Whether as a Board Member or a Mentor, Linda Schmid is making an impact for Richmond Promise Scholars

Over the last eight years, Richmond Promise has provided resources and support to thousands of college students from Richmond. That work has benefited from the support of many community partners, but none have been more dedicated to the organization’s success than Richmond Promise’s Board of Directors. We are pleased to introduce you to this passionate and dedicated group with a series of profiles that highlight their work and showcase their commitment to young people in Richmond.

Throughout her tenure as a member of the Richmond Promise Board of Directors, Linda Schmid has taken on the usual board-related tasks. Attending meetings, helping at events and providing counsel are all part of the gig when it comes to shaping the direction of an organization.

Those roles were fine, but Schmid knew she could do more.

This school year, Schmid has taken on a new role within the Richmond Promise organization. She joined the Mentor program, one of the cornerstones of RP’s work to prepare Scholars for what comes after college.

“Being on the board is great. But I’m just getting high-level information. I wanted to be in the trenches,” Schmid said. “I can say all this stuff and when you’re a board member, you can say and tell people what to do. But you’ve got to do it.”

Rolling up her sleeves and doing the work comes naturally for Schmid. 

The product of a working-class family that moved from Germany to the Bay Area when she was young, she faced some of the same cultural barriers that Richmond Promise Scholars are confronted with. 

Learning the language was one, but another came in the form of a career path that seemed already set. College wasn’t the ultimate goal, and she went through school with the intention of ultimately working in a hardware store. That meant that while she did well in school, pushing herself to do more didn’t seem like a necessity.

After graduating from high school, working at the hardware store left her looking for more. So, she took a job at a large civil engineering firm in the Bay Area. She also started to take community college classes at night, eventually enrolled at Cal State Hayward (now Cal State East Bay) and eventually earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology. 

That work ethic didn’t go unnoticed. When she decided she would leave her engineering firm to pursue a field related to her psychology degree, the company wouldn’t let her go. Instead, the President of the company suggested she consider a new challenge.

“He says, ‘you know, you could be our Chief Financial Officer. You have all these qualities, and we’ll pay for you to get your Master’s degree,’” Schmid said. “I didn’t think I could be a CFO of a major corporation. And they’re like, ‘yeah, you can.’”

That moment of mentorship, along with others along the way, have helped shape a path forward that resulted in a long, successful career. These days, she helps lead CSW/Stuber-Stroeh Engineering Group as its CFO alongside her husband, Robert Stevens, who is the organization’s President and CEO. Stevens is a longtime member of the Richmond community, particularly through his work at the Port of Richmond.

Reflecting on her career brings Schmid back to the present when it comes to doing her part in the community. 

In fact, on the same day she took time to answer a few questions about her involvement with Richmond Promise, she also met with her RP Mentee to work on mock interview questions. 

The conversation focused on creating a set of stories to deal with hard-to-answer questions that might be posed on the spot. As they worked through scenarios, Schmid could see her mentee connecting with her ideas and growing in confidence.

“It’s something that I know took me years, and once I figured it out it’s like, well, why can’t I help someone else with my knowledge and give her a step up,” Schmid said. “What’s the point of knowing all this if I don’t share it.”

Whether as a Board member or a Mentor, Schmid’s work on behalf of Richmond’s youth continues to make an impact.