By Randy Savoie, BCL

Laverne Osiris is now an influential staffer for one of the country’s most powerful United States Senators- Mary Landrieu- but things were not always so good.

Ms. Osiris, Regional Manager for Senator Landrieu’s New Orleans office, told trainees at New Orleans Job Corps Center this week that cruel childhood classmates voted her “most unlikely to succeed” and that later in life, after her divorce, she barely had a dollar to her name.

But no one could rob Ms. Osiris of the belief she had in herself.

“Once I found out that I had something to offer the world I began to work on those things,” Ms. Osiris told an assembly of about 100 students at the Center’s monthly awards ceremony. “I began to work on Laverne and allow the seeds of success planted by others in me to grow. I thank God everyday for the miracle in my life.”

Things began to change for Ms. Osiris when she wolunteered in Senator Landrieu’s campaign and was offered a staff position following the Senator’s re-election. After all those years of poverty and walking to work because of no car, her dreams had come true.

“I remember meeting Jesse Jackson and pushing (civil rights hero) Rosa Parks in her wheelchair,” said Ms. Osiris, the author of two books. “Success really is up to you,” she told New Orleans Job Corps students.

“You have to have a purpose. Follow that purpose. Love yourself. Be about yourself. Be about your purpose.”