Obama graduated from Columbia College in 1983 and briefly entered the commercial world, staying in New York for a little more than a year after graduation. He was employed by Business International Corporation before moving to the activist New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
Obama worked for a NYPIRG offshoot up in Harlem, trying to convince the minority students at City College about the importance of recycling.
The Chicago Period began in 1985, when some leftists were looking for someone who could recruit in a black neighborhood in the south side of Chicago and Obama applied for the position as a community organizer for the Developing Communities Project (DCP) of the Calumet Community Religious Conference (CCRC) in Chicago. The "Project" was funded with a $25,000 grant by Bill Ayers' Woods Fund.
Next, Obama worked at a Chicago housing project, Altgeld Gardens.
He then went off to Harvard Law, where he became the first affirmative action president of the Harvard Law Review.
Obama and Community Organizing
Didn’t Obama work for the Gemaliel Foundation for a while, teaching community organizations the Saul Alinsky organizing method? I think that I read that on your web site, but maybe not.