#PeopleofNEI: Jenee, a mentor with South Side pride

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Northeast Indiana is evolving. These are the people shaping its future. #PeopleofNEI

This week’s feature:

Jenee, 40, is a graduate of South Side High School and IPFW. She is the recipient of the Forty Under 40 Award and currently works three different jobs and is a pageant director. She is the first generation of her family to be born outside of racial segregation. “My mom is from Selma, Alabama. Her class at school was originally supposed to be the last segregated class but it lasted five more years. She marched on ‘Bloody Sunday’ from Selma to Montgomery and lost some of her classmates to violence that day. My grandmother was turned down the right to vote three times and gave my mother permission to peacefully protest during the Civil Rights Movement. I was raised to look up and make the best of everything. Today, I serve on different boards and work a number of jobs. One day I could be working a hockey game or baseball game and the next day I am teaching financial literacy and money-saving tools. I also work with entrepreneurs and recruit them for a television spotlight in northeast Indiana. I have also been involved with directing pageants for over a decade. People think it is all about a crown but it is more than that. It is about mentorship. I have had girls get four year scholarships or land a dream job at the Statehouse. These girls are like my daughters. Much of my success is due to my South Side pride. There is a special place in my heart for South Side High School and many of my classmates are doing incredible things around the country and world. A lot of what happened at that school made me the person I am today. The staff, parents, and my peers believed in me and told me I could be even better than I thought I could be. There was just this belief that I could do anything.” #PeopleofNEI

A post shared by Input Fort Wayne (@inputfortwayne) on May 7, 2018 at 3:07pm PDT

#PeopleofNEI: Jenee, a mentor with South Side pride

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