Jarret Jones
Chicago, IL
Jarrett was born and raised on the south side of Chicago where he participated in community-based organizations as an adolescent, beginning with City Year Young Heroes. Although he was apart of this program at a young age, it was still difficult to avoid the social norms of the community he grew up in. This included elements such as exposure to violence, gangs, and drugs. It wasn’t until he reached the age of 19 and had lost countless friends and classmates to the criminal justice system and the violence that plagues society that he realized he no longer had to accept the same faith as those before him. Being the only one out of his two siblings to obtain a high school diploma, Jarrett went on to work for three different law firms, one multi-billion dollar corporation, and surpassed what society had expected for him.
Jarrett has gone on to dedicate his time to the same non-profit that taught him such good values at a young age. He is currently working for City Year’s Chicago Corps as a team leader managing a group of young adults who are working at an elementary school a few blocks from where he graduated high school.
He has aspirations of establishing his own non-profit organization to counter the systematic oppression of people of color in all ways, shapes and forms (primarily in education, economically, and socially).
Sponsoring Organization: City Year