Vail Kohnert-Yount

Administrator, the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor
SFS ’13
Age: 23
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Time at Georgetown: 5 years

How did you find yourself in this office?
When I graduated, I definitely was not expecting to work at Georgetown. But, this opportunity arose at the Kalmanovitz Initiative. I was really involved in the KI when I was in college. I do all kinds of things here; every day is different. I do a lot of our student programming pieces, conference planning, community outreach and act as an untrained psychotherapist to a lot of Georgetown students. I’m incredibly grateful that this opportunity opened up when it did. I know this sounds cheesy, but I really look forward to coming to work every day and I feel like I’m doing meaningful work here contributing this community and communities in D.C.

Can you briefly explain the Kalmanovitz Initiative?
It was founded about when I got to Georgetown. Basically what we do is community outreach, labor policy and worker rights advocacy here in D.C., nationally, and at Georgetown as well. Some days I’m researching D.C. city council legislation, some days we’re out with students at the Home Depot across town — it’s different every day. 

Has working in Healy given you a different perspective on the administration?
I don’t know. When I was a student, I was very much a student activist. I was involved in student government and advocating for students to the administration, but I don’t necessarily know that my view has changed.

Especially after the satellite residence kerfuffle this fall, there seems to be an increasingly adversarial relationship between students and administrators.
I know that’s often how students perceive Georgetown administrators, and I think everyone who works at Georgetown is here serve this community. Nobody is here to be famous or make a ton of money. I think the motives of people here are very genuine. That’s what I thought as a student and that’s what I think as an employee here. Certainly when I was a student in student government, I never doubted the motives of people who work here.

If someone knew nothing about Georgetown and asked you to describe it with one moment or experience of yours, does anything come to mind?
I was taking the GUTS bus here today, and there was a family on the bus coming for a tour. When we got off the mom asked, “Where is the admissions building?” And I said, “Oh, I’m coming that way, I’ll walk with you.” As we walked I was pointing out the different buildings and when we came to the Jesuit residence I said that when I came to Georgetown I had no concept of what the Catholic or Jesuit identity meant. I was not raised religiously. I told them how that was one of my favorite things about Georgetown: how that identity informed a spirit of service. And then we walked by Leo’s, and I didn’t mention this to them but one of the moments that was most meaningful and genuine in my life was working on the Leo’s campaign. As a student, we helped the workers at Leo’s form a union. The workers, staff, students and clergy who supported us were really living out those values of social justice and service to others that are my favorite part of Georgetown. That was the moment that led me to do what I’m doing now. It was kind of an accidental thing. I didn’t really have strong feelings about the labor movement or how important it was to the future of society, but through that experience I learned so much about what it means to serve a community and be about others. That moment made me passionate about what I do now.

When you were 17 or 18 and preparing to come to Georgetown, what was a misperception you had about the school?
That’s almost exactly it. Georgetown was never my first choice when I was looking at colleges. My whole life I wanted to go to Stanford, and I got deferred and then rejected and I was so upset. I felt horribly betrayed by this whole college process. So, that was really hard for me, but of the schools I got into I decided to go to Georgetown. I didn’t really know what was special about Georgetown, but something I didn’t know that I was looking for was this spirit of service. That’s what really distinguishes Georgetown from its peer institutions. Yes, it’s a great education and it’s in D.C. — it has all these cool things going for it — but what really distinguishes it is that commitment to service. I didn’t know that about Georgetown, but it’s what I was I was seeking even if I didn’t know that’s what I was looking for.

Do you envision Georgetown being your home for a while?
I don’t know that I’m going to pull a Jack DeGioia and be here for four decades, but I would be very happy to be here for a significant part of my future. There have been moments in my Georgetown career when I really hated Georgetown and where it really let me down in a lot of very serious and significant ways, but I think in the same way when you really love a place like this and want to serve a community that gave you so much, I’ve never felt the kind of love for an institution that I feel here. To have the opportunity to give back to this place and shape it is really awesome. 

Interview by Danny Funt