{"id":73,"date":"2019-06-08T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/?p=73&preview=true&preview_id=73"},"modified":"2019-08-06T19:07:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T19:07:33","slug":"celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating diversity, one networking event at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to Community Corner, a series highlighting the work, passions and impact of our community teams around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, Izzy Jacques and her family were the only African Americans in her all-white neighbourhood. She was also the only person of colour in her primary school. Later, at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, there were only 54 black men and a handful of black women, Jacques recalls \u2013 out of 4,000 students in her year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a negative experience\u201d says Jacques, 28, who works as a business programme manager at Boston\u2019s WeWork 33 Arch St<\/a>. \u201cHowever, my experience at college illuminated for me that, when it came to diversity and inclusion, more could be done here in the city of Boston\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacques passion is diversity and inclusion, so she decided to see what she could do to work on the issue. ‘Third Thursdays’ was her answer: a monthly WeWork event featuring black and Latinx business owners and influencers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the events, people of colour from the community find not only business support but also moral support. \u201cWe get tons of questions for the speakers from the audience\u201d she says. \u201cAnd the speakers get guidance from experts in the audience to help further their causes, too\u201d. One recent speaker, Shannon Clarke, founder of Queen and Baby<\/a>, came to share her path to starting a business \u2013 and ended up gaining new contacts and increased exposure for her brand. \u201cShannon also got a lot of feedback from the audience about how to take her brand to the next level\u201d Jacques says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her part, Jacques says she feels excited to see real results and deep connection coming out of these events. \u201cAt other companies I worked at, my ideas weren\u2019t always \u2018entertained\u2019\u201d she says. At WeWork, she says, you can \u201chave your day job and <\/em>execute your passion\u201d. And her passion is fuelling more inclusive events at her day job. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen more diverse organisations hosting workshops and booking events at our location, including LGBTQIA groups, women-led companies and the National Association for Black Engineers, to name a few\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to think that WeWork and I can play some part in moving the city forwards\u201d says Jacques (right). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jacques is happy to be able to tap into her past experiences and help elevate people of colour in Boston. \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to think that WeWork and I can play some part in moving the city forwards\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke to Jacques about how she came to WeWork in the first place, why she never left her hometown and who she admires most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dream dinner-party guest: <\/strong>Jacques would love to host Michelle Obama, noting that she is \u201cso smart, poised and inspiring\u201d. \u201cShe\u2019s very in tune with her roots, where she came from and her journey, and she\u2019s vocal about how that has impacted her\u201d says Jacques. \u201cPlus, Michelle has impeccable style \u2013 I want some tips!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favourite place on earth: <\/strong>The docks at the Esplanade in Boston. \u201cIt\u2019s a place of peace\u201d says Jacques. \u201cI go there to sit and think, looking over at the water and the boats\u201d. Jacques, who says it\u2019s far enough out that you can\u2019t hear traffic, recommends going in the middle of the week so you have the place to yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why she\u2019s never left Boston: <\/strong>\u201cI\u2019ve thought about moving away, but for now I\u2019m committed\u201d Jacques says. \u201cI know this place inside out, and I think there\u2019s work to be done in the diversity and inclusion space before I move on\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spare time activity: <\/strong>\u201cI like hiking up a mountain that\u2019s near my house!\u201d she says, noting that while many may not consider the Blue Hills to be mountains, Bostonians do. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How she ended up at WeWork: <\/strong>Jacques had been working at a company for four years when a WeWork space opened in her building. \u201cI was on my way up to my office and the lift doors opened on the WeWork floor\u201d she recalls. \u201cAll I saw were people who were super happy, baristas, music playing \u2013 everyone looked so thrilled!\u201d When the lift proceeded up to her own floor and the door opened, she looked around and noticed the bland cubicles. \u201cI told all of my colleagues they had to press 6 when they got in the lift \u2013 that they needed to see what I saw\u201d she says. \u201cWithin a year, I was working at WeWork\u201d.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a woman of colour, Izzy Jacques doesn\u2019t just look for inclusion in the workplace and her community \u2013 she creates it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":904,"featured_media":74,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1427,1436],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-employee-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCelebrating diversity, one networking event at a time - Ideas (en-GB)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As a woman of colour, Izzy Jacques doesn\u2019t just look for inclusion in the workplace and her community \u2013 she creates it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrating diversity, one networking event at a time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a woman of colour, Izzy Jacques doesn\u2019t just look for inclusion in the workplace and her community \u2013 she creates it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ideas (en-GB)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-08T08:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-06T19:07:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jenna Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"As a woman of colour, Izzy Jacques doesn\u2019t just look for inclusion in the workplace and her community \u2013 she creates it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jenna Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time\",\"name\":\"Celebrating diversity, one networking event at a time - Ideas (en-GB)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/05\/izzy-jacques-header-image-we-of-color-shirt.jpeg?fit=1440%2C847\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-08T08:00:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-06T19:07:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/#\/schema\/person\/d6da26efd0c3273a92f24478a985c763\"},\"description\":\"As a woman of colour, Izzy Jacques doesn\u2019t just look for inclusion in the workplace and her community \u2013 she creates it\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/community-stories\/employee-spotlight\/celebrating-diversity-one-networking-event-at-a-time#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/05\/izzy-jacques-header-image-we-of-color-shirt.jpeg?fit=1440%2C847\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/en-GB\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/05\/izzy-jacques-header-image-we-of-color-shirt.jpeg?fit=1440%2C847\",\"width\":1440,\"height\":847,\"caption\":\"Izzy Jacques, a business programme manager for WeWork in Boston. 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