"You Have to Be the Catalyst for Yourself" - Sania Kamani & Debra Lawrence

Sania Kamani, a Second Year Apprentice in the Claims Admin Department at Zurich North America in Schaumburg, Illinois, set her sights on apprenticeship in high school. Though discouraged at first, through determination and drive she graduated high school with honors and entered the apprenticeship program, where she found community, mentorship, and gained experience. Kamani is a member of the 2026 Illinois Apprentice Ambassador cohort. Joining Sania is Debra Lawrence, Director of Business Services for Business and Career Services at the American Job Center in Wheeling, Illinois, who is working on the ground to expand the apprenticeship model.  

Their conversation explores what it means to be an apprentice and what it looks like for business and families, especially those making the transition from high school to working.  

To learn more about apprenticeships, go to ApprenticeshipIL.com and follow Apprenticeship Illinois on LinkedIn. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

The Apprentice Ambassador Program selects an annual cohort of star current or former apprentices to represent a wide variety of industries throughout Illinois. During their year in the cohort, apprentice ambassadors serve as guest speakers at business events to showcase the impact apprenticeship has had on them, their families, and their companies. The Apprentice Perspective brings their stories to you, our listeners.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Hello, I'm Deb Lawrence, Director of Business Services for Business and Career Services, located in the American Job Center in Wheeling, Illinois. Today I'll be your host, and I am joined by Sonia Kamani, who is an apprentice ambassador at Zurich, North America in Schaumburg, Illinois. Sonia, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

My name is Sonia Kamani. I'm currently a second-year apprentice in the Claims Admin Department at Zurich, North America, based out of Schaumburg, Illinois.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Well, I'll tell you why I think apprenticeships are important to me. In the US, interest in apprenticeship programs has grown by leaps and bounds. And with an apprenticeship, a defined career path helps people like yourself work and learn as they grow in their career. So, Sonia, how did you first hear about the apprenticeship program?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I first heard about the apprenticeship program through a representative at my high school who was working in the career services. And the second I heard about it, I knew I had to hop on the train, and they were hosting a field trip to the Schaumburg headquarters. I attended the field trip, heard more about the program, and from there I just knew this was the path for me. I was always a pretty bright student, and then come time COVID and freshman year of high school, it was COVID. I slept through all of my classes, and towards the end of sophomore year, to be completely honest, I felt like a loser. I had a two-point-something GPA, I don't even remember. I just did not know what I was gonna do with my life, and I saw all the people around me deciding what kind of career they want to pursue, and deciding the classes that would fit that sort of major and would allow them to get accepted into the universities that they wanted to go to. My parents did not graduate high school, I had no idea about any of these things. So, one thing I really wanted at my graduation was a yellow honor society stole. I told myself I was gonna do anything in my power to get that yellow stole. The first thing you need is a 3.0 GPA. I did not have a 3.0 GPA. All of junior year I worked so hard. I think from that point onward, I did not get any grade below a B. I applied for the Honor Society, and the sponsor of the Honor Society went to the meeting where they decide all the students who who are gonna be selected. She attended the meeting for five minutes. She told them, if you guys don't select her for the honor society, I'm going to quit. I felt so great. And at graduation, my parents were looking around and they were like, Oh, why do you have this yellow stole? Not everyone has this yellow stole. And just explaining to my parents that this is something that makes me different from everyone else in the crowd, and just seeing the smile on their faces was really such a big deal for me. And going forward, I was told by my high school counselor that I shouldn't put all my eggs into one basket. All my eggs were put into the basket of apprenticeships. And I told my counselor, I was like, Well, you know what? I'm gonna put all my eggs into this basket. And if the basket breaks, I'm gonna go find another basket and put all my eggs into that basket.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Were you nervous at first?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

I definitely was nervous because Zurich is a very traditional corporate company, and obviously being 18 at the time, I knew that there were not gonna be a lot of people my age. I was nervous to for the fact that I would feel not supported in my role, but all that nervousness definitely went away the more I put my foot in the door.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Do you feel like you found a community at Zurich now at this point?

SPEAKER_01 4:33

I would say I have definitely found a community of just like some young people at work. We get together for lunch, we also work in the same department. I think Zurich also does do a good job of trying to implement a community. We have something called the AAA Advisor, which is apprentice alum advisor, which is assigned to every apprentice. And in the beginning, I felt kind of out of touch, but I do think that was my fault personally because I was putting a guard up. And now I meet with my apprentice alum about once a month, and we just have such productive conversation, and I definitely feel like the conversation is so organic too, because I'm not putting that guard up. So I think I have kind of built a community for myself by just putting my guard down a little bit and allowing myself to have those organic conversations.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

So by you, Sonia, by you having lunch with coworkers and colleagues, you become more confident because you learn more about them as a person. You might learn about their pets or you might learn about their family. And I purposely did not ask you about your family, but that if you're comfortable, might be uh something that you could talk about because you shared that with me when we had our first mentorship meeting, and I was so impressed. I I think you said you're the first uh person in your family to have this type of a position and you had to explain to them you were actually working. I mean, I was the first woman in my family, and you're it's you're obviously female, but you also had uh a family that came from another country. I'm second generation, so it wasn't quite as close. But yeah, I mean, they're like, well, what do you mean you're you're going on a business trip? What does that mean? So the fact that you're in the corporate world, it's it's huge.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

My parents honestly, they did not take my role seriously. They thought I was just doing some homework, some assignments on my laptop all day. There was no boundary set for the fact that I am working over time, having to explain to my immigrant parents that what I do is a real job. They knew I was getting paid somehow, but they didn't know exactly what I was doing. They knew I was working at this big building in Schomburg. I think a lot of times they expected me to show up in times where I couldn't show up because I had other things I had to show up for, like working. I think this is really good for a lot of young first-generation women to hear too. It's important for them to set boundaries with their families, regardless if that means that they need to move away for work, they need to move away for school. Once you set those boundaries, I think it's really helpful that you're communicating with your family members what you need from them because you can't expect people to read your mind, and that's how I was for the longest time. I wanted my family to see me typing on my keyboard and just think that she is so busy, she cannot do anything at all. I wanted them to see me wear my headset and think, oh, she's talking to someone, she is the most busiest girl in the world, and I never took the time to sit down with my parents and explain to them what my job means, what are the things that I do for eight hours every single day. And I really did expect them to read my mind. And when I told them, yeah, I work for a commercial insurance company, I wanted them to know what that meant. But learning that my parents are only understanding to the best of their capabilities was really important for me. So sitting down and having that conversation with them and setting those boundaries and helping them understand what I do and why it's important for them to give me the space that I need to be successful was a really big part of me taking my career seriously too.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Kudos to you, and you need to congratulate yourself for doing that. But the other thing is by learning how to set boundaries with your family and your personal life, that also helps you to set boundaries at work. Because as you grow in your career, you're going to find that there will be conflicting priorities. And you will need to be able to use that skill set of appropriately setting boundaries at work. So that's something that you're also picking up as part of the apprenticeship program. Sonia, we're getting to the end of today's episode, and this last section is called Soundbite Sentence. I'm going to ask you a question and we'll answer it in one sentence. What is one thing that you would want a business that is considering an apprenticeship model to know?

SPEAKER_01 9:47

I want them to know that they're going to get a full return on their investment. The time that they are putting into shaping the apprentices at the end of their apprenticeship, they are going to be such a valuable asset to the organization that is hosting the apprenticeship.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

The one thing that I would want businesses to know who are considering to start an apprenticeship is that it basically helps a business to create a structured plan, combining on the job training with possibly some classroom learning and mentorship. These types of things help employers to attract and recruit qualified employees, but more importantly, it helps employers to identify skills gaps and it helps them to retain employees. So the retention part is super important in the sense that it costs a lot of money when someone leaves a company because you've invested in that person. And so you lose that knowledge and you lose that skill set. But an apprenticeship is a defined career path and it's structured, and then there's typically a wage progression. So it's important for employers to know that they will receive a terrific return on their investment. If you could talk to people who encouraged you to participate in the apprenticeship, what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_01 11:24

The first thing I would say to them is thank you. I appreciate them recognizing my skills and my abilities, even when I wasn't able to do so myself. And a lot of times, all it takes is someone speaking life into you and speaking the confidence into you because not everyone was born with it. I don't think I was born with it. A lot of times people will think, oh, you're such a natural speaker, leader. But I do think it was those same people that really did tell me that I do have these skills and them speaking that life into me ha is really what's led to my onward success.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Sonia, you do have the skills, and it's exciting to see someone growing like yourself in your career. And the people who step up and volunteer to participate move forward in their career, and you're already doing that. How has participating in an apprenticeship changed your vision of the future?

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Don't ever think that just because you know someone and you think they like you, that they will present you with the opportunity. You have to be the catalyst for yourself, otherwise, you're gonna be stuck in the same place that you're in, like even in university or upon graduating high school, you have to take the leap of faith for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

I say to people, if you don't ask the question, the answer is no. Sonia, as we are wrapping up this episode, what would you want our listeners to walk away with?

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Learn how to market yourself, learn how to communicate your value and know that you are a valuable asset, but you just need to know how to communicate that wherever you go to any employers that might be listening. Take the faith and into implementing an apprenticeship. I don't think you're going to be disappointed.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Thank you very much, Sonia. I appreciate that you've shared your experience with us. What I'd like to add is that employers who are considering an apprenticeship should realize that there are a lot of resources available to them to help them through the process. It seems like it's complicated, and in some cases it can be, but there's a lot of help available to help employers establish an apprenticeship.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Thank you for joining us for this episode, and we look forward to seeing you next time on the Apprentice Perspective.