Don’t Get so Focused on the Path

Nikole Collins-Puri

09.02.20

Going to college and working at AT&T weren't in Nikole's plans when she started out. They seemed "anti-service" to her. But she learned along the way how important College Boards were and how much good a corporation can do in a community.

Don’t Get so Focused on the Path

Summary:

Going to college and working at AT&T weren’t in Nikole’s plans when she started out. They seemed “anti-service” to her. But she learned along the way how important College Boards were and how much good a corporation can do in a community.

Nikole_Collins-Puri

Nikole Collins-Puri

Don't get so focused on what you believe is the right path, because I can tell you, I didn't want to go to AT&T. I didn't want to go to the College Boards.

Thuy

Oh, you didn't? Why?
Nikole_Collins-Puri

Nikole Collins-Puri

Cause all of those things were to me very anti-service. Until I learned what they were. Right? I learned how much power and influence that a corporation can have and good that it can make in the community. I learned, you know, the College Board, you know, where I got that S.A.T. scores from. If I'm not at the table, then I can't talk about the challenges that this score impacts on your trajectory to get into college. Right? So I needed to be at that table. Or going into philanthropy and being able to get language around social justice and equity and the importance of economic opportunity for marginalized communities. So for me, those were all, you know, I would have never written that in my path, but they were all so critical to how I can sit in this seat today.
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