{"id":2447462,"date":"2019-08-12T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T03:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/giving-thought-nonprofit-and-business-partnerships-benefit-local-youth\/"},"modified":"2019-08-12T21:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T03:12:00","slug":"giving-thought-nonprofit-and-business-partnerships-benefit-local-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/giving-thought-nonprofit-and-business-partnerships-benefit-local-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Thought: Nonprofit and business partnerships benefit local youth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aspen Community Foundation, Lauder event, Aug. 13, 2018.<\/strong>
Steve Mundinger<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The hurdles on the road to adulthood are many, but one of the hardest to clear can be the transition from the classroom to the working world.<\/p>\n

Our schools are equipped to guide students as they develop plans to continue education after high school. However, many don\u2019t have the resources to help students explore career options before deciding to invest in postsecondary education. Area businesses and nonprofits have long identified this career exploration gap and are working together to address it.<\/p>\n

According to Seth Cole, chief operating officer of Gallegos Corporation, while educators across Colorado are seeking to pair teens with meaningful careers, most of these strategies are still bogged down in theory. There is a welcome exception, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYouthentity and its Career Academy have broken through the theory stage and are not only educating young people,\u201d Cole said. \u201cThey are matching the students with local businesses to allow the students to truly see what opportunities are available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youthentity is a local nonprofit that helps acquaint students in middle and high school with the working world and enables them to stay engaged with school, explore careers and identify a postsecondary pathway to get them there. Part of what makes Youthentity effective is its close working relationships with actual employers who help to teach and model real-world, professional skills.<\/p>\n

This fall in the Roaring Fork School District high schools \u2014 Basalt, Roaring Fork and Glenwood Springs \u2014 Youthentity will debut its Career Academy and Youthentity University, a pair of programs that run in tandem during school hours, provide credits toward graduation and run through the entire academic year.<\/p>\n

For years, Youthentity has provided programs that gave students a taste of the professional world and taught job-related skills including financial literacy. This is the first time, however, that the Carbondale-based nonprofit has worked hand-in-glove with a school district to offer classes five days per week, during school hours and all year long.<\/p>\n

Executive Director Kirsten McDaniel said two career academies are available for the coming school year. One specializes in the construction world, the other hospitality. Both offer opportunities for high school students to meet and learn from industry professionals; many of the construction classes will take place at the offices of Gould Construction near Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids will get a thorough introduction to all the pieces of the industry,\u201d McDaniel said. \u201cUntil you can try something on for size, how do you know if you really like it? How do you know if you\u2019re good at it? With all of our programs, I try to enable kids to discover what they\u2019re good at, in a way that might not be apparent in an academic setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hospitality program will teach skills specific to that industry \u2014 culinary arts, restaurant management, hotels and lodging \u2014 and the construction program will focus on subjects like structural design, carpentry, masonry, plumbing and electrical work. Participants in the hospitality program receive a chef\u2019s hat and other clothing for the kitchen, while construction students receive a pair of work boots.<\/p>\n

\u201cCareer Academy brings together real-world experiential learning opportunities with hands-on projects delivered by industry professionals,\u201d said Peter Barclay, director of the program. \u201cStudents will have mentors in their career field of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

But alongside these industry-specific benefits, both programs will also include Youthentity University, an online platform that aims to cultivate general employability skills \u2014 effective communication, business etiquette, teamwork and so forth.<\/p>\n

Youthentity\u2019s mission includes investing in local kids and developing a strong, competent workforce. And the creation of the Career Academy programs represents an intentional investment by local businesses and individual professionals in the region\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit\u2019s cost-per-student in the hospitality program is $7,000, but the cost for families who sign up for this nine-month immersion in a local industry is between $100 and $200. Youthentity provides bus passes for all students who need transportation from their school to the off-campus classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for kids to understand that the community is really behind them,\u201d said Mark Gould Jr. of Gould Construction. \u201cWe want them to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youthentity is now building a roster of alumni to support its programs in a variety of ways, from monetary donations to coaching and mentoring. Former Youthentity participant Miriam Flores, now the assistant controller at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, said Youthentity literally launched her professional life.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter where I go, I will never forget where it all started,\u201d she said. \u201cYouthentity will always have a special place in my heart. It was the foundation to my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tamara Tormohlen is executive director of Aspen Community Foundation.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen Community Foundation, Lauder event, Aug. 13, 2018.Steve Mundinger The hurdles on the road to adulthood are many, but one of the hardest to clear can be the transition from the classroom to the working world. Our schools are equipped to guide students as they develop plans to continue education after high school. However, many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 21:21:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}