Gerald Chertavian Quotes & Sayings

“Mentors provide professional networks, outlets for frustration, college and career counseling, general life advice, and most importantly, an extra voice telling a student they are smart enough and capable enough to cross the stage at graduation and land their first paycheck from a career pathway job.”

“The ABC's are attitude, behavior and communication skills.”

“You can learn what you want to learn through hard work. And a good employer will teach you what you want to learn as long as you show the right attitude and behaviors.”

“One can fall into the 'soft bigotry of low expectations.'”

“The Opportunity Divide doesn't just keep our students disconnected from the mainstream economy; it prevents our businesses from growing.”

“You have, unfortunately, a K-12 educational system where the requirements to graduate are not the requirements to be college and career-ready. So if you want young adults who are college and career-ready, our K-12 system right now does not have that as its standard.”

“At Year Up, our students - low income 18-24 year olds - come to us having already faced substantial obstacles in life. They are not in search of a handout; what they want most of all is the ability to take ownership of their own futures.”

“The saying in business is that, 'You hire for skills and you fire for behavior.' And one would argue that in order to move up in career, to be promoted, to take on additional responsibility, in many ways that's linked more to the attitudes and behaviors that you carry rather than what you know technically about a given subject.”

“I was taught very early on how you treat people is actually what matters.”

“As we say at Year Up all the time, investing in our young people is not just a matter of economic justice. It's good business sense.”