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Hello! Welcome to the Careers for Kids podcast for kids learn careers. This is Maxwell Valencia.

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And this is Henry Morrison. And today we have Jen Tooker, the first electman of the town

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of Westport, or in other words, the mayor. Hello Mrs. Tooker. Thank you for spending

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your time to be on Careers for Kids. We hope we have a great interview. Now let's get started!

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This is great to be with you both. Thanks Maxwell. Thanks Henry for having me. And here

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you are in my office. So this is just going to be great. This is crazy for us. Okay, so

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Maxwell's going to start us off with a question. And tell us what you currently do. Sure. So

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as you said in my introduction, I am the first select woman of Westport, Connecticut, otherwise

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known as the mayor. So everybody from police chief Foti Koskinis, all the way through to

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our conservation director, Colin Kelly, and all the way through to our Department of Public

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Works director, Pete Rackiewicz, they all report to me. And together, we all run the

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town. We make sure that the roads are clear and nicely paved. We make sure that when you

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have an emergency, the fire or the police or the EMS crew show up. We make sure that

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our parks stay beautiful and our beaches stay beautiful. And so all the things that require

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running a town. That's what I do. That's awesome. With a bunch of really great people here in

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town hall. It's crazy that you do it like that. Can you just tell me more about your

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career? How did you get to this? Sure. So I my my first career for the first 25 years

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was actually in in business in corporate America. I know. Yeah. So I lived in New York and Chicago

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and London with a business career and then moved here about 15 years ago for my for for

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that career and then immediately got involved in local local politics and local elected

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boards and commissions. I decided since I knew I was going to be here, I have three

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kids. My husband and I moved here, like I said, 15 years ago, and we knew we were going

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to live here for a long time. And I decided I wanted to get involved with the community.

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And I and then I served on a couple of other boards and commissions locally before I was

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elected for select woman. And what I loved about the work is that I was able to really

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make a difference in my own community right here for my kids, for my neighbors, for my

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family, for my friends. The things I do every day touch the lives of all the people I care

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about. And so I thought it was just a really great way to give back to your community.

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What part of your job do you enjoy the most and dislike the most? Oh, gosh, the part I

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love the most is in this job, I am with people all day long. Oh, I would love that. Right.

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Me too. I totally love that. I'm a complete extrovert. I'm a complete people person. So

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my favorite part of the job is that that's what I do all day long is listen to people

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meet with people, hear their concerns, hear what they love about the town and think about

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things we can do better. So that's my favorite part of the job. Oh, my least favorite part

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of the job. I don't know. I don't I don't know that I have a least favorite part of

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the job. I feel really, really lucky to be in this job. And I feel so grateful for the

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opportunity. It's amazing. It's good to love your job. It is I wake up every single day

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full of energy. Because I like it so much. I really do. Yeah, I would love to have a

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job that I love. You will. Yeah. That's why you guys are doing this podcast, too, right?

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People can get a good idea of all the jobs that are out there. And they can think about

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what would make them really happy. Right? Yeah. So was this the dream job you made yourself

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when you were a kid? So when I was a kid, I wanted to be a professional athlete. Don't

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ask me what sport I just thought it would be so cool to be a professional athlete. But

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yes, as I got older, this absolutely became my dream job. Something that I could, like

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I said, something I can do where I'm working with people all the time, where I'm solving

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problems for people all the time, and where I'm making things just a little bit better.

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That's the dream job for me. Like who were your main idols when you were young? So my

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main idols were my parents, actually. My mom worked full time until she retired at age

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70. And when I was young, that was not necessarily a thing that moms did. So she was my idol

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from that standpoint. I saw how much she worked both inside the house and outside the household.

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And my dad, my dad, if I think I like people, my dad was the ultimate people person. There

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wasn't a person he ever met that he couldn't find something in common with and talk to.

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And so, and he was very community minded. He did a lot of volunteering in the community

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in which I grew up. And I always thought that was he always made time to do that. So I always

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thought that was really, really, really pretty cool. So they were my idols growing up.

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And I can see how extroverted you are. You're so happy and smiling. You're nice to us.

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Well, it's fun to have you guys in the office. I'm actually very honored to be asked to do

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this. So thank you.

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We're honored to do this to you too.

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Oh, great. Thank you.

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So like, why did you pick this job? I mean, I know you were talking about how you're extroverted.

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I don't know. Like, I kind of understand somewhat, but can you tell me more about that?

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Sure. So what I love about the job, like I said, is that I deal with people all day long.

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But the other thing that I do in this job is I solve problems all day long, right? Residents

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who are unhappy about things or business owners who are worried about things or people who

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just want to have their opinions heard and understood. And so I love the problem solving

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part of this job. That's what actually also really makes me happy. And I think that it

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gives you really feel good when you can talk to somebody, you can hear what they're concerned

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about and then you can actually do something about it. Right. It's and then you know, they

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walk away feeling, feeling heard and feeling proud of their community. Right. So I think

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that's a pretty that's a that's that's a really cool position to be in to be able to help

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people. Yeah. And what was like the most biggest, like, high of your entire career? Oh, gosh,

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the big the biggest high of my career. Oh, my heavens. Well, I would say certainly the

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biggest high of my career in this line of work was being elected mayor and for select

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women in November of twenty twenty one. That was the high just that night where you knew

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that the the votes were in and that I had won the race and that I was going to have

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the privilege and the honor of being the mayor of the first selectman of the town. That was

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definitely the highlight of this of my career in this line of work for sure. I can get like

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I can get why it's like such a guy like I say, I was running for mayor. Then I was elected.

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I go like crazy. I'd be jumping up and down. I was jumping up and down a lot. And I had

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my two of my three kids there with me that night. And it was super fun. Yeah. And so

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many people who I care about were there to support me, regardless of what was going to

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happen. They were there to support me and second select woman Andrea Moore, who is my

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is my running mate and the second select woman. So the two of us got elected that night and

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it was a really exciting evening. And since then, we've we've been working really hard.

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But it's great. That's awesome. What were you doing for this? So before this, I was

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I was the second select woman. So I was the deputy mayor, so to speak. And before that,

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I was on the board of finance, which is the which is the board in town that makes all

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the decisions around money. And before that, I was on the board of Ed, which makes all

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the decisions about your schools. Yeah. Right. So and before that, I was working, like I

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said, in business and corporate America for a reinsurance company. Not sure that I can

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we insure insurance companies. So yeah, a financial transaction. So that's what I did

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for 25 years before I got into this line of work. Yeah. What are the biggest challenges

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that you think can be solved by our generation that you want to solve for you? So I think

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your generation are going to be awesome leaders. And I think what you are going to do that

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we are not doing a very good job of right now, my generation is not doing a very good

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job of is I think you guys are going to know and understand how important it is to listen

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to people and to work with people and to build relationships with people and to really make

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sure that the decisions you're making take everybody's opinion into account. And so I

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think your generation is going to bring that leadership style back. I'm trying to, but

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I think it's I think that your generation is going to bring that leadership style back

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because that's going to be the only way you're going to be able to tackle the important things

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like the future of education in the country, climate change, right? You know, basically

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making sure that we have allies across the globe that have our backs and that no one

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understands what's important about democracy. Those are all huge, huge things that are going

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to be issues for us for years and years to come. The only way you're going to ever make

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any headway in making any progress on any of those issues is if you know how to be leaders,

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leaders who listen and who know how to work with people.

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And let's say someone listening to this podcast really wants to follow in your first letters

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in your careers. What would you tell him or her?

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I would say dream big. I would say dream big. Whatever you want to be, go ahead and dream

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about it. Get to know and understand more about the job. Come in like you guys have

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done. Come in and meet with me and ask me about my day and ask me about the work I do

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and start to really get to know and understand the job and then dream big. There's nothing

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standing in your way for you guys to do what you want to do now and when you get older.

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Absolutely nothing standing in your way. I like that.

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That's true. That's really good advice in general. Not just for kids, but just for everybody.

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For everybody. Yeah.

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What is your main life advice? I mean, as that kids listen to this podcast.

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Like main life advice, your biggest life advice, like the most biggest life advice I've ever

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said. I don't know how to explain it.

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You might think this is a little bit weird, but I think smiling and laughter is probably

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the best thing you can do in life to make sure you have a positive view on the world

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and to make sure you always remember what does make you happy, what does make you smile.

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And I think that attitude is contagious. And I think when people are happy and they're

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smiling, they do their best work. They make their best friends. They can do things that

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they never thought they could do because they feel empowered and happy. And so I would say

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keep a smile on your face and make sure you remember how to laugh all the time.

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That's not a weird thing. That's actually pretty cool. I like that.

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You think so? I smile a lot.

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I do too. I do too. And I feel kind of bad because it's already over. And thank you so

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much Mrs. Trippi for allowing us to interview you. I'm sure so many kids will definitely

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be inspired by this amazing interview with you.

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To whoever is listening, thanks for listening to the Greatest for Kids podcast. Hope you

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enjoyed this episode and we'll see you in the next one. Bye!