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Key to Success: Be Humble
It was a typical day of school when I received an email from Ms. Jones stating that I was going to meet with an alumna for an in person one on one interview. The very last line of the email read, oh yea, she's an attorney. I was not ready. When I tracked Ms. Jones down to talk to her about my anxieties, she told me to relax. She said she was confident that I can handle this. Ms. Jones then informed me that Ms. Rivers is her Soror, meaning they are both members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Ms. Rivers is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and she has been for a decade. I was apart of AKA's Ascend Program so I knew what that meant. Unfortunately, Ms. Rivers and I didn't get a chance to talk about what her membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. means to her. I hope that if and when we talk again we will cover that topic.
Upon meeting with Ms. Corinne Rivers I appeared to be shy and my normal unenthusiastic self. But, that was only because I was not fully prepared for another alumni interview so soon after my last one. Additionally, Ms. Rivers was the first alumni that wanted to actually meet with me face to face. That was another layer of pressure. However, when we met, I instantly I felt a connection with Ms. Rivers and I knew this was going to be a great opportunity for me. When we actually sat down and started talking, we spoke about more than just her life, her time here at University or the work she does. Which made this experience way more meaningful.
Ms. Corinne Rivers, is very intelligent, successful, and extremely friendly. She graduated from University High School in 2000. She went to college at Spelman College where she graduated with her B. A. in English. After graduating from Spelman she received a scholarship from the United Negro College Fund to attend Rutgers University Newark. The United Negro College Fund were offering scholarships for students that graduated from a HBCU. Rutgers has three campuses and Mr. Rivers was born and raised in Newark, so I questioned, “Why Rutgers Newark?” Ms. Rivers tells me that she wanted to attend law school at home, and be a lawyer for her very "own community."
I was more even curious to know about her as we continued our conversation. I was so interested in everything she had to say. We spent a lot of time talking about school and college life.
I asked Ms. Rivers if she had plans to go back to school for another degree, or different major. Quick, fast, and in a hurry she raised her hand, and shook her head and said, “I'm done with school!” I found that to be hilarious. I hear that response often when I asked a college graduates if they would return to school. They all reply “no” for varying reasonings.
During our sit down I discovered that Ms. Rivers and I have a few things in common. When she was in high school she was listed in the top 10 students of her class. I was happy she mentioned it because I am in the top 10 of my senior class as well. At this point I'm feeling like advice from her is invaluable. Ms. Rivers tells me, “I’ve always taken AP and honors classes. Taking AP and Honors classes really pushes you to your full potential in the classroom and once you leave high school."
Ms. Rivers says that University High School "absolutely prepared for me college" and beyond. At Spelman College, Rivers was in the Honors Program and maintained a 3.5 GPA. She was prepared to handle this level of work and she credits her teachers and the curriculum of University High School for ensuring she was prepared to transition from high school to college.
Ms. Rivers is a go getter, she's ambitious and she has an extremely positive attitude towards learning. So, I decide to ask her to give some advice to myself and other students here at UHS. Ms. Rivers advises us "to visit the colleges" that you're truly interested in. "See if you feel like you can fit in."
She went on to say, “You have to be able to see yourself in a particular place, if you don’t, that place is not for you. Be sure the other students make you feel comfortable, the environment, even the food there.” That makes a lot of since! Try out your options, weigh the advantages or disadvantages, and evaluate everything before you fully go through with your final decision for college. Ms. Rivers told me that she'd visited Spelman about a year before she attended.
Currently, Ms.Rivers works in the city of Newark. She works as an Assistant to the Director, Office of Professional and Legal Affairs. Basically, she assists fire and police chiefs daily. Her work is confidential and she loves everything about her job. I asked Ms.Rivers if she'd ever think of changing her occupation and starting something new in a total different field? To this she replied, “No. I like my job. I feel like whatever opportunity you get, you must have it.” Ms. Rivers feels that she has the chance to perform a job, she was "chosen" to do. Ms. Rivers enjoys working in her department and does not plan do try any other career field.
I felt it was only right to ask Ms. Rivers to share with me her personal attributes that are essential for success in her profession?” Ms. Rivers replied basically saying you need to work hard and remain humble. She expressed that you shouldn’t be overly confident or conceited. “Especially as a Lawyer, you want to make your clients comfortable…” she adds, “Put in one hundred percent effort… go above and beyond!” Evidently, Ms. Rivers takes her job very serious, her key to success is to,
“remain humble!”
Ms. Rivers brought her yearbook to show me how the kids looked back then. While we flipped through the pages I asked her if she would change anything if she could go back in time to high school. Surprisingly, she proudly said, “I would not change anything I did in high school, if I had to do it over again.” That statement caught me off guard. This lead me to ask why. She explained that she'd always had friends who were just as ambitious as her. They all had positive impacts on each other, which kept their bonds and friendships even stronger. If anything she just wants to go back and relive the pep rallies.
Coincidently, her fondest moments happens to be the pep rallies. Ms. Rivers enjoyed them so much because she so happened to have a spotlight. She was a gymnast so she was always excited to tumble across the gym floor while the crowd amped her up with thunderous rounds of applause. If one of her former classmates asked her, to do a tumbling stunt now, she said she’d kindly tell them, “Absolutely not!” That is so ironic because a few years from now that is exactly how I will respond to one of my peers if they asked me to show off a tumbling skill.
Everyone looks forward to graduation as a high school student, apparently not Ms. Rivers. That was the last thing on her mind. It was actually too much of a bittersweet transition for her that she was not looking forward to. Things she actually looked forward to was learning new things, assigned group projects, Pep Rally (because it was the beginning of basketball season and she was on the Girls’ Basketball team), and her teacher coming through the classroom door with the TV cart, because she knew her class would be watching a movie that day. Those are things I look forward to, except I'm on the cheerleading team and we don't have TV carts--- we have Netflix on SmartBoards.
Unfortunately, our chat had come to an end, I had to return to class, and Ms. Rivers had to report back to work. However, I would like to give a huge thanks to Ms. Corrine Rivers for taking time out of her day to meet with me. I don't know what I was worried about. My first in person Alumni Spotlight was pretty incredible. More important than that, it really made me proud to know such a successful alumna came from the one and only University High School in Newark, NJ.
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