April Hurst

My grandfather was one of the most influential people in my life. He always taught me about questioning everything and not just believing anything I read - he told me to do the research. When he discovered I disliked history, he would give me a subject at the beginning of the day and tell me he might ask me about it at the end of the day. I would sneak into the library and navigate the Dewey Decimal system, read everything I could, make notes, and then give him a summary at the end of the day. He always had more to add, things that weren't in books, and he would say 'because you have to keep digging, you'll find truth. And sometimes you'll find a truth so big that it makes everything else look like a lie.' By the time I was in high school, I think it was junior year, I had gotten so good at this game that I was teaching him different facts. When I was in college, I asked him what it was all about, and he said he wanted me to be confident - no matter what life threw at me, I would be confident enough to step into any place, any space, and do the work. If I had somebody in front of me having a conversation about something, I would be able to add to it and know something about what they were talking about. That's taken me a lot of places. I was always taught to learn as much as you can because you never know when you're going to need it, and that's been my motto all of my life. I'm always learning something - when other people are scrolling on Facebook, I'll be learning a different language, especially if I know a client's coming in. I just do the best I can, and I've been fortunate to have good people around me who were all big readers and education-geared.

There was a Black algebra teacher I had in 6th grade who wanted to see me after class one day. She asked me what college I was going to, and I said 'college?' She said 'yeah, you're definitely going to college.' I was thinking about how I would pay for it, and she said there are tons of ways, and if I couldn't figure it out at that point in time, to come see her and she would help find a way for me. She was the first person that sort of planted the idea of education and made up my mind about going. She was all about learning no matter where you are and keeping learning. She later formed an organization that helped kids get into college, before grants were massive. When she died, I spoke with her daughter and told her I met her the first year she started teaching, and she was very insistent - 'you are going to school, you can make so much difference in people's lives, you're definitely going.' I've just been fortunate to have good people around me. My grandfather also taught me that when opportunities were opened up, I would be able to step in a lot of times when other people didn't know something. I've had some very strong, influential women in my life who would push me - like my choir teacher who discovered I could write and made me enter a writing contest alongside the singing competition, saying 'you need to write, you're talented.' I had amazing teachers who were phenomenal, and as a parent, finding the right school, the right teachers, and the right curriculums became one of my biggest things.

The people I work around are most important to me - I don't really get caught up on job titles anymore, I used to, but now it's about the people. When I'm interviewed for anything, I interview them because I want to know, is this a place that I really could see myself being happy? My family taught me that even though our family had some challenges along the way, they didn't stop caring for people around them because of those challenges, and I think that's pretty important. My greatest role wasn't really all of my professional accomplishments, it was being a mom myself. I have one son, but I ended up raising four boys - they were kids that were friends of his that needed somebody in their lives. They just needed somebody to care, and I had good people that cared about me first and foremost, so I had a good family foundation. I'm really proud of all the boys and what they've accomplished and are doing. The networking I've done has been primarily not for myself, but for other people - like when I got involved with Make-A-Wish Foundation, if there was a child whose last wish was to fly in an airplane, I knew how to make that happen. I've done a lot of networking in a lot of different ways, but it's primarily been about other people. In this part of my life, it's kind of switched gears to going back to being about me, because my boy's doing great and I can focus on that kind of thing a little bit easier now.