Dear friend,

By the time I was eight, I had experienced multiple adverse childhood experiences.  I lost my grandfather who was my heartbeat, I longed for a relationship with my missing father, and I had transitioned from a private school to a predominantly white public school where I experienced blatant racism for the first time.

I spent the majority of grade school in a South County School (Lindbergh School District) in a very affluent community and was later transferred to an urban school in North County- Riverview Gardens School District to finish 10-12 grade.  Riverview was approximately 95% black students and 5% white, 99% low-income. Riverview Gardens was the first of many black-populated county schools to lose its state accreditation. My 10th grade English book was the same book I had in the 5th grade at Lindbergh School District.  Riverview’s library was the size of 2 classrooms combined where in comparison, Lindbergh’s library was a three-story stand-alone building.  I learned quickly from this transition, that I would have to advocate for my future or I would become a tragic story of failure.

• I graduated from Riverview in 1997 with my first semester of college already completed.
• I bounced around from college to college not sure of who I was, how to find my purpose, or what I wanted to do with my life and really wasted a lot of time and money.  I finally graduated from Lindenwood University with my Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communications.
• Against all odds, I was accepted into Lindenwood’s graduate school for Nonprofit Administration and Washington University’s School of Social Work. 

There were a few valuable lessons I learned along that way that brought me into my passion:

• Opportunities are not equally accessible for all people
• You can’t do better until you see better
• If you don’t know your options, you don’t have any
• Environment drives behavior

As a result, I started learning as much as possible about the nonprofit world and how to design a comprehensive, high-impact program that marries education to socio-emotional intelligence.

I’ve made it my mission to give under-represented children—who are now in the circumstances I once was in—more opportunities than I had. This was when New Heights was born. Many incredible people have since stood up to join me in this mission to give hope, opportunities, and tools to children in adverse situations so that they can overcome life’s formidable roadblocks and live a purpose-filled life.

I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,

Connie Bobo