Jim St. Germain
Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT)
New York, NY USA
"When you find people who refuse to give up on you and show you that you matter, it compels you to not let those individuals down...systems don’t change people, people change people."
Career Roadmap
Jim's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Politics, and Upholding a Cause and Belief
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Growing up, those were the only options that every kid thought was available to them and I leaned into that idea and started dealing drugs as a teenager. It took me getting arrested and experiencing the system to free me from that toxic environment and get my life back on track. However, I couldn't have done that without the mentors and positive role models I met along the way. You need to find people who will support you and believe in you no matter what and use that to motivate you to success.
Here's the path I took:
GED
Associate's Degree
Human Services, General
CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College
Bachelor's Degree
Criminal Justice/Law Enforcement Administration
CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Born in Haiti but raised in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, he grew up in poverty and surrounded by violence.
2.
Before moving to the United States, he didn’t attend school regularly—there is almost no public education offered in Haiti, and his family never had enough money to afford private school.
3.
His father was an addict and physically abusive toward him, his mother, and his siblings—as a result, Jim thought violence was how you dealt with problems, so he was always getting into fights.
4.
To assimilate into life in Brooklyn, he began hanging out in the streets, skipping school, and going down a negative path—says in his neighborhood, you were either “predator or prey.”
5.
Started selling marijuana when he was 14 and eventually began selling harder drugs—he’d been arrested more than a dozen times by the time he was 15.
6.
At 16, he was charged with two felonies, but instead of prison, he was sent to “Boys Town,” a rehabilitation center—says being in the system liberated him from the environment that was crushing him.
7.
Through the help of mentors and positive role models, he eventually received his GED and graduated from college with a degree in political science.
8.
He is now an author, motivational speaker, mentor, nonprofit founder, policy advisor, and a passionate advocate for criminal justice reform, particularly in regards to the juvenile justice system.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
When you grow up, you are either going to be an athlete or a drug dealer.
How I responded:
Growing up, those were the only options that every kid thought was available to them and I leaned into that idea and started dealing drugs as a teenager. It took me getting arrested and experiencing the system to free me from that toxic environment and get my life back on track. However, I couldn't have done that without the mentors and positive role models I met along the way. You need to find people who will support you and believe in you no matter what and use that to motivate you to success.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
Grew up in poverty in Haiti without running water or electricity. I would do odd jobs here and there for food or a few dollars. We later moved into the projects in Brooklyn, NY.
I was abused by my father along with the other members of my family. That along with the neighborhood I grew up in, taught me to solve my own problems with violence which caused me to get arrested multiple times as a teenager. I've grown beyond that.
I didn't go to school regularly when I lived in Haiti because my family couldn't afford to send me to school. When I came to the U.S., I was far behind and it took me a very long time to catch back up.
My father was an addict and I became a drug dealer at a very young age to make money and survive in my neighborhood.
I am the first person in my family to go to college.
By the time I was 16, I had been arrested almost a dozen times. I was eventually charged with two felonies back-to-back and sentenced to a year in the juvenile justice system. This got me out of my destructive neighborhood and on the right path.