 years old.
My name is Damiaz Kenney. I am 12 years old.
We interviewed…
We interviewed…
We interviewed Wayne Jones…
Wayne Jones…
Coach Wayne Jones on June 22nd, 2016.
My birthday is June 24th, 1987 is the year I was born. My connection to Garfield is I was born and raised in Garfield. I grew up on Mossfield St. My father, as most people know, is Bob Jones of the Garfield Gators or Base Brothers and Sisters Emerging. My childhood, it was great. It’s a lot different than what you guys are experiencing. We didn’t have a lot of the technology. We didn’t have cell phones or a lot of video games, so we spent most of our time outside playing in the woods or the hillsides, walking to Highland Park to go swimming, or to Waterworks to see a movie. And believe me, that was a pretty far walk, but umm, it was great, a lot of outdoor stuff as well as going to school. I went to Fort Pitt Elementary School. I went to Washington Polytech School as well, which was a magnet program that specialized in computer sciences, woodshop, homec, as well as some electrical engineering courses, when I was in middle school.
My father is my biggest mentor, of course, naturally, as well as Coach Garth, Coach Hank, Coach Mike, all the older Garfield Gator coaches that you see, as well as people I’ve met along the way. I’ve had an opportunity to work in different organizations and companies and… as well as been around different cultures and backgrounds. So I’ve taken bits and pieces of literally everything and everyone that I’ve met and I’ve used it to my advantage.
I went to a private school in West Virginia and I was in a graduating class of 85 students, and there were only five African Americans. And so, you know, I grew up in Garfield, where we were in school and literally we were the majority of… meaning African Americans were the majority. And so I told myself, after I graduated from high school, I would go to college.
I had three goals. My first goal was I wouldn’t put a financial burden on my parents, you know? So I made sure I had a scholarship, and it was an academic scholarship. My second goal was that I would graduate, of course. And my third goal is that I would come back and give back to my community and my friends and I, who I’ve been friends with for over 20 years. We literally just said the other day that growing up in Garfield is something we would never trade in. We would never have wanted to grow up in any other environment because it has helped shape and mold, you know, the people that we are today. Because we wholeheartedly believe in our community, we respect everything that we were able to get from that experience.
What I do today, I’m a Chief Operating officer of a charter school in Penn Hills, so my job focuses on overseeing our budget, our transportation services, food services, our facilities and management. I went to school for business management and I have a MBA in business as well with a focus in finance, and a minor in finance for my undergrad. And so, that experience, as well as working for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and working for the Allegheny County Housing Authority, you know, being a property manager, as well as being a financial advisor for PNC Bank, literally all those experience and opportunities have come full circle. And what I mean by full circle, I’ve taken every single one of those experiences, and now I have the opportunity of applying that information and that experience to what I do today.
I live by being persistent. Persistence is key, and what I mean by persistence is not to give up. If you have something that you’re looking to attain or to reach, just keep at it. Keep going, keep going. Most people who are successful today have failed at some point or at something, so never give up because opportunity will always be waiting for you. My biggest advice to any African American kid or-or male, is to never stoop down to anyone’s level or what you think they may want you to be. So what I mean in-in that sense is if you’re ever in an interview with anyone, you know, just because you see every single person coming out of the interview with a shirt and tie and maybe, you know, some brown shoes. That doesn’t mean you have to dress that way. Yeah, being presentable and your presentation is definitely important. But at the same time, it’s what you have up top in your head is what’s going to be the most important and really what’s going to get people to respect you the most. And a lot of times you see African American males who are so afraid of perception and what people are thinking of them that they dumbed themselves down and they become someone that they’re really not. Be yourself, embrace who you are, have it in yourself to live by your own standards, to be successful and never dumbing down to anyone or-or anything. Have high expectations for yourself. First and foremost, just because someone’s not telling you you’ve done a good job doesn’t mean you haven’t done a good job. You have to satisfy yourself first and foremost. If you have very high expectations for yourself, no one’s going to have higher expectations for you.