- [Ray] How did I end
up at Seattle Pacific?
I made a list of universities.
Let me back that up, how did I?
I didn't prepare for this one.
My name is Ray Sugarman,
I'm a first generation college graduate.
Growing up I always
wanted to go to college,
and it was something
that was an aspiration.
But the how to actually get there,
was never something that was planned out.
When I was deciding
universities to attend,
I'd actually made a list.
Two different lists in fact.
One, of all the things
I wanted out of college.
Then I made a second list.
What do I think I need in
order to be successful?
Seattle Pacific University had every check
off the list of what I felt I needed
in order to be successful.
I am an attorney. I am also
a union representative.
What's been most meaningful
to me being in my career,
is that I get to advocate and
represent other individuals,
especially people of color.
Personally I do employment law,
I am a believer that one's relationship
with their job is the most important
relationship in their life, besides
the relationship with their family,
and if they choose so, the
relationship with their Creator.
So for me to be able to
advocate and represent
people in those situations,
people making claims
in discrimination and
harassment and looking
to me to be the one to advocate
and represent them, it's incredible,
and it's not a position I
ever thought I'd be in before.
If I could share something
with other young men of color,
it's don't limit yourself.
In high school, it wasn't
until someone said,
if you can't play basketball,
are you still gonna go to college?
Because you can make that happen.
It was the first time that it'd ever even
became a thought in my mind.
When my grades first came out,
my admissions counselor said,
that's great, but you can do better
so you can get into graduate school.
And I said, you're lucky
to have got me here.
That was me limiting myself
to what societies expectations were.
Know whose expectations
you're living up to,
change it to your own, and raise them.
(calm music)
