Sarah was born and raised in Guyana for the first 12 years of her life. She describes her household growing up as a strict Caribbean/Indian household. Sarah explained it was due to the influence her mother had on her life as a child. Sarah’s mother would consistently push her to have the best grades in her class by always having her at home studying when not in school. While Sarah wanted to be a normal kid hanging out with her friends, her mother taught her differently.
“I was taught to go to school, get an education, and come back home to take care of the house. While many kids were hanging out with their friends, I was either doing chores, studying, or reading.”
Meanwhile, Sarah‘s older brother was allowed to have that bit of normalcy. He didn’t spend much time studying and would often hang out with friends. To engage in some form of socialization, Sarah would hang out with her brother’s friends. She characterized herself as “the annoying sister.”
When I asked Sarah why her brother was allowed to socialize with others and she wasn’t, her answer went back to her mother.
“[My mom] believed the role of a woman was to be at home taking care of the household. She wanted me to be in the house doing chores or studying. At the time, I accepted this because in a traditional Caribbean/Indian household, no child was encouraged to question their parents’ decisions.”
In 2010, Sarah and her family immigrated to the United States and settled in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn, NY. Sarah started her teenage years in a new country and at the age of 16, she had to begin thinking about what she wanted to pursue in college and in life.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had zero clue on what I wanted to do as a job for the rest of my life. I thought I had to choose a path and that I was going to be doing this for the rest of my life. I’m not thinking that I can change [my career path]. I also had no clue who I was. I was in a whole new country and learning so many different things.”
Sarah settled on pursuing either accounting or nursing. Accounting was recommended to her by her mother, who argued that accounting would provide great job stability since everyone needed an accountant. Sarah also felt accounting would be a good fit for her since she has always had aspirations to start a business. She wanted to be her own accountant, which she now knows is not feasible. In regards to nursing, Sarah had some minor interest in pursuing something medical-related.
The three schools Sarah remembers applying to were Baruch College, Hunter College, and Lehman College. Baruch declined her application, while Hunter waitlisted her. Eventually, Lehman accepted her application and she was set to start college in the fall semester of 2016.
“At that time, I felt rejected by [Hunter and Baruch]. I was sad and asked myself, ‘Why am I not good enough?’ However, my spirituality was very strong. I believed that if I was accepted at Lehman, there’s a reason God was telling me that I need to go to Lehman College.”
Sarah believed that the reason for God having her accepted to Lehman College was to introduce her to an organization that would change her life completely: ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals for America). ALPFA is a professional development organization with a mission to “empower and develop Latino men and women as leaders of character for the nation, in every sector of the global economy.” ALPFA has a strong chapter in a few of the CUNY colleges, especially in Lehman College.
She credits ALPFA as the foundation for the success she’s had in her young career. Learning about different career paths, networking with professionals and students, and general answers to career-related questions are what benefited Sarah the most after joining ALPFA. Sarah strongly believes that she wouldn’t have learned as much as she did by only going to class.
Through ALPFA, Sarah secured internships at PwC and Centerbridge Partners, LP.
PwC was Sarah’s first exposure to corporate America. She completed a total of three internships with PwC as a college student (START Intern, 2018; Tax Intern, 2019 and 2020). Exciting and challenging was how Sarah described her experiences at PwC. It was exciting due to the fun events, and people she got to meet. Sarah mentioned she got to learn about different cultures, which allowed her to explore new foods and places to visit.
It was during her third and last internship at PwC that she grew concerned about her future at the firm. A conversation with her manager would present a challenge for Sarah.
“I was working with [my] manager. She mentioned that she was going to miss her niece’s ballet recital. She said, ‘She’s going to be mad because this is the third time I’m missing it.’ I thought to myself, ‘You’re going to choose work over your niece?’”
Sarah explained the reason that the conversation affected her was because of her childhood. Growing up, her dad wasn’t involved with any of the activities she participated in at school. Her dad was overcoming personal problems at the time, which prevented him from being there for her. She didn’t want to not be there for her family when she was needed. Family time is extremely important for Sarah to have.
After the internship concluded and she received a full-time offer with PwC as a Tax Associate, Sarah had a decision to make on whether PwC was the right firm for her. She asked herself, Do I want to work at a company where I have to sacrifice my family and personal time? Sarah’s personal belief is that one must be a person before a worker. She began to do self-reflection on what she wanted out of a career.
Since her last internship with PwC occurred during the pandemic, Sarah had a lot of time to think about what she wanted in her career. She soon realized that she wanted a job where she could invest her free time in pursuing her personal interests and developing an asset to build generational wealth. The heavy work hours at PwC would highly affect her from doing that. Upon realizing this, she began her pursuit for a role in Advisory at Deloitte.
Kevin Durjpal, a close friend of Sarah’s referred her for a full-time Advisory Analyst position at Deloitte. Eventually, Sarah secured the role in Advisory at Deloitte and declined PwC’s offer. According to Sarah, the work hours aren’t as heavy as compared to tax and she feels much more challenged.
From the time Sarah joined ALPFA in 2017 as a sophomore to when she got a full-time offer with Deloitte, her journey had many ups and downs. Her involvement with ALPFA significantly increased when she became President of the ALPFA Lehman College chapter during the 2018-2019 academic year. In addition, she worked part-time jobs at Lehman College and Centerbridge Partners, LP to support her family.
“At first, I wasn’t juggling [my commitments] that well. There were a lot of times when I just wanted to walk away from all my responsibilities. When I became President of ALPFA [Lehman College], I was more on my phone than I’ve ever been in my entire life. I started getting headaches and my eyes started to hurt. I wasn’t spending any time on myself.”
To overcome these challenges, Sarah turned to her mentors for advice. They advised her to set some time aside for herself. Putting this advice into action, Sarah began blocking 30 minutes in her daily schedule to focus on herself and detach from everything. Once she started blocking personal time, her productivity increased and she was able to better manage her commitments.
Despite her career progression and personal growth, her parents were not as supportive as Sarah wanted them to be. They were supportive of her getting a job to put a roof over her head. However, they did not like that Sarah stayed out late due to ALPFA meetings, and working long hours as an intern at PwC. Her parents didn’t understand why Sarah had to go to events and network to get an internship/job. Having to explain why she did the things she did was tough.
Sarah attributes the foundation for her successful career to ALPFA, but has also greatly benefited from two other organizations: YAO (Young Ambitious One) and Customize Your Life.
Through YAO, she improved her organizational and project management skills by volunteering as a Project Manager. She had the opportunity to create programs, work on projects from start to finish, and collaborate with others. Sarah leveraged these experiences in her interview with Deloitte. In addition, she has received mentorship from the founder of YAO, Yanique Williams. Sarah thanks Yanique for helping her prep for the interview with Deloitte and for allowing her to be a part of YAO.
As Sarah received mentorship on her career from both ALPFA and YAO, she was also receiving mentorship on her personal life from Customize Your Life.
“[My mentor] asked me, ‘When you die, what do you want people to say at your funeral?’ I hadn’t thought about that. Legacy is what she was getting at. Did I want my legacy to be that I worked a corporate job my whole life and climbed the corporate ladder? No, that wasn’t it for me. I want more. I want to be able to impact my community more. I want to be able to impact more families across the United States and internationally.”
Because of Customize Your Life, Sarah encourages everyone to have a “board of advisors.” She suggests having someone coach you on each pillar of your life such as career, finances, relationships, spirituality, and health.
Before she joined these three organizations, Sarah described her old self as stubborn and thought she knew everything. She was digging herself into a hole by doing things on her own and not getting perspective on healthy habits from successful people. ALPFA, YAO, and Customize Your Life have all played a role in changing her perspective for the better.
I asked Sarah what advice she had for young women looking to launch their careers. Her answer was blunt and straight to the point.
“I meet a lot of young women who want to have a secure job, then start a family. I personally see it in a lot of women and not as much in men at this phase in my life. My advice is to take that whole mindset and throw it in the garbage. Learn how to dream. Start asking yourself more questions. How is it that you want to live? What do you need to do to achieve that lifestyle? Who can help you get there?”
Once young women can answer these questions, Sarah believes this will lead them to know what career they want to pursue.
Speaking with Sarah about her journey to where she is now was a privilege. I personally met Sarah in 2017 when she first joined ALPFA Lehman College. At the time, I was serving as President of the chapter. Seeing her growth from member to where she is now is unbelievable!
Today, Sarah remains active within ALPFA by volunteering to speak at events across multiple chapters in the tristate area. Her list of goals to accomplish has only grown since graduating from Lehman College. One of Sarah’s goals is to move out of her parents’ home to be on her own before she thinks of starting a family. She wants to live her life to the fullest and experience her own personal growth to build a good foundation for her life. Sarah encourages other women to do the same.
Sarah has had a great amount of success in her life thus far with more to accomplish in the future. From her experiences and lessons learned, Sarah will use her values, skills, and drive to live the life she wants.
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A special thank-you to Sarah for spending some time with me to tell her story for the first entry in Moves in Color.
Moves in Color is a blog series highlighting BIPOC professionals in New York City making an impact on their lives and others. Want to be featured? Submit an interest form by clicking here.
All views expressed do not represent the organizations mentioned.