San Francisco woman guides young people to learn job skills and improve self-esteem

SAN FRANCISCO — This week’s Jefferson Award winner is San Francisco woman who’s spent the last quarter century training thousands of young people in job preparation skills and self-esteem.

For Kelly Armstrong, walking through the kitchen at the San Francisco Bayview YMCA with Rickey Smith brings back memories. He was 13 years old and too young to join her culinary arts program back then. But her decision to admit him into the program anyway sent him down the right  aisle.    

“I could tell he was so serious about wanting to become a chef. I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to let you in.’ And I’m so glad I did,” Armstrong said.

She started Primed and Prepped in 2013 at the Bayview YMCA. The program has given young people like Smith hands-on experience cooking with professional chefs and learning hospitality management.

Today, Smith is an adult who runs his own catering business and is a lead line cook at Restoration Hardware Restaurant. He says Kelly helped him believe in himself.

“Every bad decision I made, every mistake, she was there to help me rebound from that,” he smiled.

In fact, Primed and Prepped trained a hundred underserved students while Armstrong ran it the first five years. But before she ever started the program, Armstrong had to believe in herself.

Early in her career, a comment from pioneering black sports journalist Sam Skinner sparked a change.

“He was the one who told me I had low self esteem. At that time, I didn’t know what that meant,” Armstrong said.

She did some research and embraced the self-esteem movement led by state lawmaker John Vasconcellos. She became an image consultant, and building self-esteem became foundational in her work with young people.

“I just wanted them to have the confidence to know that whatever it is they wanted to be that they could do it if they put their mind to it,” she said.

Besides Primed and Prepped, Armstrong also taught teenaged girls job preparation skills through her 20-year program called Dressed Up from the Inside Out.

She’d bring them to Wilkes Bashford on Union Square to learn how to dress professionally.     

Dajiana Mims, now a working mother, still remembers the field trip to the legendary retailer years ago and how Armstrong prepared her for job interviews.

“I have the skills. I never lost them,” Mims said. “She wants you to put your best foot forward always. “

Armstrong has served in many different capacities and organizations over the years. These days, she hosts a podcast, Straight Talking with Kelly Armstrong, a place to share resources and ideas.

She’s taught her last class in personal styling, having retired from teaching for 22 years at City College of San Francisco, but she still hears from students whose lives she’s touched.

“It brings me joy, it brings me joy,” Armstrong said.