Rhonda participated in Y.O.U. in 1993 &1994. Now Rhonda owns her own successful business here in Cleveland. Listen and read her compelling story below:

I was about 19 years old, and in between jobs. I called the Cleveland Children's Museum because it was not that far away from my house and I became a volunteer. I did that for several months and then one day a museum staff member came up to me and said,

“Would you like to get paid for the same thing you're doing as a volunteer?”

I said, “Yes, absolutely.”

And so I come to find out the program that allowed me to get paid was Y.O.U. I did that for two summers. The first summer, I was pretty much, you know, a museum guide, but then I think that was the year they brought in a new exhibit. They trained us on how to evaluate an exhibit to do special performances, or what have you, and exhibit - It was really fun.

I'll never forget one day we were all gathered together; it was a few of us who worked at this site. Some people came from Case Western Reserve. I'll never forget this one time where we were all in a circle. And we were asked,

“How do we identify ourselves?”

And that was the first time I ever had to think about that question. Then I got a call from the museum asking me would I consider coming back a second year, again, through the Y.O.U. program. So the second year, I was actually promoted to assistant supervisor. In addition to all of the things I had to do around the museum, helping with the exhibits and that sort of thing, I also did the payroll. It was my responsibility to calculate everybody's hours and get the payroll in. You know, I'm 20 years old and having that kind of responsibility.

It was that year they paired us with a mentor who was a museum staff person. My mentor was the executive director of the museum. One week I go into her office, and she says,

“Rhonda, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

I entertained a lot of different things but had not really settled on anything at that point. I said,

“I want to be a writer” because that was something that I hadn't really entertained. And she said,

“Oh, I wish I had known because Maya Angelou was recently in town, and I would have taken you to see her.”

It went totally over my head because I had no clue who Maya Angelou was at the time. I come back the next week. I sit down, and she hands me a copy of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I still have it tucked away somewhere in my books. She wrote in it:

“I hope Maya inspires you, and thank you for your participation. We really enjoy working with you.”

Immediately after reading that book, I picked up the phone, and I called to try and see If I could go back to school. That single book caused me to take action to go back to school.

I went to Tri-C where I obtained an Associate of Arts degree. I went on to Cleveland State, where I finished a bachelor’s degree in English with a specialization in creative writing, publishing, and editing. I've been a news writer, I wrote a book, I do editing for people, and I have my own business. We’re a Creative Services Agency; we do a lot of messaging and design work. I've been a writer pretty much for the last 20 years.

Rhonda’s advice for young people today:

As a young person, be open to the possibilities to embrace the opportunity and open your mind to learning because you never know what that opportunity is going to lead too.

Don't look at it as work. Regardless to whatever it is that you're doing, whatever position or whatever role that you're working in, learn. Learn how to appreciate that role. No matter what your job is, be good. Focus more on being great at what you do than how menial it may be.

This interview was conducted with Rhonda Crowder on January 19th, 2021.