In Medium, Jake Medina ’16 writes about his experience leaving investment banking to pursue social entrepreneurship. Jake discusses his experience as a CBL Intern and his work with Ascentria Care Alliance as being foundational to his education and factors for his recent career change. Read Jake’s entire post on medium.com.
An excerpt from Jake’s post:
While my pursuit of an investment banking internship took up some time, it was only a small part of my liberal arts education. My days were spent studying, hanging out with friends, and volunteering in the Worcester, MA community. I was originally drawn to Holy Cross for its mission of educating “men and women for and with others” and this mantra permeated every facet of life at Holy Cross. From day one, it was ingrained in students that an education is not meant to only serve you — you are also meant to use it as a tool to serve the world.
In a sense, Holy Cross was a little gated utopia of academic rigor. Nestled on a hill, there was a constant flow of vans coming to and from campus, whisking students off to volunteer in various parts of the city — food banks, middle schools, immigration centers, and more. As a young civic minded individual, this was captivating and I wanted to know where I could make my mark.
Perhaps because my father is a Cuban immigrant who came to the United States as a child, I was drawn towards working with Spanish-speaking immigrants. While my childhood was sheltered, filled with rigorous academic study and a splattering of extra-curricular activities, I always knew that I had it good. Whether from a story told by my father, speaking with my grandparents through a mix of broken Spanglish, or watching my parents’ relentless work ethic, I knew that my opportunities were built upon generations of sacrifice. I threw myself into my studies accordingly.
Now at Holy Cross, watching those vans travel to and from campus, I finally felt like it was my chance to give back. All the studying, generations of sacrifice, and relentless work ethic would finally be put to use solving the world’s problems. When I was presented with the option to tutor refugee children who came to the United States by themselves, I jumped at the opportunity.
I remember pulling up to a tucked-away parking lot, walking up two flights of stairs, and seeing a number of nervous students there to meet us. I felt stupid and out of place in my Vineyard Vines pullover, but was quickly paired with a student who needed help with math as he studied for his GED (high school equivalency) test. Over the coming months, I would work with a number of students, teaching everything from algebra to the alphabet.
Needless to say, I quickly learned that I couldn’t change the world in one day. Back at Holy Cross, once the vans returned, students would huddle up and discuss our experiences while asking hard questions. How did it come about that a 15-year-old has only a 1st grade education? Why are so many former prisoners struggling to adapt to life outside the prison walls? Why are the local food pantries so busy?
Our college professors encouraged us to engage with the gritty reality of the world, to constantly question and search for answers, even if the answers were unsatisfactory. We learned that, while we weren’t changing the world, we were changing ourselves — challenging our world views, checking our assumptions, and growing in the process.
