Confidently and humbly standing before the women of Howard U., Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, shared her resilient story and her role as chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls.
While Jarrett is invited all over the world to speak to various audiences, she said Howard is the first place she has actually called to ask to speak. Stepping foot on Howard’s campus to speak was not Jarrett’s first connection with the university; her 87-year-old father attended Howard for both undergraduate and medical school, and now serves as professor emeritus at the University of Chicago.
“Wow, you are truly a phenomenal woman,” said senior chemistry major Lindsey Moore as she introduced Jarrett to the audience.
Second-year doctoral pharmacy student Ashanta Brady, who went to high school with Jarrett’s daughter, said it was a pleasure to hear her [Jarrett], especially knowing the path she had been through. “I come to these talks not looking for connections or networking, but for inspiration,” Brady said. She plans to open her own clinic in Chicago after graduation.
Jarrett expressed how her life experiences have really shaped her into whom she has become and she wanted to share her life lessons with the hopes of making things easier for young women today. “I hope I can help guide you along the way, but you can’t forget the lesson that life is hard,” she said.
After attending Stanford University for undergraduate school and graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, Jarrett went on to what seemed to be the perfect career working as a lawyer in a law firm in Chicago. But, she was miserable.
She said this was the best job anyone could have with a nice office space, good salary and family support. But one day she just sat in her office and cried because her heart wasn’t in it.
“Never take the path of least resistance,” Jarrett said. “Regardless of what everybody else tells you, look inside your own gut and invest in thyself.”
She left her job and went on to work for the first black mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, where she would become deputy chief of staff. “From the first day I stepped foot into City Hall, I knew I was a part of something bigger,” Jarrett said. “My worst days in the public sector were better than my best days in the private sector.”
As women, we are really determined to find satisfaction in our careers and not make it about the money, she said. While she was getting comfortable with her previous job, Jarrett said an old mentor at her law firm told her to take a leap of faith and do something different.
“If I would have never left my law firm, I definitely wouldn’t be in the position that I am in today,” Jarrett said. Her positions in local government helped her with her current position as senior advisor, where she oversees intergovernmental affairs.
She told the audience of mostly women it is important to build relationships with the people around you who are on all levels. “Listen to your gut but also listen to others,” Jarrett said.
“Affiliate yourselves with worthy institutions with people who have integrity.”
Jarrett said as women when applying for jobs to make sure the job caters to their needs. You have to be your best advocate and ask for what you want, she said.
While working for Mayor Daley, Jarrett said she remembers one meeting that was right before her daughter’s Halloween parade. “I was a single mother and if I didn’t go to the parade, no one would be there,” she said.
Jarrett kept looking at her watch while she was in the meeting and once Daley asked what was wrong. She told him and he asked her what was she doing here? She left to attend her daughter’s parade.
“At the end of the day when you are on your dying bed, you’re not going to wish you could have worked more but wish you could have spent more time with your family.” Keeping a balance between your work life and personal life is really important, Jarrett stressed.
“You can have it all but not all at once. Pace yourself or you will run out of stamina,” she said.
First Lady Paula Whetsel-Ribeau, Ph.D., ended the discussion by introducing a new group on Howard University’s campus, Women As Changing Agents (WACA). The idea was derived from Michelle Obama’s speech topic during her visit to Howard last year. “We want to create opportunities to address women from the individual basis to the interpersonal basis to the community basis,” she said.