Nykia Banks

I would say my children. Because I always wanted to be able to show them what they could be, and I always felt like I wanted to be their first role model. So everything that I do is for them. We don't have a lot of family members to look up to, or different things like that, and they didn't have that either. So I felt like it was my responsibility for them to see more than what we already knew, for what life had been for us. So my children are my attributes. Everything I do, I do it for them.

I was always told that stuck with me was to do it afraid. Because where I come from, you were always kind of labeled and stereotyped, and so it always kind of made me think, oh, that may not work for me, or I may not be good enough for that. But just getting up around people, I've developed what I call my COW, my circle of wisdom. And those people that are in that, they have always told me, you do it afraid. Even if you think that you're not good enough, if you're fearful of not being worthy, do it anyway, because even when you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will. Something that has always stuck with me is just persevering. Just having one of my mentors tell me my perseverance is just outstanding, because I won't quit. I won't stop until I get to the goal.

I would say just remember who you are, and know that you have value, and that what you have to offer is just as important as your counterparts. Because in this industry, you don't find a lot of people that may, especially coming from where I come from, there's not a lot of people with these backgrounds. And speaking to a lot of people that I've worked with nowadays, you know, listening to their backgrounds, it's nothing like mine. So I would just tell people when you know who you are, you be firm in that, and you stand on that, and you never let anyone second-guess or make you second guess who you are. If you know that you fit what they're asking for in this industry, or any other industry, you do it afraid. You apply afraid, you speak afraid, but you also be confident in what you're doing.

Well, obviously, right now, we're facing some challenges as far as freezing a lot of job postings. Job postings are being frozen right now, so there's not a lot of movement able to be done. There's some critical things that are able to be done, but the usual fluid movement that you usually might see within the jobs of the Federal Reserve, those are not as available right now due to the current freeze, so we're just working our way through those and just accepting the opportunities as they come.

In both personal and professionally, I would say integrity is one of the big things for me. Just being accountable. And I always think of being a team player, and those are all in both professionally and personally. Team player, because you can't do everything alone, and I've come to know that. So, as a single parent going through and navigating my children through college and potential military, I know that I need a village, just like I knew that I needed a village when I was coming up in the Fed in the beginning. There were people who took me under their wings, they taught me a better way of speaking. They taught me a better way of just displaying myself and making sure that people understood I want to be here. So that was what worked for me.