From the Founder: A First-Gen Profile

I’m smiling as I begin this blog post. Creating this entry is a return to writing and publishing, a profession I gave up nearly 20 years ago to pursue a master’s degree, leading to my second act, in executive development.

I’m thinking about why I love writing and why I took to it as a kid. It was an outlet for expression for me, someone who was lonely in my own home as the only individual in a five-person household who was thriving in American culture. I was a strong student from the beginning, scoring well on reading comprehension tests, excelling at spelling and grammar, and speaking English with ease. My comfort with language put me in situations where I would speak on my family’s behalf to the telephone company; serve as the household’s official document-completer, filling in forms with the letters shaped just as I had learned them in kindergarten; and navigate with no assistance a layover at Chicago O’Hare when it was up to me to get my grandmother to San Francisco, where my aunt would greet us at the gate. I was eight.

 I am the child of immigrants, the first American in my family.

My family left war-ravaged South Korea in the 1970s and landed in the coal region of Pennsylvania. There I nestled into books and a regular journaling routine, which led to a BA in journalism at Pennsylvania State University, which led to four years at The Philadelphia Inquirer. At about the halfway point of my time at the paper, I knew my run as a newspaper reporter and editor was coming to an end. I had been a journalist for nearly ten years at that point, having worked at my local newspaper my senior year of high school and freelancing for another paper, reporting on Penn State while I was a student there.

Even today, I can’t explain what happened next: I got into Harvard, got my master’s in education, and began my next and current career in executive development. In my eighteen-plus years in this field, I’ve sat across the table from Fortune 5 CEOs and guided their leadership strategies; worked on five continents; and started my own advising, coaching, and consulting business.

Journaling from my bedroom in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, I could not have imagined the life that was ahead of me. I was from a lower-income family, in which survival was the goal. Through the grace of meeting people who took an interest in me and became mentors, I instead focused on self-actualization.

The gifts bestowed upon me are innumerable, and the audacity of giving up a stable career to build another – cashing out a 401(k) in the process and moving out of state to do so – immeasurable for someone of my background. Still, I think more stories like mine can be found out there, and even more, if we shined a brighter light on the experiences and potential of First-Generation College Students-turned-First-Generation Professionals. 

It’s not just that I find First-Generation Professionals hard-working and resilient. I think investing in FGPs would be a win-win for the FGP and the companies for which they work. Research shows that FGPs are 32 percent more likely to be loyal to their employers and are 40 percent more self-motivated than their counterparts. To the latter point, with experiences like navigating the world’s busiest airport as a second grader, what do you expect? ¹ .

Resources

1

"Hiding in Plain Sight: First-Generation Professionals." Boston Consulting Group, April 2023. https://web-assets.bcg.com/49/9c/184a60f14ed9b17f8fabfd7c9d6c/hiding-in-plain-sight-first-generation-professionals-bcg-study.pdf; "World's Busiest Title Retained by O'Hare." Chicago Tribune, February 6, 1986. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-02-06-8601100200-story.html