Meet Jen Wohl

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jen Wohl a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jen, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I’ve always been passionate about children having a voice. Voices that should be the loudest are often the most silenced. Early in my career, I started litigating child neglect and abuse cases for the Administration of Children Services in New York in the Bronx. There, I saw innocent children being displaced due of the heinous actions of others and it solidified for me that child advocacy was my calling.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m responsible for the administrative and programmatic vision of StreetSquash, a multi-year youth enrichment program featuring: academic tutoring; social work services; college and career awareness, preparation, and support; leadership development; mentoring; and squash instruction for young people ages 11-24 living in Harlem.

What excites me about the work is that StreetSquash is transformative for its participants. The dreams and goals of our participants are expanded beyond what they’ve traditionally been told they can accomplish. I love watching the process happen. Giving a child the tools they need to be successful in squash, academics, and life, and watching the transformation over time is what drives me to show up and work my hardest on their behalf.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

It’s important to love what you do. Having a passion for the work is critical. You can teach skills but you can’t teach passion.

Also, when working with kids, don’t use a cookie-cutter approach. To be successful, you meet must the child where they are. To do that, you need to understand what each child’s life looks like when they are not within the confines of our four walls.

Creating strong partnerships is also crucial to ensuring the kids get consistent messages of positivity no matter what environment they’re in. Building a foundation with caregivers, schools and other stakeholders who also serve our participants helps ensure a growth mindset throughout all facets of their development.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

When I was in college, the greatest gift my parents gave to me was giving me the freedom to pursue my passion. During this time, my father who had worked for 20+ years on Wall Street announced that he was leaving that life to become the Executive Director of a nonprofit for formally homeless substance abusers. At the time I thought he was crazy and I worried about how my family would financially survive. But my dad explained to me that he was never really successful on Wall Street because he wasn’t passionate about the work he was doing. He was confident that he would be successful in his new career because he knew he could give 100% to something he cared about – something he could never say about his life as an investment banker.

By making this mid-career change and leading by example, my dad redefined professional success for me and my siblings. All of a sudden, success was not defined by dollars and cents. It was about callings. As he told us, “if you do what you love, success will come.”

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