“You Were Created for This Time”

A conversation with Chandra Daniels, Director of Career Services at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

On an episode of “Tutors, Mentors and the City,” host Kevin “Dotcom” Brown sat down with Chandra Daniels to talk about aviation, careers, comedy, and why she believes every job – and every student – matters. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Kevin Brown: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. My name is Kevin “Dotcom” Brown, and this is Tutors, Mentors and the City.

Usually, I meet my guests for the first time on camera and I know absolutely nothing about them because I do no research. This time is different.

We recently collaborated on an event at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, right across from LaGuardia Airport. I finally got to meet her, see her in action, and I was impressed.

She is the Director of Career Services at Vaughn, and a driving force for students trying to find their path in aviation and beyond. Please welcome Ms. Chandra Daniels.

Chandra, how are you?

Chandra Daniels: I am great. Thank you so much for having me. I love your greeting. Good morning, good afternoon, good night. It covers everybody.

Brown: We never know when somebody is going to watch or listen.

Before we talk about you, I want to start with Vaughn itself. I grew up in New York, I travel a lot, and I have driven past that building by LaGuardia at least a thousand times. For years, I honestly thought it was an extension of the airport.

What is Vaughn College, and what does it actually do?

Daniels: You are not alone. I am a Queens native, LaGuardia is my preferred airport, and I grew up driving past Vaughn too. When I came for my interview, I had the same reaction: “This is a school?”

It is not just a school. It is a whole college, and it is a very good college.

Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology is an aviation-focused institution. If you think about everything it takes for a plane to exist and to fly, we have a program for it.

You need people to design planes. Those are our engineers: mechanical, electrical, and our mechatronics program, which we share with places like MIT.

You need people to fix planes. That is our aircraft maintenance program, one of our largest.

You need people to fly planes. That is our aviation and pilot program, in partnership with a flight school on Long Island.

You need people to manage airports, airlines, and operations. That is our management programs, including an MBA in aviation.

And you need people to control the airspace. We have air traffic control.

We even work in drones. We did not design the New Year’s Eve drone shows as far as I know, but we are very much in that space too.

So if it touches aviation, there is probably a path for it at Vaughn.

Brown: You have this tower on campus that looks like a private terminal. What is it actually?

Daniels: The tower is deceptive. People assume it is air traffic control.

For us, it is a kind of watchtower and a sacred space. When you are up there, you can see the entire city, Grand Central, and the planes coming in. You literally see a plane coming toward you and then right over your head into LaGuardia.

When students or guests visit, we love to take them up there because it gives you this visual reminder of what our students are training for.

Brown: So that is Vaughn. Now, what do you do there? What is your role?

Daniels: My title is Director of Career Services.

In simple terms, I help our students secure employment and build careers. I also work with employers who are looking for talent. I often describe myself as a job broker.

I talk to companies to understand their needs. I prepare students with resumes, mock interviews, networking, salary negotiation. Then I connect the two so our students can step into real opportunities, not just “any job,” but careers where they can have a quality of life.

I manage a small but mighty staff of four, plus student workers. Together, we are responsible for helping Vaughn students move from the classroom to the hangar, the cockpit, the control tower, the operations office, or the corporate side of aviation.

Our placement outcomes reflect that. In my first three years, we have been in the low to high 90 percent range, which means most of our students are landing where they need to be.

Brown: You used a phrase I love: “the hidden job network.” I have done more than 150 interviews and I do not think I have heard that term before. What do you mean by that?

Daniels: Most people already use it. They just do not call it that.

We talk a lot about job boards and LinkedIn. Those are important, but a large number of opportunities never make it to a posting. They move through people.

You and I know people the other does not know. I might say, “Kevin, I am looking for work.” You think of someone who is hiring. You send my resume. That job was never posted, but suddenly I am in the process because you trusted me enough to refer me.

That is the hidden job network. It is the web of relationships that moves information and opportunity around.

I tell students: life is about relationships. Your network is not just a list of contacts. It is a set of people who know who you are and what you bring. And often, that network moves faster than any online application.

Brown: Let us rewind. Where does this story start? Where were you born and how did you get here?

Daniels: I was born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens. I went to St. Paschal’s for elementary school and then to The Mary Louis Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school in Jamaica Estates.

My father worked for the MTA at 179th Street. The high school was up the hill. He wanted a place where he could see me walk to and from school, and where I would be pushed as a young woman to lead and understand my value.

After high school, I went to Temple University in Philadelphia. That city changed my life. The culture, the people, the sense of community – I fell in love with it.

I was also very curious and a little lost. I went through what feels like 17 majors. I wanted to be a lawyer, then I fell in love with African American studies, then I tried nursing, and fainted in microbiology. Eventually, because of all the credits I had in social sciences, I graduated with a degree in psychology.

Looking back, I can see I did not really have a career counselor who understood me. That is part of why I am so passionate about being that person for students now.

Brown: After Temple, what was your first step into the working world?

Daniels: My first job out of college came through my hidden job network. My mom had a connection and I landed as an intake coordinator in supportive housing on 42nd Street.

We worked with homeless residents, people with disabilities, and people living with HIV and AIDS. There were 307 units in the building. I knew my tenants. I loved that job. I saw what it meant to help people find some stability and dignity.

Later, I transitioned into a very different world: marketing and communications at Barclays in downtown Manhattan. Suddenly I was around hedge fund clients, box seats at the U.S. Open, corporate events, the whole thing.

Then September 11th happened. Those towers came down and my life collapsed with them. I was pregnant and miscarried from the stress. The job changed. My marriage struggled. Within a short period, I had lost a child, a job, and my footing.

I fell into a real depression. Moved back home with my parents. I had lost weight, lost my hair, lost my sense of direction.

A college friend drove down, looked at me and said, “This is not my friend.” She and my parents helped pull me back.

Brown: What helped you climb out of that moment?

Daniels: Honestly, working with people who had less than I did.

I took a job as a job coach for people with disabilities. These were individuals who could not do anything without support, but they were sharing sandwiches, dating, laughing. They were fully human in the middle of real limitations.

Being around them reminded me that there was still joy, that I was still here, that there was work to be done.

Through that job, I got introduced to a master’s program in vocational rehabilitation at Hofstra. I went back to school, took a job in Hofstra’s career center to pay my tuition, and realized I had found my lane: helping people connect to work and possibility.

From Hofstra, I eventually took a role in Philadelphia in career services, then came back home to New York to care for my father during the pandemic. After he passed, I started looking for what was next. That is when Vaughn appeared on my radar.

Brown: You also mentioned comedy. How does that fit into all of this?

Daniels: Comedy found me in therapy.

After my marriage ended, I was seeing a therapist. She listened to my stories and finally said, “I want to extend your sessions because I do not want to laugh at you, but the way you tell your life is funny. Have you thought about doing comedy?”

I did not even know comedy was an industry. I just watched it on TV.

She told me to take a class. I went to Comics, took the course, and technically “failed” because I was too scared to invite people to the final show and explain that my therapist had sent me. That is its own bit.

But comedy opened another world. It showed me how powerful it is to tell the truth in a way that makes people laugh instead of shut down.

Now, I use that in my work. I talk to students about serious things: failure, money, pressure, family expectations. It lands better when there is some humor. Laughter is a universal language. You laugh because something is funny, but also because you recognize it.

Brown: When your students tell you, “You do not understand what I am going through,” what goes through your mind?

Daniels: I smile, because if they knew even half the story, they would know I understand more than they think.

But that reaction is fair. They see us in professional roles and assume we arrived here untouched. I am very open with them about the fact that I have struggled, started over multiple times, and had to rebuild.

I want them to see me as human, not just as a title. I tell my aircraft maintenance students that I am grateful to them. When I get on a plane and fall asleep, I know someone like them is the reason I can land safely.

Every role matters. Their work matters. My work matters. Their stories matter.

Brown: I want to close with this. What do students absolutely need to hear from you before we say goodbye?

Daniels: We are all living through a moment the world has never seen before. Your generation is going to feel the impact of that more than mine.

What I want students to know is this: you are not on the sidelines. You are part of this world and you have the right to shape it.

Every job is connected to another human being. The person who made the soap you use, the person who packed this pen, the mechanic who cleared the plane that brought your laptop here. You may never meet them, but you are connected.

You might feel small inside a big system, but you are not. What you bring, even if it feels small, is needed.

So bring what you have. Bring your curiosity, your work, your questions, your story.

You were created for this time. The world needs you in it.