Carline Balan
Most people would say that Carline Balan has done it all, and at the young
age of just twenty-six. She’s the personal assistant to music mogul
Jay-Z and the founder and CEO of a successful concierge company, Balan,
Inc. Carline is also pursuing an acting career. But if you ask Carline,
she will tell you that her biggest success and her most cherished moment
was the day she was able to donate new curtains for the performing arts
stage at the Flatbush Clubhouse. On that very stage – in fashions
shows, poetry readings and countless other performances – she learned
to express her creative impulses and most importantly, to believe in herself.
To Carline, it is a gift that has the potential to inspire future generations
of children to do the same.
A first generation Haitian-American, Carline first came to the Flatbush
Clubhouse through a friend but it was the staff that made her stay. “Ms.
Jay and the recreation director were really, really cool and I kept going
back because of them. I think it was because they took the time out to talk
with me about things that felt like big burdens to me. My mom wouldn’t
let me go anywhere unless it was the Boys and Girls Club. She knew I was
in good hands.”
In high school, Carline left school. Frustrated by dyslexia, she turned
to the GED program at Flatbush, a place she knew would build her self-esteem.
“I essentially moved in and went to school. I got a job there in the
education department as an assistant. During my teenage years, from sixteen
through getting my GED, the Boys and Girls Club was essentially my whole
life.”
At age seventeen, Carline went to Scotland with Madison. “They
let me throw this big party to raise the funds. I got my own DJ, put the
whole event together and raised $5,000 for the trip. That’s what
got me into event planning.”
Madison also provided her with her first business loan for a fashion
show, which she repaid the very night of the show. They housed her mobile
nail and hair salon at the clubhouse as well. Through a council member,
she landed her first internship at Elle magazine. “I was always
an entrepreneur and they fed into that,” she says.
When her GED was finished, it was a Pinkerton scholarship from Madison
that paid for her first year of college and helped propel her towards
the completion of her Associates Degree in Broadcasting and Communications
from Kingsborough College in 1998.
Looking back she says, “I don’t even know how they do it. It’s
amazing to me. It’s the people there, the fact that they care.”
On December 10, 2004, Carline spoke at Madison’s 38th Annual
Christmas Tree Ball as a tribute to all of the members of the Madison
Square Boys and Girls Club staff who sacrificed their time so that she
could believe in herself and become the woman she is today.
“They gave up their lives to make sure that we stayed alive. The Madison Square Boys and Girls Club can absolutely change your life if you allow it.”