Career Roadmap
DeNora's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Law, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Legal Studies
John Jay College (CUNY)
Doctorate
Law
Fordham University School of Law
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
I grew up in New York.
2.
I knew early on that I wanted to become a lawyer but as a teen mother, I felt I needed to choose a path that would lead to a job opportunity straight after college, so I pursued computer science.
3.
After one too many advanced calculus classes, I realized computer science was not for me, so I switched back to my original passion, earned my degree in legal studies, and went to law school.
4.
I finished law school and started working in local government in New York City.
5.
I built my career as an attorney trying to figure out how we can use all the tools in our toolbelt to make our democracy more inclusive and accessible.
6.
I’m currently serving as CEO for DoSomething.org, one of the largest nonprofit organizations for young people and social change.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Teachers:
You can't stay on this academic path now that you're pregnant. You need to transfer to an alternative high school for pregnant women.
How I responded:
When I got pregnant as a teenager, I was told that I couldn't continue the academic path that I was on and that I needed to transfer to an alternative high school. I decided to visit that school to see what it was like and quickly realized that it would have left me as just another statistic—a young Black woman that couldn't succeed. With support from my mom, I appealed the recommendation and was able to stay at my high school, graduate on time with my peers with honors, and go on to college.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
Being a teen mom was one of the hardest things I've done in my life. It created a cascading set of decisions that I had to learn and understand, especially as a young Black woman.