Helping Kids “See Down the Road”

“I guess I came from a famous neighborhood. In Humboldt Park we invented the drive-by shooting, or at least perfected it. Gangs were a dominating presence in the neighborhood and claimed a lot of good young people. I’m talking about buddies whom you grow up playing baseball with in the alley or on the street. Then they make a series of bad decisions and are pulled away from sports and into guns or drugs – gangs.

“Midtown was a very different scene. One defining event happened when I was in the eighth grade. I hadn’t been thinking much about high school. The program director at Midtown, Tom Kane was his name, asked me if I had applied to a nearby college prep high school. I hadn’t and was reluctant even to try. But Tom believed in me. He dropped everything he was doing and that moment marched me over to the school’s admissions office.  “I came to understand that, just like Tom, we’re responsible for each other and in a special way for needy kids. We want them to make good choices at a time when they often don’t understand the outcomes. We need to help them see down the road.”

Quick Facts About Jim

Attended Midtown
Center for boys:
5th - 12th grade
High School:
St. Ignatius Preparatory
Undergraduate:
Columbia University
Graduate:
Kellogg Graduate School of
Management, MBA
Current employer:
Institute for Media and
Entertainment, New York City
(President)