Transcript- Episode 135: Building Tomorrow’s Leaders: Transforming Education for the Next Generation with Jasmine Star, CEO of Social Curator Episode 135

00:00:00 - Jasmine Star

Do you want to catch a big vision and do the impossible? It matters less that you got straight As. I want to have straight vision. How do we assess for that? And into the future? Embrace technology and embrace storytelling. Clap our children up for being creative. Strip off their socks and shoes. Your students out here, make them get uncomfortable and sit under a tree and do something different that will be more valuable for them in the workplace than any academic book that you can put it in front of them.

 

00:00:32 - Christina Barsi

The workforce landscape is rapidly changing, and educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make our communities and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education. But we need to understand how to change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are headed before we even get there. So how do we begin to predict the future?

 

00:00:57 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College and host of this podcast.

 

00:01:06 - Christina Barsi

And I'm Christina Barsi, producer and co-host of this podcast.

 

00:01:10 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

And we are starting the conversation about the future of work. We'll explore topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals, more internships and PCC students in the workforce. We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. You, the employers, the policymakers, the educational institutions, and the community as a whole.

 

00:01:43 - Christina Barsi

We believe change happens when we work together. And it all starts with having a conversation. I'm Christina Barsi.

 

00:01:51 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

And I'm Salvatrice Cummo. And this is the Future of Work.

 

00:01:57 - Jasmine Star

Coming here, I was told that you are the visionaries and you are the architects, and you are the bridge builders of tomorrow. And I also have to tell you that Pasadena is the city for me, because my parents met and fell in love in East Los Angeles. Yes. And we found ourselves moving a little bit farther south. Baldwin Park. La Puente. Yes. La Puente. Ooh. And there in the glorious streets of La Puente, our family experienced a lot of beautiful things and sometimes not so beautiful things.

 

00:02:36 - Jasmine Star

If you've grown up in those areas or areas of that nature, you will know that rich culture, people, community, dwell in that. But statistically, we are often overlooked. And so it's in those times and moments that my mother, my father, we would ride the bus. We didn't have a washer and a dryer in our home. So we would walk my mom and her five children to the laundromat, and she would make a game of things.

 

00:03:00 - Jasmine Star

And on the time that our family car did decide to work, my dad worked at General Hospital in the shipping and receiving departments. And on the day that my mom would want to take her kids to go and do something, we would all wake up early in the morning, we would get in the car, we would drop my dad off at the shipping and receiving area, and then she would take us, not quite to Pasadena, because she was going to wow us. We were going to San Marino. Ooh, ooh, ooh. That's right. San Marino with the large, lush lawns. San Marino with the gates out front to keep everybody else behind and out. And there at Lacey park, we would enter in through these gates, and our car would rickety move right on up. And there we would park, and then we would strip off our shoes, our socks, and she would go to her five kids and say, run, explore, and do. And so it's at those moments that my mom would look at everything as an educational experience, which still to this day, I stand before you and I look at everything like an educational experience. And so there she would say, okay, guys, so we're going to do physical education PE in the park. So run.

 

00:04:09 - Jasmine Star

We're going to do science. Let's collect some bugs. Go. And then she would say, we're going to do art. We're going to do the fine art things. And so there. My mom had this play school recording set with a tape player. It was white with bright red and blue buttons. And then she would say, okay, guys, get on the swings. And she would hold up this art piece. And then she would put on Mozart's Symphony number 19, or 41, if my memory serves me correct.

 

00:04:37 - Jasmine Star

And we're sitting there, and she would say, get on the swing, Push your legs. And as the music is going, your feet go out in front of you. Your feet pull in underneath you, and you're pushing and you're pulling and you're pushing and you're pulling. So in this moment, if I might, can you indulge me and my mom, who's sitting in the second row, could you, for one instance, join me in Lacy Park? And I'm gonna ask you to do something a little bit weird, but trust the process, because this is what good homeschool kids do. We're a little bit weird, but you let us go with it. Okay? So just close your eyes. Just close your eyes for me. And push your feet out. And then Pull them back in and then push your feet out and pull them back in.

 

00:05:22 - Jasmine Star

She sang a poem. As your feet are pushing out and pulling back in and pushing out and pulling back in. Swing, swing through the drowsy afternoon Swing, swing, swing Up I go to meet the moon Swing, swing, swing I can see as high I go far along the crimson sky I can see as I come down the tops of the houses in the town High and low, fast and slow Swing, swing, swing.

 

00:06:05 - Jasmine Star

Welcome back. Did you enjoy Lacy Park? So did I. But maybe some of you educators, smart, brilliant people that you are, were wondering why was a 9 year old at Lacey park on a Tuesday afternoon? It wasn't just me, it was my twin sister, my younger sister Alexandria, my younger brother Sebastian, and our soon to be sister Zoe there at Lacey park because we grew up where we grew up. My father is an immigrant from Mexico, my mom is from Puerto Rico. And there the school options in La Puente were not the best of us.

 

00:06:36 - Jasmine Star

And though my parents are not formally educated, they decided to do something counter opposite and counterculture and they said we're going to homeschool our children. And every single person in their life looked at them, including their parents, as you you. So how did we get from Lacey park to where we are today? My name is Jasmine Starr. I am CEO of Social Curator. I'm an advisor to companies, I'm a proud investor and I am a podcast host and I create content. And for all intents and purposes, I had to remind myself as I came here is I am not going to teach anybody anything. I have a tendency to get nervous because I stand on stages and I have this pressure deep honor of your time. I want to teach you and I want you to do something well. And I realize that you are far too smart for me. I am batting outside of my league. But may I make a reference? Could it quite possibly by the end of this moment, could I by any chance feel like Freeman last night? Anybody? That's right.

 

00:07:34 - Jasmine Star

And for those of you who don't know, okay, by any chance, we together as this room, hit a grand slam and win the game at the last moment. Could we do that? I'm a first generation Latina and college student. My twin sister and I, we graduated high school and the idea of college was so foreign that we were swimming in fafsa, in Pell grants in applications and it was the blind leading the blind.

 

00:07:57 - Jasmine Star

And somehow we made it to an end point. My sister and I both got accepted to Whittier College. We will always be born Brown bred and love LA County. And so for us, in the glorious state of California, we got to go to college. My father was a cook at Azusa Pacific University, and on weekends, he would take my sister and I, nine, 10 years old, and we would wipe down and clean down the tables in that college campus. And I thought to myself, could I ever be so lucky and go to college? That idea was so far from reality for me, and it felt like a wish. So the fact that my sister and I were able to go to college, we thought, the minute you get in, then you're going to be okay. And what I realized is that I. And we were alone. I did not know how to speak to my parents about college because they had no idea what this beautiful, foreign, amazing opportunity was.

 

00:08:49 - Jasmine Star

And so I had no idea that you weren't supposed to study for a placement test in college. So I spent my summer diligently studying for the math placement because I wanted to shine. Why I actually did so well that I tested into a math class that I realized halfway through the semester, I have no idea what's going on. I kind of bypassed the foundational stuff to college level calculus. And I was like, ooh. And so I went to admissions, I went to the registrar's office, and I said, I think I'm going to fail this class.

 

00:09:19 - Jasmine Star

And then she said, well, you can get a W. And I said, but what's a W? She's like, a W is a W. I was like, yes, a W is a W. And so I'm completely lost, because what is a W? And all I know is I really want to go on and I want to pursue my education, but is the W going to stop me from getting to where I want to go? And so in my just conversations with my family, I was like, I don't even know what a W is. And my dad. You want to know what I think a W means? Wonderful. They think you're wonderful. I was like, no, puppy. I think you're just missing the point here. I think this is going to ruin me. And at the end of the day, lo and behold, for anybody who doesn't know, your life does not begin or end with a W.

 

00:09:54 - Jasmine Star

It just means you withdrew from a class. And lo and behold, not because I'm smart, not because I'm gifted, not because I'm brilliant, I ended up graduating summa cum laude because I believe that hard work gets you to wherever you want to go and nobody will stop you. So I just decided to say, I'm going to work on campus, I am going to work as a waitress five nights a week, and I'm going to get straight as.

 

00:10:17 - Jasmine Star

And when I graduated college, I sat on stage, myself and nine other students representing those who graduated summa cum laude. I was one of two women, and I was the only person of color. And to be able to sit in those stadiums and watch my parents and my grandmother was one of the proudest moments of my life. So that I thought to myself, okay, so what does a good Latina do when she's sumo cum laude? You just keep on doing what you know.

 

00:10:43 - Jasmine Star

You see, I wanted to move the family from the east side of LA to the west side. I wanted the zip codes and the cars and the people. I wanted the finances. So I thought to myself, can you get to UCLA on a full ride? And the answer was yes. So there I was, first generation Latina, first generation college student at UCLA Law School. And then I realized, I am so unhappy here. My mom, who was diagnosed with brain cancer my junior year of college, battled nine years. And it was at this time at UCLA where they had said, we've done enough. The brain surgeries, the chemotherapy, the infusions, we're done. And all I thought to myself was, I'm done. I'm not happy here. I don't know what I'm doing. My mom is 50 years old and I'm 25. And I thought to myself, if I have 25 years left in my life, I don't want to die a lawyer.

 

00:11:36 - Jasmine Star

And I thought, what am I going to do? And so I get married so that my mom. Now I get married. The man who chose me, and I chose him, my high school sweetheart, the kindest, best, most generous man, said, let's get married finally. I had planned my life. Oh, Excel spreadsheets. Because this is what we do. And then I'm going to go to school, and then I'm going to graduate, and then we're going to get married.

 

00:11:58 - Jasmine Star

And all I knew was like, can we get married now? And he says, yes, let's go. Let's get married. So we got married. Just our family's. A small, little, tiny wedding. And I get a letter because at the time when I decided I had enough, I quit law school. I walked into the dean's office and I said, I'm depressed and I think my mom is going to die. And I don't like where I'm at right now. And she said, you have three years to get your scholarship. Because I went on a full ride, scholarship to ucla.

 

00:12:26 - Jasmine Star

I Said, okay, I'm going to come back. And when it came time for me to come back, my brand new husband had said, what do you want to do? I said, I want to become a photographer. And he's like, okay, you don't own a camera. I know, but you see, I think if I had a camera, I might be able to make a go of it.

 

00:12:44 - Jasmine Star

If you just take a second right now and you think about this really stupid, idiotic, nonsensical thing that you want to do, anything at all. Can you just hold on to that right now because I will hold the space for you. And he told me what I want to tell you. I would rather see you fail at something you love than succeed at something you hate. Worst case scenario, give it a year and it doesn't work out, go back and get your scholarship. I said, okay. In that first year of business as a photographer, he's with a startup company. I'm working part time at my dad's church in Montebello, California. And I don't have an office. Like I have a fold out table in a storage room. But I'm just like, that's okay. Because I have this dream and one person believes in the dream. So Best Buy Christmas buys me a simple camera. And that year I said, I'm just going to make a bet and see if it works on me. So in my first year of business, I made $100,000.

 

00:13:40 - Jasmine Star

Now that might not sound like a lot of money to many people, but to a girl whose family of seven, my dad did not make $100,000 in three years combined, the fact that I made $100,000 in 12 months, we took the whole family to Claim Jumper. Everybody is going to order whatever they want. And guess what? Nobody's ordering water. You want a Sprite? I got a Sprite.

 

00:14:05 - Jasmine Star

You want a Coke? We got the Coke. We don't have to do that anymore. And to me, when somebody says, Jasmine, what was the first moment you felt like a success? Claim Jumper. Very few things can compare to Claim Jumper. And thank you, God. I have come a long way from that day, but that moment is still so sweet. And no, it wasn't. The 27 chocolate layered cake that we ordered at the end, it was just good. So what will you do with your one wild and amazing life? That is what brings us here to Pasadena City College. And so throughout the course of my career, I have realized that possibility is simply disguised as impossibility. What you think is impossible? I think it's possible because you would not have been given the idea, the hope or the dream if the capacity inside of you did not exist. You didn't wake up this morning and say, you want to know what I want to do? I want to be on the PGA Tour.

 

00:14:57 - Jasmine Star

And you don't even know going to golf club, right? You didn't, but you woke up and you thought something. I want to be a restaurant owner. I want to be a videographer, I want to be a poet. You wouldn't have that dream if it wasn't inside of you. And everything is calling on you to go and create it. Because here's a crazy thing that happened. I became a photographer. And during that time, I didn't have any money for a website, so I just started creating content on a free blog.

 

00:15:21 - Jasmine Star

I would write and then people would end up booking me. And other photographers were very interested in what I was doing. And so I had created an online following of people who were interested around this thing that I was doing. And guess what? I wasn't even good. I was mediocre at best. But I documented the journey. And then businesses said, hey, we like what you're doing with your marketing and branding.

 

00:15:41 - Jasmine Star

Can you come and do some things for us and we'll pay you? And I said, okay, how much do you have? Like this much. Funny, that's how much I charge. Great. And then I started realizing, I started doing work for other businesses and their businesses were growing. I thought, okay, I'm trading hours for dollars. I said, you know, I'm gonna take a step back. Then they said to me, well, can you be a consultant? And I literally was like, googling, what's a consultant? Oh, great.

 

00:16:04 - Jasmine Star

And they said, you will come in and you'll teach our teams and we'll go and do it. I was like, well, how much do you have? Funny, that's how much I charge too. So I started doing that and I realized that the more successful I became, I was still getting paid more, but trading hours for dollars. And I realized that I had less of a passion to build big companies. What I wanted to do was build the business owner. I wanted to build the business owner. So what I started to do was to create online courses. And lo and behold, in addition to getting a payment stream from photography, from consulting, from the resources that I had created for an online store for photographers, I created an online course.

 

00:16:39 - Jasmine Star

And over the years, each progressive seven figure revenue stream continued to build. And after we had built courses, people said, well, we know what we need. We need consistency. So I decided, I'm going to create a membership. And after creating a membership, I started realizing that there was a friction point between our members and them getting their marketing resources out online. And I thought to myself, okay, the there's a way that we can figure this out. And I've never done this before, but I really think that we need to integrate with every social platform in order for marketing to be effective. Have I ever written a line of code? No. But when I said I wanted to become a photographer, I didn't own a camera.

 

00:17:12 - Jasmine Star

Impossibility is possibility in disguise. Can we look past what we don't know? So I started hiring for a cto, a Chief Technology officer. And I had no idea what I was looking for, but I knew I needed a solution and I needed to surround myself with people who could get me to yes.

 

00:17:27 - Jasmine Star

In 2021, my husband and my co founder we launched a SaaS platform software as a service that we now integrate with every social platform and we empower small business owners to market their business and build a brand. And along the way, I continued creating content which has empowered me to become an advisor, an investor, and a creator. So why am I here? Because I was asked to share a look into the future. And I will say that that was very intimidating because all I know is I look into the past. But I have been told, and this is what I hold to be true, I represent an underrepresented demographic.

 

00:18:05 - Jasmine Star

I am Latina, I am female, I'm a first generation college student and I'm a first generation entrepreneur. Statistically, I have beat the odds by far. But I don't think I'm special. That's the crazy thing. So I just did a deep dive into my past to say, what can you do today so that I don't become an outlier, that we become the norm. So how are we going to do this today? Break it down in three simple pathways. I want to remind you of the past, I want to enlighten your present, and I want to prepare you for the future. From my humble, lonely opinion outside looking in, because I believe, and I've been sitting here and talking to people, that you are the facilitators.

 

00:18:45 - Jasmine Star

You are the bridge builders. That students today are in a time of extreme change and innovation, none like the world has ever seen before. And many of the students, many of the future workforce are going to have to overcome obstacles if they have any chance of succeeding. Now I'm going to come out on a limb here and say however hard you worked to get into this room, please understand that future generations it will be harder for them because there's more to take into consideration.

 

00:19:13 - Jasmine Star

But if we understand that, I have to tell you, you're breaking ground. But here is the thing is, if we expect change from our students, you're going to have to change the way you teach them. You're going to have to think differently on how you prepare them for the future. The responsibility is ours. It is not for students to figure out the information and the distillation of experiences that we have now. There was a time that you wished to be in this room with these people. There was a time where you dreamt of being a city official, a community leader. There was a time when you wanted to be a teacher, a profession, a professor, an elected official. There was a time when you thought about this event six years ago and you wished that your name could be on the list or somehow you would find a seat in the room.

 

00:19:59 - Jasmine Star

And now you're here. And sometimes, without taking the moment to appreciate the gravity of how and why and who got you in this room, we will always stay stuck in saying it's not enough. In fact, I might go out on a limb. I recently read a book by Professor Arthur Brooks called From Strength to Strength.

 

00:20:18 - Jasmine Star

And he had said that people often identify with the word striver. I am guessing that the people in this room on a Wednesday afternoon where you can be doing a lot of other things and you choose to be here or you choose to watch online, you're a striver. And what it means to be a striver is that you, despite the odds, you do things different. People say, oh, she just works too much. Oh, he's always talking about this. Oh, they're always busy, perhaps. But we also are of the ilk where we move the end zone. We are also of the ilk where the thing that we thought was enough with a capital E is no longer enough. And so we change it, and then we change it and then we change it. And that is the thing that got us in the room. But I have come to learn that it might be the thing that's keeping us stuck in the room. Because what happens is that there's this way that we can look at our lives.

 

00:21:08 - Jasmine Star

There's a book by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan called the Gap and the Gain. And this is what they break down in the entirety of the book. If you were to stand where you are today and you were to look in the past, think about who you were when you were 13 years old, adolescents, where were you? Go back to the city.

 

00:21:25 - Jasmine Star

Go back to the room, go back to the person that you were. And if you today, in your clickety clack high shoes or your shine wind tips, go back to the 13 year old and say, it's BCC, they had muffins and yogurt for free. Air conditioning, plush seats, social media, your 13 year old self would be like, we did it, we did it. But this morning on your way here was all the things you have to do and have not done yet. The gain is who you are today from who you were years ago. And the gap is who you are today to who you imagine you should be in the future. And if we continue to hold ourselves against that future version, we cut ourselves at the knees. So for the sake of this conversation, if I might, for the next 27 minutes, can we focus our time together on the gain? Listen, I know you got places to go and I know you got people to meet and hands to shake and babies to kiss and moves you gotta make on LinkedIn, where's your QR code? I get that.

 

00:22:30 - Jasmine Star

However, just for now, you give me 26 minutes and focus on the gain you are in the room. Why does this matter? Why am I begging you to sit in the gain for the duration of this conversation? Number one, it empowers us to focus on stacked proof of our accomplishments without thinking. It's not enough. I want us to look at the stacked proof. Odds were maybe, maybe not. You were not supposed to be in this room and yet you are.

 

00:22:56 - Jasmine Star

That's proof. Focus on the proof. Because if we can believe that proof as a test turns into a theory, that if I continue to build and put myself around other people who are constantly ascending, how might I excel as well? Number one, why it matters, we're stacking proof. Number two, why it matters is it establishes an irrevocable energy that students pick up. You think you don't emit an energy? Oh, you do. Oh, let's just call it out for what it is. Panel before me, were they all emitting a certain energy? Yes, they were. When you live in the game, what are you emitting? Stacked proof. I don't think you need to rest on what the past was. I need you to believe that everything you have in you is going to be the thing that sets you up. And if you believe that, your students will too, and students must borrow your belief, I will tell you, as a student who had very little to no beliefs, I borrowed it from people who are around me. So for the sake of this conversation, as you exit the doors, if you live in the gain. People borrow your gain.

 

00:23:57 - Jasmine Star

And we teach people how to dwell in the gain. I will tell you, my first year of college, my first English class, I actually went into college thinking I was going to be an English major. So in my first English class, we spent about the first half of the semester preparing to write a paper. And I took AP English Honors English in high school. And I believed I was a writer. My teacher told my parents, she's special.

 

00:24:20 - Jasmine Star

She's a writer. And I was like, give me a quill, give me a beret, a thin cigarette. I'm gonna write Mama. And about halfway through that semester, I get my first paperback, and it's just covered in red. And she says in the back, Ms. Juarez, can I talk to you after class in my office? And. And so I walked to her office, and it was this tiny little office with very poor, if any, air conditioning at all.

 

00:24:42 - Jasmine Star

And my legs were kind of sweating and sticking to the back of the wooden chair. And she poured over the paper and asked at the very end, do you come from a family of immigrants? I said, yes. And it hurt because I felt like my words had color or a history. And in that moment, I said, I will never be a writer. However, that semester, every week, I went to the writing lab and other students taught me how to write in a collegiate level. I ended up getting an A in the class. I also ended up switching my major. I have to tell you, when I look back at it as an adult, I don't think that this professor was nefarious or evil or mean. I think just making an observation. But observations impact people massively. So if you're going to make an observation and you think it could potentially be interpreted the wrong way, keep it to yourself.

 

00:25:36 - Jasmine Star

I had a professor by the name of Dr. Sal Johnston my senior year, and I went to Whittier College, and it's a liberal arts college, and you have to take all these classes. And I'm like, why do I need to take science? And so I've taken this sociology class. I'd never heard of the word sociology. And towards the end of the semester, we had been building bricks, and we had to create a theory of our own of sociological principles. And it was a team effort, myself and three other students and I stood in front of class and I gave the presentation. And in the class, Dr. Sal Johnston had said, jasmine, I've been teaching this class for years, and I've never heard it that way. You didn't just get the concept, you disseminated the concept and reconstructed the concept. Bravo. And still to this day is one of the highest compliments I've ever received. Because I believed that that professor saw something in me that I didn't see myself. So if we are going to make an assumption on any student's capacity. Doubtful. Keep it to yourself. Hopeful, Mind blowing, Trajectory changing. Please do. Because as we look about the future of work, when you focus on the gains from the past, you will empower the next generation to do the same.

 

00:26:35 - Jasmine Star

So this first section is all about you. Because if we were to talk about moving into the present, I need us to have a standard line foundation of what we believe in order for the present to be true and in order for us to make the future the truth. Are we on the same page? Cool. Well, my dad is also a pastor in East Los Angeles. And so it's like, you know, it's like.

 

00:26:54 - Jasmine Star

Well, I now live in Newport beach with my husband, and when we go to church, it's church. But see, when you go to church in Montebello, it's church. People talk back. I don't think so. Amen. Mm. So why don't we bring a little bit of East Los to Pasadena? Okay. Okay. So if I ask a question, you can ask back. Because I am actually not here to convince you of anything.

 

00:27:17 - Jasmine Star

I'm simply putting forward like a good teacher does an idea. Do you agree or do you not? Because if we're here at the present, what must we do to prepare the next generation? This is from the US Labor Report. By 2027, the majority of Americans will have a boss younger than them. 52%, 62% of Americans want to be their own boss. 10% of US adults are self employed. 62% of people by 2027, half of them will have a boss who's younger than them.

 

00:27:49 - Jasmine Star

There is a good chance that the people we're teaching and guiding today will likely be the bosses of tomorrow. Statistically, it's happening much faster than we think. So we must teach the present generation on how to lead. 50% of our leaders by 2027 will be younger. And you want to know the general sentiment than many of us who hear that were like, yeah, right, I can wipe my snot with you. They're in a position of power in leadership. What do we do? What kind of leaders do we want? Who do we want to be our boss? Every student who walks through your door, ask yourself, do I want you as my boss? Because if I don't, I need to change you. If you don't like the way that the present generation is being run. What can you do to change that? So in every educational discipline, remember, I am an outsider.

 

00:28:34 - Jasmine Star

I am not of the collegiate world as an outsider, as somebody who hires people consistently, can you employ or use any sort of how to human skills? Better how to human if you teach math, science, anything, how do we become better humans? How do we communicate better? How do we work better in groups? How do we speak kindly and softly to each other? So when I think back of if you are in the position to guide students, three leadership lessons that will change the way the workforce behaves and becomes in 2027.

 

00:29:07 - Jasmine Star

Number one, what I wish I knew was Delayed Gratification. We live in a society specifically of this generation who are graduating. Instant gratification. It is all about the now. And what happens on social media is that the length, the story and the journey gets truncated into about 14 seconds. A streamy song, active words and I'm a millionaire. And so the students who become our leaders are like, I am not a millionaire. No, of course not. Delayed gratification 10x is easier than 2x by Dr. Benjamin Hardy. We must be patient and focus on the big vision.

 

00:29:41 - Jasmine Star

If we are teaching our students to be visionaries, we must tell them it takes a long time and it's gonna be hard. But if you have a big vision, be prepared for it to be slow and steady. Smooth. Number two, leadership lesson that I wish I knew and anybody student going through this is Critique and Candor, a book by Kim Scott, Radical Candor. She focuses on effective leadership is built on strong trusting relationships with your direct reports. There is a difference in criticism and a critique. A criticism is I tell you what you're doing wrong and a critique is a way or a methodology of getting better. We have to teach our students today how to effectively communicate kind, but none of the nice stuff. These are the facts. Here's your performance. This is how you get better. Are we on the same page? Thank you so much.

 

00:30:29 - Jasmine Star

If you need anything from me, I'm here for you. Third, Humility, a book by Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last. What he focuses on is leaders should put the needs of their team first and sacrifice their own comfort for the benefit of the team. If we have younger leaders in 2027 who want to eat last, we're in a better place because they care about the whole.

 

00:30:49 - Jasmine Star

What do we know statistically about Gen Z? They're lazy. They care. They care deeply. And for us, who maybe might be on the millennial side, we think of how hard we had to Push to get to where we are. But what they think is that you're able to eat the fruits of our labor. We shouldn't complain about the trees that we built and the fruit that they're eating. We now have to guide them on how to eat and share the fruit responsibly. Can I get an amen? Thank you. See, Daddy? They're working, Papi. We'll teach them. We'll teach them, okay? The future. What do we do to prepare the next generation? And I believe the answer might surprise you. Empathy. This is the last thing anybody wants to talk about. Gen Z. They haven't all. They're just so soft. Okay, what have they gone through? Technology has changed more in the last three years than it has the last 30 years combined. You're complaining? The iPhone's buttons was not like the BlackBerry. Okay? They're making me change from AOL to Gmail, which my father still to this day has. Aol. Okay. So our students today have gone through so much change in three years, and we are complaining of the past 30.

 

00:32:07 - Jasmine Star

So their world has advanced not just faster than their parents, but of their siblings. I have a younger sister who's 15 years younger than me, and my husband has a sister who's 22 years younger than him. Same mom and dad, y'all. That's right. Latinos. Okay. But to say that our sisters went through anything we experienced would be a farce. And yet we as professors and we as community leaders and we as elected officials want to say, well, you know. No, they actually don't. They're living in an entirely different world. So for the next generation, we need new preparation. Oh, this ruffles feathers. Because as community builders and as educators, well, we've done our way.

 

00:32:49 - Jasmine Star

We have our lesson plans. I'm tenured. Right, but your students are smarter than you. With a click of a button. Your dissertation that you completed 27 years ago. I'm so proud of you. I love that. I'm happy you have all the letters after your name. It means very little to a student who has more information than a couple clicks with ChatGPT or Claude. So adapt or die. I am telling you, on every technological platform you can begin with, odds are 90% of the technology that exists today will be gone in the next three years. So we think, oh, that's a cool waste of time. I'm gonna wait. It advances faster than any of us can anticipate. We must be embracing technology now and then in the community, in our churches, in our synagogues, in our mosques.

 

00:33:32 - Jasmine Star

In our schools, we must show technology because what we want to do is stick our heads in the ground and pretend like it doesn't affect us. Students don't be using this. Or I have downloaded software that can show if you wrote it by Claude or ChatGPT. Yeah. And then they have another one and they have another one and another one. Show them how the future looks and you're like, I don't know, create it.

 

00:33:49 - Jasmine Star

That's what put you here to begin with. You were the smart ones. Teach us how to be smart. Prepare the students for the technology they're going to have to use in the workforce so that by 2027, when the younger ones are leading the older ones and they're leveraging technology, they are teaching their elders by way of technology. Why can't you be the ones educating them? That puts you in a place of knowing, power, innovation. It keeps your brain young. And lastly, this is a little bit far out there, but if there was one thing that you're going to teach any of your students to ever do or be, that is to become a storyteller. Stories translate culture and age and understanding. Storytelling has never been more widely available with social media. Not social media, the mechanism, what it's doing to our brains. But effective storytelling conveys a message now faster than any which way before. Which is why in academia, if anybody is interested or knowing or aware of Dr. Huberman from Stanford, it's not that he's just a scientist, ladies and gentlemen, his science is good. It is not the best, nor is it great, but what does he do? Story. You want to become a leader with what it is you're studying, the community initiatives you have.

 

00:35:05 - Jasmine Star

Tell a story. Swing, swing, swing. You either liked me or dislike me for that story, and I'm okay with that. I don't need you to like me. I need you to trust me. And the way we build trust is by story at the outset. So the past, who you were, you got into this room. So please walk out and focus on the game. And in the present, how do human skills and any academic discipline will be far more worthy.

 

00:35:36 - Jasmine Star

I sit through interviews and I hire people and. And I tell you I care less about what you studied. And I want to know who are you? How do you think? How do you communicate? Do you want to catch a big vision and do the impossible? It matters less that you got straight As. I want to have straight vision. How do we assess for that? And into the future, Embrace technology and embrace storytelling. Clap our children up for being creative. Strip off their Socks and shoes. Your students out here, make them get uncomfortable and sit under a tree and do something different that will be more valuable for them in the workplace than any academic book that you can put it in front of them.

 

00:36:17 - Jasmine Star

Now, I understand we come to these events and some of us walk away a little bit inspired or a little bit excited. Gotta go. Got the juice. Got the Rizz kids, right? That's what they're saying. Yeah. And then later this week or next week, when you're sitting with a pile paper on your desk, 8,500 emails that all need a response by yesterday, and there is a meeting that you're already five minutes late to, and last night your kid got sick and is now complaining at school, and you're sitting in your car with your knuckles gripped around the steering wheel and you ask yourself, what am I doing this for? Why do I care so much? We all face that that question is normal. And if we want to sit here and pretend that we go through things that other people don't, we're deluding ourselves. So for all of us who say, what am I doing this for? I will tell you. Whenever I ask myself that question, I simply remind myself that I copy what I saw. I learned about purpose in a trailer park in Las Vegas, Nevada, where my grandmother lived and who we visited a few times a year. When I think about purpose, I only ever think about her. Because what I now know today, and what I will scream from the mountaintops is that purpose is not about the present. It's not about us in our suits at heels. It's not about us in the newest Jordans. It's not about us in the air conditioning. This is about us in the future and who comes behind us. My grandmother was from Ciales, Puerto Rico.

 

00:37:46 - Jasmine Star

This was a small, hilly town that at the time didn't have running water. And my grandfather proposed to her and he promised her the American dream. And they moved to New York and realized that the dream felt very much like a heavy nightmare and promised to move her to East Los Angeles, California, where they could begin anew. It was there, in East Los Angeles, California, that my grandmother worked as a seamstress in a sweatshop. And she would sew bathing suits in the winter and basketballs in the summer, making things that her and her children would never buy herself. She took three buses to work. She had three children, and one of her children had special needs. She was financially dependent on my grandfather, who was a very, very difficult person to live with. And through it all, she refused to quit because what I think that she realized then, and even if she didn't fully articulate it, what we distinctly felt, was that purpose requires perseverance, patience, and the promise not to quit.

 

00:38:44 - Jasmine Star

So that when she was waiting in line for the bus, when she was asking herself what it was all for, she never had the dream that her granddaughter would be standing on a stage at Pasadena City College. She would never have the ability to ever think to herself that the reason she stayed up at night or the reason she packed lunches or the reason she went home was for something far greater than she could ever expect. And so that's why I'm here, reminding you today that the work that you do as you grip the steering wheel and you wonder, what am I doing this for? It's for. For the person you haven't met yet. It's for the student whose life you're about to impact if you just gave yourself the time and space to believe it. It is just for us who dare to live in the gain and not the gap, so that our students can borrow our beliefs, so that they can look at you and say, do you know when you believed? And you're like, kind of, I'm here because of you.

 

00:39:34 - Jasmine Star

May our children, if we're fortunate enough to have them, may our students, may our constituents, may our congregants look back to us and simply say, thank you for not quitting because the work that you've done has impacted my life. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

 

00:39:57 - Dr. Salvatrice Cummo

Thank you for listening to the Future of Work podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodes every Tuesday. You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the show Notes to Collaborate, partner or just chat about all things future of Work. We'd love to connect with you. All of us here at the Future of Work and Pasadena City College wish you safety and wellness.