Work

Courtney Ross Escobar was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1978 and now lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. Courtney lived in south Florida until she attended undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston in 2002. After graduating from the New England School of Law in 2010, Courtney worked with Kids in Need of Defense, before opening her own law firm that concentrates in small business compliance regulations and family law cases. She is a lawyer in Oxford, Massachusetts, and has many ties to the Worcester community. Courtney is on the advisory board for the Worcester County Commission on the Status of Women, and she was just named to the 40 Under 40 list by the Worcester Business Journal. Courtney also balances family life with her career and strong ties to the community. She is married to Christian and they are raising two children. In the interview, Courtney attributes her success to her strong grandmothers on both sides of her family. Courtney is proud of her career achievements so far, but she also discusses her goals for the future, both professionally and for the Worcester community. Finally, Courtney’s advice to everyone is “Whatever it is you think you can’t do because you don’t have time or you don’t have the skills or you don’t- whatever it is just- it sounds like a Nike commercial- just do it.”

I never had the American Dream. I never think to come here to live. But in 2000 my husband lost his job. He is an engineer.  My older son graduated from the high school in Colombia. My brother was living here in Massachusetts.  He say, “Carmenza, maybe your husband and Victor can come here for vacation.” [They] got the tourist visa. When my husband and Victor came here, both got jobs one or two weeks later.  He call me three months later and say, “…we are going to stay here.”  In 2001 I try to get the visa to come here, but that was terrible time for the visa with [because of] September 11.  In 2006 the visa was approved.  When I was ready to leave Colombia, I brought my money, my own money. I saved money. I’m very organized person.  I came here on April 25, 2006. Almost four months later, I bought my house.  I bought my house with the money I brought from Colombia.

I think we are very happy people although we are living in another country.  We are trying to make friends here because in Brazil we used to have many friends there and we miss that a lot.  We like to talk, we like to make bar-b-ques in the weekend, so we are trying to do it here in the America.  I know it’s hard because we don’t have many friends and we don’t have any family here, but we are trying to be more involved with things in America.

I'd definitely give women today advice to continue to move forward with their personal goals despite what could be going on around them and to not to lose sight of their purpose, whether professional, personal, or family goals.  To continue to be encouraged and to not let discouraging individuals take control of their minds. The loudest voice that should be heard should be theirs.

I was really fortunate to have landed the position at Lamoureux Pagano because that firm, I just fit with it.  It worked for me.  I was able to contribute and as I said, Dick Lamoureux and Mike Pagano were the ones who hired me.  They were the ones, principles of the firm, and they also—similar to my parents—I never once remember them saying, “Well you should do this because you are a women or only do this or….” There was none of that.  They encouraged me sort of in an objective way.  It was what skills I brought forward and what I could do.  They continually advanced my career as I was able to prove myself basically. So when I graduated it was 1993 and then the next step in terms of becoming an architect is becoming registered, you’re not done with your education. You have to have practical work experience.  You have to work within the field, at that time it was three years and then you could take the exam and the exam was a four or five day exam in Boston one day after another and it was all these different components including: structural engineering, programming, site design, building design, and so I studied for that.  I’d get up at 5:30 am every morning and study and then go into work—for a year—and then I went in to take this exam and in between I had my daughter so it was a lot going on at that point.  My daughter was born in 1993.  So that career is very intensive.  I think a lot of people think that architecture is a sort of, I don’t know,  a lot of people will come up to me and say, “I’ve always wanted to be an architect,” and I’ll say, “Well yeah, it’s a great career,” but  I don’t think most people understand what it takes to become and architect.