Lucas 1

Career Genogram Summary

My immediate and extended family has had mostly business and
science-related careers. On my dads side, most of the careers were
science-oriented, whereas on my moms side, most of the careers were
in the business field of work. My paternal grandmother and grandfather
both attended Cornell University. My grandmother was working towards
a nursing degree, while my grandfather was pursing his Medical
degree. My grandfather led a private practice in Radiology and
practiced medicine his entire career, while my grandmother ended up
being a homemaker and raising four children.
On the other hand, my maternal grandfather completed his
Business degree from the University of Minnesota, and then moved to
New York City in search for a job. He met my grandmother there and
they decided to move to Minnesota, where he began his first job in
sales before starting his own business as an oil distributor. He also
purchased real estate and invested in the stock market. According to
my mother, he took great pride in being a provider for his family and
always made sure that they were financially secure. My maternal
grandmother moved to New York City after high school, where she
worked as a model and a seamstress. When she and my grandfather
moved to Minnesota, she transitioned to become a stay-at-home mom
and raised four children. She was also an active volunteer with
womens charity groups in Minneapolis.

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My father enrolled at Duke University and double-majored in
International Affairs and Slavic Languages because he was fluent in
Russian and Polish. After college he attended Georgetown University
and graduated with his J.D. in Law. He then went to work on capital hill
clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger. He met my
mother when he got his subsequent job working on the same Florida
congressmans committee staff. After a few years my parents moved to
Minnesota, where my dad went into private practice with a law firm. He
worked there for some time, then decided he wanted to be an
entrepreneur and owned three businesses throughout his lifespan: a
water business, an agricultural business, and a high-lift equipment
leasing business. My father passed away in 2000, at the age of 45 to
an accident, which left my mother to raise four children on her own.
My mother graduated with a degree in Journalism from the
University of Minnesota in 1977 and dreamed of working on capital hill.
When my mom arrived in Washington D.C., she went door to door,
walking the halls of congress and asked receptionists if anyone was
looking for staff, which is how she got her first job. She worked on a
Florida congressmans personal staff as a press secretary using her
journalism degree. When she and my dad moved to Minnesota, she got
a job working for a Minneapolis PR firm and did public affairs work.
After she had children, she continued to work full-time along with my
dad. About five years ago, she transitioned into the non-profit sector as

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the Chief Campaign Officer for Hunger-Free Minnesota. She was able to
put all of her children through college and two through grad school.
My oldest sister, Mary, graduated from Boston College with a
degree in Business and now works for a commercial real estate firm in
Chicago. Emily, my second-oldest sister, graduated from Notre Dame
and works in Boston as an accountant, and my third-oldest sister,
Katharine, graduated from Miami of Ohio and now attends acting
school in New York City.
Although I was raised in a prominently white, upper-class
neighborhood, my parents instilled in me strong values of personal
responsibility and the importance of education. They also encouraged
my sisters and I to be curious and creative in whatever we choose to
do. I come from a family of self-made white-collar workers, who used
education as a platform for building their processional careers. My
maternal grandmother never attended college and although my
paternal grandmother obtained an Ivy League education, they both
raised four children while their husbands were the primary
breadwinners in the family. However, my family was very fortunate to
have strong support systems and the opportunity to gain access to
higher education.
Within the context of my family work history, financial success
was indeed an important motivating factor to work diligently, but the
functional importance of their white-collar jobs allowed them to have

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more power and prestige. It is important to note, however, that the
degree of opportunity that my family received is proportionally higher
than most individuals in American society across all generations. This
enabled my family to have access to higher education, gave rise to
capital wealth, and provided each subsequent generation the
opportunity to numerous occupational opportunities. In the future, I
plan to use my own traits of being ambitious and self-motivated to
pursue any career that excites my creative nature and provides me
with a financially stable foundation.