Gianna Cairo

During my life growing up, I came from a very strict family. Education was the most important thing and I was held to very high standards. My entire life I wanted to be a teacher, until I looked into Youth Development. Having this conversation with my grandparents and parents was something I dreaded. When telling them, their remarks were, "you will make no money", "you don't have the mindset for that", "you need a job that will cover you for life". The more I tried to explain the more the comments happened. I felt like I didn't even have a voice in my own career. It was super frustrating to feel like what I was doing meant nothing to them. They didn't understand my passion and dedication I have for working with the youth. If this situation happened again, which is does a lot, I now have the knowledge I didn't have when I first joined this major. I have experiences, I have knowledge from classes, I have an elevator speech. I have ways to b