Maybe Cory McCray is one of the lucky ones. Or skilled. Or talented. Or maybe all of the above.
McCray survived tough neighborhoods in Baltimore, where education was undervalued, drugs were rampant and families frayed. He spent weeks and months in Maryland’s juvenile justice system each year between the ages of 13 and 18, and risked being sentenced for years as an adult.
But McCray not only survived an upbringing that wrecks so many lives. He thrived. As the title of his new book says, it’s an apprenticeship that saved his life.
At the urging of a loving mother, McCray was accepted into an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training program and began developing the skills that would lead to a new life. He learned how to study and how to succeed on a jobsite. He attracted mentors, and began buying homes.
He is now a state senator representing District 45 in Northeast Baltimore, and is regarded as one of a new generation of Baltimore leaders who is shaping the future of the city. As he writes, McCray deecided to write hs book after years of speaking to students and working in schools, hoping to reach as many young people as possible. As Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott writes in the book’s forward, “this work could, and probably should, be required reading for young people seeking a second chance.” It is, the mayor says, “a love letter to the forgotten, the overlooked, and the underestimated.”
“The Apprenticeship that Saved My Life” was released late last month, and as of this writing was ranked on Amazon as the No. 1 new release in the “teacher & student mentoring” category.
McCray spoke with Baltimore Fishbowl Executive Editor David Nitkin, who also served as McCray’s editor of his book, for a Baltimore Writers Club column.
Baltimore Fishbowl: You share a lot of very personal stories in this book about your upbringing. As you were thinking about writing this, did you have any qualms about that? Were there things you even held back that were even more personal and more eye opening than what’s already in there?
Cory McCray: I’ll say this: Usually I’ve talked about my past with young folks. I’ve always done that because I think that they’re the closest in proximity and they’re actually going through similar situations, and need to understand how to navigate it. I’ve never really had the conversation with adults. And it’s always something that you hold back on a little bit. It was very therapeutic during the process of writing. And just imagine this, 13 years of age, leaving your house for the first time and figuring out how to survive by yourself.
We normalize things that are not normal, and now that I’m just processing it I realize that more and more. I was on radio recently and the broadcaster says to me ‘Do you hear what you just said? You were incarcerated at 18 years of age and a homeowner at 20 years of age.’ And I just didn’t digest that until you hear it and you’re writing it.
BFB: There’s a lot in the book honoring your mother as the key person who always believed in you and never gave up. And it strikes me that she wrote to the Department of Labor and got the apprenticeship list mailed to you and said, ‘Here, this is what you’re doing.’ That would be pretty different today, wouldn’t it?
CM: I imagine that they would just send an email to them or probably get on the website, and it’s fully transparent information that’s a lot easier than it was 20 years ago. But I just want to hit on one point that you talk about in that about my mom. So I’m at the Enoch Pratt Free Library [for a book launch event], and this is my first time that I actually get to see my mom as I’m talking through this book, and I told you that I’m just processing because now I get to sit on the stuff that is now on paper.
And I never took in consideration how hard life was for her already. I never took in consideration the days that she had to take off [to visit me in juvenile facilities]…. This woman is taking off all these days because her son is getting in trouble at school and with the justice system. You don’t have the money, but you’re still finding time to drive an hour and 15 minutes one way, the gas money for these visitation rides, just to be able to see your son. And I just, I sat on that, man, because that’s a lot for someone that already doesn’t have a lot.
BFB: And then you told her at one point, ‘let me go…give up on me.’ And she could have, right? I mean, that was one of the pivotal moments in your life.
CM: A lot of people that are incarcerated, the family just get frustrated. It could be drug addiction, it could be any type of addiction, and the family’s just like, look, there’s nothing else I could do. I’m glad that she didn’t get to that point with me. I’m glad that, like I said in the book, she believed in me. But there were moments where I’m pretty sure people were in her ear saying, I don’t think there’s any saving your son.
BFB: One of the early lines of your book always struck me that that you grew up in a ZIP code that was designed to fail. And one of the messages about apprenticeships in your book —and I want to phrase this in the right way—is that the public education system has failures in it, in that they either don’t support apprenticeships or don’t prepare kids for apprenticeships. But that’s a while ago, and now you’re in you’re a public servant, you’re in a position to be able to do some good in Baltimore. Do you still believe that today that these ZIP codes and these neighborhoods are designed to fail or have we changed that?
CM: I think the data also supports it too. You could just look at the lifespan of someone that lives in one ZIP code versus another ZIP code. But I just want to lean in on those points, because you made two. I’m going to do the ZIP code first. I just wasn’t cognizant about how when you’re in the neighborhood, you do not understand what’s going on around you to understand how do you change spaces.
I would ask the question in [ZIP code] 21213, from North Avenue to McElderry, from Luzerne to Central Avenue, why are there 20-plus liquor stores in a one-mile radius? That’s a ZIP code that’s predetermined to me. Since I was born to in my 40s or my late 30s, why were the hours of operation for those liquor stores in that one mile radius 20 hours out of a 24 hour a day—and in nowhere across the state, not one of a jurisdiction, Howard, Baltimore, Anne Arundel, are liquor stores open for 20 out of 24 days…. And take fresh food. Why do some neighborhoods have supermarkets and some neighborhoods don’t? Why does the cost of a bottle of water cost more in that corner store than it does in a supermarket? That’s what I mean by predetermined, from that standpoint.
Then I’m going to go to the school piece of it. And I say this first as a stakeholder: I went through the K-12 system public school system, and all four of my kids are going through the public school system. But one of the things that I think about with the school system is that when you look at private schools, or schools that do well, they have robust academic experiences and also robust recreational experiences, even after school. And that’s not something that I had when I was in middle school and high school. Are we trying to correct those types of things? Yes, we are. We’re working on the Blueprint for Maryland’s future…. You see that Dr. Santelises is doing more tutoring at the schools to make sure that we can catch up with that learning loss that happened during the pandemic. You’re also seeing that now our schools aren’t just offering sports for high schools, but my 11-year-old was just playing flag football because of a league that was created for middle school. So these are some of the things that happen at some schools, but they do not happen at all schools, and we need to be bringing out those types of opportunities to all schools.
BFB: I think about trades a lot, especially since reading this book. And I also think about where our workforce is heading and where the economy is heading. Are trades ‘AI proof’ in a way, at least for the foreseeable future? I mean, I feel like we might be a pretty long way away from robots stringing wires or fabricating ducts?
CM: I think that AI has actually helped people be able see that the trades are a good career path. So when you look at Maryland’s economy, and I’m telling you, I’ve been doing this since 2003—the construction industry has not been this good in my lifetime. We do not have enough people to fill the positions right now…. The other piece, where I say that AI is actually helping us, is with data centers—that’s why there is all of the work. And that’s not just happening in the state of Maryland. You’re watching it across the country. The trades are bustling, and we do not have enough people. Now, regarding being AI proof, I think that if businesses could figure out how to [embrace AI over workers], they would do it. But at the end of the day, they know that they need real human beings to be able to change out that toilet, to be able to put in that light fixture, to be able to hang that piece of drywall. And they have not figured out that component. Have they figured out how to make it more efficient and effective? Yes, they do things like prefab…. But they have not figured out how to get rid of the human being that’s actually doing the work for trades.
BFB: You’re a father of four. Do you have a sense of whether your kids are going to follow in your apprenticeship footsteps?
CM: I’ve got one that’s already gone [from the home], but one of the things that I tell them is that I want you to do whatever is in your wildest dreams. So if one of them decides that, hey, I’m going to be an electrician just like my dad, I will welcome something like that. Because at the end of the day, I think that work is fulfilling. You have to do what makes you happy. But I also know that it’s a good living and a good way to be able to raise a family.
BFB: The book talks about you working your way down the list of apprenticeships. As you look back now, if the electricians had not accepted you, or if you were not an electrician, is there another trade that, now that you know the full spectrum of things, appeals to you just as much?
CM: I’ll say this: electricians know that there are not too many people up the food chain hierarchy, maybe one or two. The plumbers and steam fitters are right next to us. And then you have the elevator constructors, who are like the prima donnas.
BFB: So that sounds like no regrets, really. I love it. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future has a goal of 45% of graduates in Maryland getting getting into either apprenticeship or career vocational readiness. Do you endorse that? And is that achievable?
CM: I think that is important to have goals…. Do we get there? I think at some point we do. Do we try to get there within the time frame in the Blueprint? From that standpoint, I’m not sure if we hit all those metrics, but I would say that it is great to have goals so that we know what we’re trying to reach to.
BFB: I follow you on social media. I know I’ve seen what you’ve done with this book, how you’ve taken it upon yourself to market it and promote it. What was your thought process? Why were you leaning into making sure there was high visibility for this book?
CM: So this is a new process for me. It’s like 72 hours from being released, and there are so many new feelings that I don’t know what I’m feeling, but I do know that they feel good. And one of the things that I try my best to do when I communicate is, I want to be as transparent as possible…. I’m giving you exactly what was done, exactly how it happened, and also trying to communicate some of the feelings that I’m feeling at that moment. So I do look at like my socials as some form of like a diary, but it’s a public diary, of like, what was going on.
BFB: You are a first-time author, right? What did you take away from this process of putting a book together?
CM: I like doing things that’s uncomfortable, and this was very uncomfortable, but the best part of this was the ability to learn and the people that you meet.
