Every city competing for talent today is looking outward, recruiting from other markets, building relocation packages and marketing itself to graduates who haven’t yet chosen a home. Chicago does this too, and it should.
But there is a more immediate opportunity sitting right in front of us: the talented, credentialed, mission-driven first-generation graduates already here. They are people who already love this city and want to build their futures in it.
We are talking about the graduates and emerging leaders who are the first in their families to obtain a college degree and work in white-collar professions. Their route is typically more complex than others, and, as a result, they bring strengths that can be harder to recognize on a resume.
Both of us know this firsthand. One of us came to the United States from Ecuador at age 5 and grew up in Los Angeles in a diverse community of multigeneration Americans and immigrants. The other, born in Chicago, is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees and grew up in the ethnically diverse neighborhood of Rogers Park. We were the first in our families to pursue a college degree and professional career.
Many of this spring’s graduates from Chicago’s colleges and universities share our backgrounds — first-generation and/or lower-income college students. It’s not uncommon for them to have been fully employed throughout their college years. Some have been supporting families, working in family businesses or managing households while earning credentials that will take them further than their parents or grandparents could go.
Because of their unique experiences, first-generation professionals are adaptable by necessity. They have navigated institutions that were not built with them in mind, and they succeeded by drawing on the strengths of their backgrounds and communities.
They are resourceful in ways that show up on the job — in how they solve problems, manage ambiguity and find solutions outside the conventional path. And many carry a deep desire to uplift the marginalized communities that they emerged from.
Beyond individual capability, there is a strategic case that Chicago’s business leaders undervalue if they are not drawing from this pool of talent. Our region’s growth markets in healthcare, education, logistics and financial services are concentrated in communities that reflect these graduates’ backgrounds and experiences. Understanding those markets, earning trust and serving them well require people who have real relationships and credibility.
The employers who figure out how to genuinely recruit, develop and advance first-generation talent will not just be doing good. They will have a structural advantage over competitors who keep fishing in the same narrow pool.
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Chicago’s institutions of higher education are already doing their part. City Colleges of Chicago, the University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago State University and National Louis University, among others, have built their reputations on the premise that everyone deserves access to an excellent education. They have created deliberate pathways for working adults, first-generation students and Chicagoans from all walks of life to move into life-changing professional careers.
As a result, Chicago produces first-generation professionals in significant numbers every year. Unfortunately, Chicago employers largely fail to take advantage of this because of how they evaluate, recruit and develop their employees. They overindex on institutional prestige, perceived cultural fit and linear career paths — signals that correlate more with socioeconomic factors and obscure the strengths of first-generation professionals.
Solutions for this current blind spot are many: internship programs that reach beyond the usual suspects; apprenticeship pathways into corporate careers, such as those at Aon and United Airlines; mentorship structures that are intentional, not accidental; and hiring and promotion criteria that prioritize equitable access to opportunities rather than cultural familiarity. None of these require lowering the bar. Instead, they require challenging assumptions.
Our region faces real and serious challenges, including gun violence, neighborhood disinvestment, growing wealth disparity, population stagnation and a fiscal burden that constrains public investment. These are interconnected challenges. They are, in part, the accumulated cost of an economy that has not fully engaged all the people who live in it.
Correcting this problem is not just a moral imperative; it is the most direct path to the kind of broad-based growth that will secure Chicago’s future. And it starts with recognizing the talent and potential of our homegrown first-generation professionals.
Andrea Sáenz is president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust. Anna Truong is a first-generation college graduate and school psychology Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland and a former intern at The Chicago Community Trust.
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