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Celebrating the power of possibility.

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I'm Jeanette Mills and I believe that anything is possible.

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I'm Halloran Hilton Hill and welcome to another edition of Anything is Possible.

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These are great stories about great people whose lives prove that anything is possible.

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My guest today is Jeanette Mills. Thank you for being here today.

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Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here and be part of this conversation.

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First thing that our friend in common, Stephen Davis, said, this.

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This is a powerful woman. I said, okay. He said, no, you don't understand.

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This is a powerful woman. You have power. But when I met you, I didn't attribute the power to what you do and where you do it.

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I felt something else. What I felt was your power is rooted in a knowledge of who you are.

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Like you know who you are, which means you know where you're from. Did I assess that accurately?

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Oh, yeah. Definitely. I'm born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.

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What was that like?

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Yeah, well back then, you know, we were with our mom. It was she and us and our three older sisters. I'm the baby.

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And she had married our dad when she was met him in high school. Got married, thought everything would be great.

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But by the time I was coming along, the breakup happened. So I kind of grew up with her and my three older sisters.

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And we, you know, she was the head of our household and she worked really hard to take care of us.

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And we had to move quite a bit, but it was, you know, we lived in a lot of different neighborhoods around Baltimore.

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But the one thing she stressed to us was that we were all going to get an education.

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You know, she wanted us to graduate high school and she would tell us that.

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What kind of a student were you?

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I was actually the daughter of my family, I'll be honest about it. So my older sisters, they were out parties and everything else.

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And I was generally, I had a, I have one sister, we're 11 months apart in the same year.

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So I was a surprise baby too, but she's born in January and I'm born in December of 1966.

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So I was always her sister. And so I was the one in the books and people would say today, they would say,

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what happened to that sister, y'all, that was always in the house, the one that was in the books, you know, the folks from the neighborhood.

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And so I just like to learn. I like to be around my mother and then also my grandmother and my aunt.

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And so I had, I have an old soul I like to learn and I like to just be a good person.

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What did you, what did you love about the energy of your mother, your grandmother, your aunt?

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Tell me about these women and the texture of their character and personality that you liked being around.

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Yeah, I'll start with my mom. You know, the word that comes in my mind is strength.

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She's very strong, even in the face of, you know, significant challenges.

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I didn't really understand it. So I had kids of my own, just the responsibility of having children.

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And then she was by herself pretty much the breadwinner of the family had to provide the structure of our family.

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And so she, she had a set, she really had a firm hand, I'll say, but a warm heart.

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You know, she, like she do things like everybody goes to school, I go to work, you go to school.

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But then on Valentine's Day, she bring each of us home a little heart for each, you know, the four of us and give it out to us.

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And, you know, we were Tommy's girls, and his name is Thomasina, we were Tommy's girls and, you know, and she was ours.

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Like we had a tight knit family. And with my grandmother though, she was had kind of that, even though she was the matriarch, she really was like our dad.

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So if I ever got in trouble, which is very few times, you know, you know, so don't talk to any of my sisters very few times, right?

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My mom, one would be surprised like, Jeanette, like you're never doing anything, but then she called my grandmother to come over.

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And my grandmother, you know, we all had nicknames, everybody had nicknames growing up.

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What was yours?

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That's several.

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Do you all want to do a film?

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I'll give you probably one of the best, so Nettie Pooh, you know, Jeanette, Nettie Pooh.

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And so my grandmother would never call anybody, no nicknames. She would call you by your full name.

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And so when you went in trouble, she would come over and she would sit on the sofa and call you, you know, Jeanette, I need to talk to you.

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And you'd come down because you knew you were in trouble because you heard your mother telling her what happened.

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So and what she would do is she'd have you sit right here, she'd do it like that.

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And then she'd sit and she'd say, let me hold your hand. And she'd help your hand like this.

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And she'd start talking. So I've heard that this happened or that happened. Do you want to talk? You know, you want to talk about it.

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And it was like, you know, I mean, it was probably worse than a spanking, you know, and she would talk to you, but talk to you about it.

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And just really try to understand why that happened. And, you know, what are you going to do differently the next time? Have you thought about it?

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But you knew when you were in trouble, as I hit your heart, I'm filling up now just thinking about it a few times that she did that.

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And then with my aunt, now both my mom and my grandma have passed many years ago, but my aunt is still living.

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Her name's Elaine. We call her Cookie. I guess I shouldn't say that on camera, but hey, I gave you my names.

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I'm giving them all now. But my aunt was the one who was with my mom when my dad left.

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So he was gone. So she'd give my mother free time by coming to get us.

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And so whether she was taking us to a McDonald's in downtown Baltimore on the bus, when she went to college,

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she took us with her to the library. It's particularly me and my sister.

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That way, we love them. It's from each other. Jackie, she takes us to the library when she was in college and just spend time with us.

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Teaching us things, talking to us about things, while my mother was at work.

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And so even to this day, I mean, as I've progressed in my career and my life has changed, she's my constant.

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She was there. I'll tell you a quick story. Today, my mom, I'm going on New Year's Eve, and my mom's about to have me.

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And she's pregnant. She's got four of us. And so she was fixing my sister's dinner when the contraction started.

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So she looked at her money. She says, I only have a certain amount of money. So she calls my aunt Cookie,

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as her and her other younger sister, come over in a taxi.

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And says, come on over. I've got some money. I'm going to give you the three kids.

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And she gave her last amount of money so that they could go back to my grandmother's house. My grandmother's at work.

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My grandmother's a maid. She cleaned the doctor's house and his office.

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And she said, take this the last of my money. And they went back to my grandmother's house, the five of them.

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And then she walked so she could go to the hospital and have me.

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That's amazing.

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And it's deep.

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There's that strength, right?

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That's that strength. Like, she's like, I have got to take care of all of them.

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So do you feel like as you developed, as you developed who you are, it was built on those things?

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Those things, we learned a lot about family, knowing your family, learning.

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And really she wanted us, she would tell us, I want you all to do better.

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Do you love learning?

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Oh yeah, I do love learning.

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Okay, good. See, that's the beautiful thing.

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By the way, when I was growing up, since we're swapping nicknames, my dad called me Deek.

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Deek.

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He was a preacher. I was his little deacon.

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Oh, wow. I love that.

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But my father also gave me a love of learning.

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Like, there was an expectation that I was going to get an education, but he wanted it co-mingled with inspiration, the desire to learn and to grow.

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And so as you're telling the story of these three women that wrapped themselves around you, for me what came out of just that vignette is that you were seen.

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You were visible to a group of people that were like, you're significant enough for us to care.

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Exactly.

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Maybe you don't realize it when it's happening, but later in your life you realize, nope, they weren't going to let me do anything but succeed.

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Exactly. And when you think about it, and that's a really great way of putting it, because, and that's why I could take on the world, you know, the streets of Baltimore City or wherever I would go,

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because I had such a strong understanding of who I was and they had expectations.

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Possibility powered by Covenant Health, Home Federal, and the Knoxville News Sentinel.

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When did you decide on your educational direction? Where'd you go to school?

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So in Baltimore, you know, we went to generally public schools, and generally in school my early years I would get straight A's, but my conduct would get me in trouble, even in elementary school.

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What was wrong with your conduct?

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Well, I'll give you one example. So, you know, I'm like a third grader and we're in elementary school social studies, and the teacher one day, I think it was third grade, said,

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if you don't call your mother mom, that means it's a sign of disrespect.

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Now, we call my grandmother mama, and everybody called our mother Tommy, so we called her Tommy.

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And then, you know, my aunt Cookie was aunt Cookie, so, so, so of course I stand up.

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I don't even know if I raised my hand, and I basically being to explain to him how he, you know, this teacher was incorrect, and why.

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Like that is not incorrect, because I totally respected Tommy.

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But it was mama, it was mama, we thought it was everybody called her, and so Tommy was Tommy.

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So, so he, that particular teacher, he let me finish, and he said, you know, basically Miss, my name was Cochle then Miss Cochle, could you please step outside.

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So I had to sit outside the rest of the class, I'm like, I'm in trouble again.

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But what he did was he called my mother, asked her to come up for a conference, and he said to her, you need to make sure she goes to college.

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He said basically I got like an elementary school student, basically explaining her position or something I said in class.

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You know, because that was like a formality of it.

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But do you, I'm sure you do, I'm sure you realize how powerful it was that they made space for you to be an individual.

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Yeah, yeah.

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To find your personal confidence to, they didn't smash that.

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They didn't say you don't talk back, you don't, you can stand up for what you believe in.

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Yep, exactly.

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And it's interesting because if you, each one of my sister, we're still close to this day, each one of us believed that our mother gave us each individual attention, that we were her favorite.

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Wow, that's awesome.

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Think about it, with the struggle of having to work every day, come home, we had chores every time.

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Do you think she was compensating for the absence of your father?

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Did she overcorrect and then you benefited from that?

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You know, I think, you know, it's a funny thing.

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I think a lot of times when I see folks that I think she just loved us where we were, she loved us.

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I love that.

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And the love was this, it was a firm hand if you broke a rule.

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Right.

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And there was also kind of, I'm noticing you, I'm paying attention to you and she would tell each of us, just give us a little advice, you know, as we're coming along with situations would happen.

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But, you know, if we got out of line, I mean, she was ready.

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I mean, my mother, I told people all the time she was no joke.

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So would you, where'd you end up going to school and would you end up?

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So I ended up elementary school, just public schools in Baltimore City.

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Right.

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And there was a moment in junior high school, you know, middle school, I guess now, but back in junior high where I got called to the guidance counselor's office.

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I'm like, I'm trying to do an accounting.

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Like, did I do anything again?

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Because I really had tried to tone it all down.

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Like my wanting to be in charge and in the position of authority at the time, even though you're a middle school, junior high student.

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So, junior high school students.

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So they called me down.

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So I go down and she says to me, you really scored higher on the Maryland State test.

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And Matt.

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And she says, we recommend that you go to a city-wide school in Baltimore City.

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And what that was, you wouldn't go into your neighborhood school.

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At the time, it was schools either Baltimore Polytechnic Institute or City College.

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And she said, one of those two schools because of your scores, because those are college preparatory schools.

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So I was like, okay.

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So ran home and told my mom.

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And so I ended up going to Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.

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And it was an all-boy school up until like 19, maybe the late 70s.

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And so it's probably 90% men, 10% women.

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So my mom's like, you're going to go.

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I took the bus there.

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And so it was there that I learned about STEM and learned about engineering.

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And so, you know, it was a school first school I ever went to.

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Everybody, you know, basically all of, you know, I was a nerd.

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So all the nerds were together.

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I should say that.

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So we were all together.

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And it was all races, all backgrounds.

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And so at Poly, you know, I was in the A course and I really, really loved the teachers and the learning.

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And ended up deciding to become an electrical engineer at that school.

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So where'd you go?

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Went to Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

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Wow.

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Did you imagine that?

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No, no.

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And it was like doors were opening.

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Like, you know, you start in your home, you kind of learn, you know, people pour as much as they can into you.

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Then you get out in the world.

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But every opportunity that came my way, I go home and tell my mom, hey, this came up.

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I mean, we never talked about being an engineer.

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She said you're going to get a high school diploma.

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Once you got that.

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But yeah, she just was like.

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I think the old proverb is go as far as you can see.

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And when you get there, you'll see further.

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Yes.

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And I think that's what I've lived.

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So I've always had the support of my family, even to this day, living here in Tennessee.

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So you leave Virginia Tech and what happens?

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I leave Tech and in Virginia Tech, I specialized in power systems.

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So I knew I wanted to work for utility.

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I knew I wanted to provide electric power.

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I know people look like really, but I did.

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And so when I left, I could have gotten a job in Virginia and Richmond at now Dominion Energy.

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It was like Virginia Power back then.

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But then Baltimore Gas Electric came a call and they actually flew me back to Baltimore.

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I think it's my first time on the plane for this interview.

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And I already had an offer in Virginia and I liked Virginia.

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I was going to stay there.

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And so I go home for the interview and I stay with my mom instead at a hotel.

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And that night she looks at me and says, do you know, Jeanette, I'm so proud of you.

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She says I've always been proud of you.

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But she said, do you know, Baltimore Gas Electric?

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I mean, for them, it was, that's a good job, right?

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More than a good job, right?

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Right.

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And so, so I came up with that kind of casual.

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I'm going to do this interview, see what happens.

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So then I realized if they offer me this job, I can't break her heart.

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I'm not taking it.

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So, so I could do the interview and they call me the next day.

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How much education did she have?

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Thomas.

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High school diploma.

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So do you think that part of the journey for her, you were helping her fulfill her dream?

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Because it sounds like she had great aspirations as well.

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Yeah.

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She, I mean, I think she did.

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And I think she used to tell all of us not to have, as you would say, a bunch of kids.

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Because then you, you know, it slows you down.

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So, so growing up, there were a few things I was concerned about.

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One, getting addicted to any type of drugs, drugs, alcohol, whatever, and then having children,

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you know, too early in my life.

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As a matter of fact, at one point in time, my kids was having two.

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I wasn't getting married and I wasn't having kids and I did both.

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Tell God you're playing and then what?

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I know.

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I've said that because I thought it was as a thing that slow, you know, I was, I was really driven.

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Being an engineer is quite different than being an executive.

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Did you see this arc?

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You know, it's funny.

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I don't know if I saw it, but one time when I was applying for a position at one of the

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companies I worked for, they sent me to a psychologist because they wanted to know who you were.

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The first thing the psychologist asked me was, and by then I was, had been an executive at least five or six years,

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and so the first thing the psychologist asked me was, how were you in your household?

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What role did you play?

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And I thought that's an interesting question.

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I've got, by then I had an undergraduate degree in Engineering, MBA, and you start with that question.

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He's basically taken me back to Fairmount Avenue in Baltimore.

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So, and so I started telling her, you know, I was the youngest of the four of us, and I was the one who made

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sure everybody did their chores before my mother got home, and I was also the one that if anybody had broken any rules

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and my mother's head, you know, her foot couldn't even cross the threshold without a full report out from me as to

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exactly what happened and who did it, right?

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Or who came in our house or whatever.

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So, and so she, so I started talking to her how I grew up.

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She asked me, and she said, most people, particularly executives,

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your behavior ends up being the way it was back when you were a child.

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She said, she said that's how it is.

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So she wanted to know that.

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So I think when you ask the question of engineering and ultimately ended up being an executive or in leadership,

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I guess I was leading back then.

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You know, I believe engineering was a mechanism right for me to really change my life.

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Are you surprised by how successful you've been?

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I know you were part of the National Grid, the UK, huge organization.

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Now here at TVA, senior vice president, and you have a vast area of responsibility and your career is still rising.

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Are you surprised by any of this?

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Well, I will say this, surprised probably.

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When I was a kid, I would tell my sisters when we were all in the house together, they remind me of this,

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I'd tell them when we were doing our chores, hey, one day I'm not going to have to do this.

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I'm going to have somebody's going to do this for me.

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I would like say it, and they're all like, just get your chores done.

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Like we just need to get it done.

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She's coming home soon.

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And I would tell them things like this.

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So, so I would make these proclamations, and I don't know how I knew that, right?

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I was just making because I really believed it.

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So I'm not, I don't know if the word surprised.

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I'm always humbled by it.

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And so what I, the way I've always viewed it, because, you know, my career, you know, many times I was the only,

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only woman of color.

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Right.

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Particularly in engineering.

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Folks have never seen a black electrical engineer until they saw me.

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So for me, I feel like it's been just a vehicle for me to kind of bring more good into the world

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and help people as I went along.

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What have you learned about possibility for somebody that might be looking, wanting to learn,

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to think about their future?

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What are the life lessons you've learned?

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So I tell people all the time, one of the things I always was was open to considering thoughts from others

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or positions or responsibilities that there are things I would have never thought about doing it myself.

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So I, so I've always been open to that possibility, which is how I ended up at TVA because someone called me

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and said that they were looking for someone to take my position.

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And so, and they were doing a national search.

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I had never thought I'd live in Tennessee.

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Had to be open.

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Had to be open.

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So I was open.

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The next I'll say is, in life, I say, I try to focus on good intention.

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I try not to believe that people with situations are kind of out either to get me or whatever.

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I try to focus on the positive, no matter what's happening.

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And there are times things have happened in my career where I thought I really want to quit today.

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I really do.

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But then I stopped myself and I said, Jeanette, you know, God has a reason for this.

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Let's take a break.

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My guest is Jeanette Mills, part two next time.