Javonna Wylie, President and CEO of Chester County OIC, spoke with MONTCO Today about growing up in West Chester and how living in a college town influenced her. She recalled the middle school teacher who inspired her to get involved in leadership and community service, which continued in college when she majored in Social Work at Shippensburg University.

Wylie discussed how OIC is helping connect people with work and education opportunities and why OIC focuses on youth development. She also shared stories of the women in her family who inspire her and the importance of taking accountability.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born and raised in West Chester. All my life, I’ve always been a West Chester girl.

Where were you in the pecking order? Were you the oldest in your family? The youngest?

I have two older brothers. I started as the baby, but when I was 17, my mom and dad had my little sister. I’m a middle child.

But you went 17 years as the baby. Were you spoiled as the baby in the family?

If you asked my older brothers, they would probably say yes. I was the only girl, and I’m the youngest.

What did your parents do?

Both my parents worked in IT for Genesis Healthcare in Kennett Square. That’s how they met. My mom is still at Genesis, and my dad is at Main Line Health now.

What memories of growing up in West Chester stay with you?

I still remember walking around town with my friends and being able to walk to school. I went to Henderson High School. It was super exciting living in a college town. I feel like townies view West Chester as separate from the college, but having college students around had a big influence on me imagining myself at college.

Did you have any jobs while you were growing up?

My first job was at Giant food store as a cashier. I did a lot of volunteering in school, but Giant was my first job. I was playing basketball, and I didn’t want to work, but my mom was like, “You’re going to work.” So she applied to Giant for me. I worked at another Giant all throughout college. It was nice because I could transfer back and forth between breaks.

And I did a lot of on-campus activities. I was very, very involved. With my major being Social Work, I always wanted to know what kind of folks I wanted to work with. Sometimes I had paid opportunities, but a lot of the time I was volunteering with children, migrant families, and individuals with disabilities.

You said you played basketball. How good were you?

I was okay. I played basketball, and I threw the shot put and the discus for track and field. I was more of a team player, and I did it for the mental and physical endurance. My coaches always said, “If you took this seriously, you’d be really good.” I was like, “I am serious! I’m so serious.”

Do you remember a specific meet or a game as if it were yesterday?

My best friend, Shante Evans, is a Professional Basketball Player now. She’s going overseas to Turkey this week, and she left high school scoring 2,000 points. She carried our team, so we won a lot of championships. So, I remember extended seasons and traveling around the region and being Ches-Mont champs.

What kind of music were you listening to in high school, Javonna?

I loved the rapper Drake. But, being from West Chester, I listened to everything — reggae, pop music, hip hop, and definitely R&B. I went to church a lot in high school, so I listened to gospel music as well. So, it was definitely a mix of everything.

Where did you decide to go to college, and why there?

I went to Shippensburg University. My high school mentor and a counselor took me to Shippensburg, so that was my safety school. I was not thinking about going there. In high school, I was set on going to an HBCU school.

In order to get into school, I had to take a summer program. My GPA was really good, but as far as standardized testing, I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. So, it was between Hampton University in Virginia and Shippensburg University.

We had a vacation planned the week that the Hampton University summer program started. I called Hampton. I said, “Can I come a week late?” And they were like, “Absolutely not.” So, I said, “Ship is it.”

For the first year, I was like, “I’m going to transfer out of here. Maybe I’ll go back to West Chester.” And then one day I woke up and thought, “You need to appreciate being here and delve into all that this campus has to offer.”

It’s a very country and rural area. But it reminds me a lot of the West Chester area in the sense of all that it has to offer, such as the resources for students, student engagement, involvement, and the professors. I’ve met some of the greatest professors. And even now, working with different colleges and students, I still see how Shippensburg culture would benefit a lot of higher education institutions.

After that, everything took off. I got super involved. I met some of the greatest relationships of my life that still stand today. It was the best decision for me.

When you got out of college, who saw promise and potential in you?

Joyce Chester, my predecessor and our Former President and CEO. I started working at OIC in 2014. And I graduated from Shippensburg in December 2015.

In the summer of 2014, I was still working at Giant as a Cashier. I thought, “This is nice. Customer service skills are great. But I want to do something more meaningful or intentional.” My mom said, “Hey, this place, OIC, is hiring for a youth Summer Employment Coordinator.” I applied and got the job. Within two weeks, the Assistant Director quit. So I assumed that role and kept going.

What do you think Joyce saw in you in that initial interview?

Probably my passion. At Shippensburg, I was on the orientation team. Those are the people who welcome students when they come in. I have lots of energy and drive. I’m able to communicate with people at all levels. At the time, I was 20 years old or 21, but I had the professional mannerisms down.

Where does your drive come from, Javonna?

The women in my family. My mom went to college as an adult, and she had my brother and me in her twenties. She worked at juvenile probation during those times. My aunt is an Accountant, and she worked for Holcomb. I remember going to their offices. They always had that drive of women in the workforce while still living their lives and loving their families. That has always influenced me.

Who else saw promise in you?

The first teacher who saw promise in me was Dr. Joan Flynn at Pierce Middle School. She also is a powerful Black woman. She wasn’t even my teacher. One day she took us to a healthy snack convention in Coatesville, or that was her plan. All the kids were saying, “We’re not going to this. It’s stupid.” So I joined in that sentiment and stated, “I’m not going either. I have a hair appointment that day.” Dr. Flynn called my mom and she said, “I want Javonna to come to this leadership event, but she said she has a hair appointment.” My mom was like, “It’s canceled.”

I was so mad at Dr. Flynn. I was the only student that showed up. I had to make a poster board and teach kids about healthy eating. But it was a turning point for me because it was when I realized that you don’t have to be a follower; you can be a leader, you can contribute to your community, and you can do big things.

She always took us on different trips, and she just had a higher expectation of us outside of what we got from our day-to-day teachers. When I went on to high school at Henderson, I joined the Black Student Union and became the President, and that created more leadership opportunities. So I just continued to grow, and that followed me to adulthood.

Can you tell me about what OIC does?

OIC, Opportunities Industrialization Centers, Inc., was founded in the ’60s at a time when Black people and poor people in the Philadelphia region could not get jobs or could not get educational opportunities. Our late founder, Dr. Rev. Leon Sullivan, started OIC to give people more opportunities. Back in those days, there were probably thousands of OICs around the country. Today, there are 24 affiliates. Four of those are in Pennsylvania.

And though we all have the same mission of building people up and empowering them economically through education and workforce opportunities or workforce training, we all operate a little bit differently. It depends on what our labor market looks like in our region. But essentially, we’re building relationships with employers and local businesses and then building up our adult education and workforce program to match that and get people a livable, family-sustainable wage.

So here you are, moving towards the final quarter of 2024. What are your priorities? What are you focused on?

We just ended our last four-year strategic plan, so we’re in the process of building that out, figuring out what that looks like in tandem with Governor Shapiro’s state plan and what the budget looks like.

I was recently at our national office, OIC of America, and we launched the Sullivan Training Network, which will be a career technical education institution through OIC of America. We’re looking at how to bring that to Chester County and Coatesville.

We’re also focused on youth development. As I said, how I started at OIC was with youth, and that’s a really important part of our society and our workforce, especially with all the tech changes happening and communications changing. We’re looking at how we can be more involved with our youth and create some more pipelines to college or career technical education opportunities.

So, Javonna, what do you do with all your free time?

I have a rescue dog named Scuba. I like to go to parks with Scuba. I also spend a lot of time with my family. I’m the oldest girl of my generation, so I have a lot of little cousins. I have nieces and nephews. I have my 13-year-old sister. And I like to travel. I just went to Jamaica and Bethany Beach in Delaware.

Do you read much?

I do read when I have some free time. In my second or third year at OIC, I read Build, Brother, Build by our Founder Leon Sullivan. It’s so interesting to look at the history because we’re going through a lot of the same things regarding the workforce and social justice. He also played a big part in ending apartheid in South Africa. He was not just national, he was international. He has another book I recently read called Moving Mountains.

I’ve been really into those books because of my work. But I have a full library at home. Sometimes, I pick up a book and I can’t say I’m consistent in finishing, but I definitely start.

Three last questions for you. What’s something big that you’ve changed your mind about over the last 10 years, Javonna?

I have a career coach who sent me to this retreat in Austin, Texas, at this beautiful resort called Miraval. It was being hosted by this powerful Black woman. She had a high-level position at a big, national nonprofit. I was going there thinking I was going to get all these answers from her because, at this time, I wasn’t in my current role as President and CEO. So I was asking myself questions such as, “Do I want to work in a nonprofit? Can I be a leader in this? What does it look like?”

When I got to the resort, everything was so slow-paced and peaceful. I was saying to myself, “No, I thought this was an empowerment retreat. I thought we were going to learn things.”

One of the biggest things I learned at the retreat was how you got to where you are is not how you have to move forward. It was important for me because I’ve always, since middle school and then high school and then college, had my hands in a lot of things. I’ve been learning how to slow down, do things more effectively, and have smaller targets.

So that’s been one of the biggest things I’ve learned: how you got here and how you have to move forward. It’s helped a lot in allowing me to be strategic but also to have a work-life balance.

What keeps you hopeful and optimistic? It’s a crazy world out there.

I stay hopeful by seeing all that the leaders before me, like Joyce, like my high school mentors, and like my career coach, have been able to achieve in their lives by just showing up.

I used to always think, like in high school, “Teachers are superheroes.” What I realize now as an adult is that they just kept showing up. Through that consistency of continuing to show up each day, you’re always going to learn something new. There’s always going to be a connection.

Finally, Javonna, what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

One of my top professors at Shippensburg in the Social Work Department, Dr. Samuel Benbow, liked to say, “That’s not my issue.”

I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 22, and I was questioning if I would be able to do it because it was a 30-minute drive. And he simply said, “This is not my issue.”

It made me think about how you have to seize the moment and be accountable for what you promise. And I carry that with my staff and all the people that I lead, as well.