Our first alumni spotlight for April 2020 is Cristy Jones, a graduate of Westlake High School (2014) and of Spelman College (2017). After graduating from Spelman, Cristy was selected among many applicants for the Cleveland Foundation Public Service Fellowship and served as a Culture and Strategy Fellow at Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) supporting the implementation and expansion of district-wide talent initiatives designed to improve educational outcomes for 39,000 of Cleveland’s public school students. Cristy currently serves as a Talent Management Partner with Cleveland Metropolitan School District and is a graduate student at Cleveland State University. She was also a 2014 Georgia Youth Leadership Award winner!
Paint a brief picture of what you are doing now.
Currently, I serve as a Talent Management Partner with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Cleveland, Ohio. By embracing the challenges of leadership, I have been able to successfully impact the lives of our scholars and flourish at Cleveland Metropolitan School District by assisting the Talent team in hiring excellent teachers, principals, and education administrators from diverse backgrounds. Working alongside CMSD leaders, I strategically support 88 central office hiring managers to improve staffing and talent management outcomes by counseling educational administrators on a broad range of human resources issues including professional development, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, retention and employee relations. My work extends from managing our Cleveland Teaching Fellows program to launching one of the District’s diversity pipeline and retention programs, Men of Color sHaping Academics (MOCHA), which was established in 2018 to create programming designed to increase engagement, retention and leadership rates for male staff of color within Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
How did participating in 21CL transform you and lead you to where you are now?
21st Century Leaders played an integral role in my formation as a leader. Before participating in my first summer leadership camp in 2011, the G5 @ Goizueta Program (now called SYLI) at Emory University, I had great leadership potential but I was very insecure about my ability. G5 @ Goizueta was my first opportunity to cultivate relationships with like-minded individuals who shared similar college and career aspirations. Once I completed the program, I was hooked. From that experience, I participated in Leadership Unplugged, served on the 21st Century Leaders Youth Advisory Board, and with the Music Legal Department at Turner Broadcasting as the Turner Voices Intern. During my senior year at Westlake High School, I was honored at 21CL’s Georgia Youth Leadership Awards as a 20 Under 20 award recipient. Participating in 21st Century Leaders enhanced my self-esteem, my comfort with public speaking and challenged me to take on more leadership roles.
How did 21CL prepare you for your next steps? Going into college and taking on leadership roles, heading into a new era of professionalism, etc. What skills/tools/perspectives have helped you along the way?
21CL’s leadership institutes enhanced my commitment to service and leadership within my school and community, and as a result I was selected to be a part of Spelman College’s Bonner Scholars Class of 2018. The Bonner Scholars Program is a service-based scholarship that is awarded to students who exemplify an attitude of servant leadership, a commitment to creating solutions for positive change in our society, and a passion for leading others in service. As a Bonner Scholar, I have served as a Teaching Assistant for Spanish classes at M. Agnes Jones Elementary, a Congressional Intern for Congressman John Lewis, and on the Summer Leadership Team for 21st Century Leaders. The Bonner Scholars Program has instilled invaluable life lessons and allowed me to engage in stimulating dialogue through seminars and workshops while bonding with other students whose passion lies in service.
While at Spelman, I interned with NBC Universal for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This experience was mainly inspired by my participation in 21st Century Leaders’ Leadership Unplugged Program with CNN in 2012. When I was in Leadership Unplugged, I was fascinated by CNN’s commitment to journalistic integrity during the summer broadcast of the 2012 Olympics and I desired to receive an international internship that provided similar leadership training and exposure that I received within 21st Century Leaders. The networking skills, elevator speeches, and business principles that I learned in 21CL helped me stand apart from my peers in Rio and led to my success in the NBC internship program.
After graduating from Spelman College in May 2017, I was selected as a 2017-2018 Cleveland Foundation Public Service Fellow and a Talent, Culture and Strategy Fellow at Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). The Cleveland Foundation Public Service Fellowship provides recent college graduates the opportunity to immerse themselves in the public sector at a variety of agencies throughout the city of Cleveland. Out of 110 applicants from 20 states and 62 colleges and universities, only five fellows were selected for this program.
Which programs did you participate in, and when? What skills did you gain or improve through those programs?
The first program I participated in was the summer leadership camp at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 2011; from then onward I participated in all the 21CL programs until I graduated from high school in 2014. I also served on the Youth Advisory Board during 2011-2013. From these experiences, I gained skills in public speaking, networking, facilitation, and time management.
What was a memorable or ‘aha’ moment in 21CL? (Particular program, meeting a professional and diverse peers, speaking in public for the first time, etc.?)
My “aha” moment in 21st Century Leaders occurred after I graduated from high school. While I was in college, I interned with 21CL and was able to witness firsthand the amount of work and the dedication of the staff into the programming of each summer camp and event. From this experience, I realized that the success of the 21st Century Leaders program was due to the genuine leadership of Bob, Kate and Jasmine and their commitment to encouraging students to step outside their comfort zone and be fearless leaders
Did 21CL assist you in developing a leadership style that makes you an effective leader? if so how? And have you recently learned something else about leadership? Please share!
My experience at 21CL has helped to showcase the determination, confidence, positivity, ingenuity, and collaborative nature that I exemplify as a leader. By embracing the challenges of leadership, I have been able to successfully flourish in my leadership roles.
