LEE LEWIS is the president of Junior Achievement of Rhode Island, a Warwick-based nonprofit that provides K-12 students with skills and knowledge in workforce readiness and financial literacy. After reaching 10,337 students during the 2017-18 academic year and implementing the JA Inspire work-readiness program, which connects students with industry professionals, the local nonprofit was recognized with the 2017-18 Peak Performance Award by parent organization Junior Achievement USA.
The organization reached a significant growth in students this past year. What attributed to that? The biggest factor in our growth has been with the JA Inspire program. … Over the next couple of years, [we’re] looking to reach all Rhode Island eighth graders with the program. That program focuses on developing an educational and career pathway for them. So, we’re hoping to prepare those young people as they start making a life choice, whether it is a [career and technical education] program, a traditional high school, or what is beyond that. They get to meet with local employers in industry and get to talk to them to see what they do and see if that is of interest to them. Also, they find out if they need a four-year college degree or a high school diploma, or if they can be trained.
How big was it for the students to engage with the employers to get that sense of what they want to do for their careers? It’s huge. We pre- and post-test the young people. In our survey results, 76% of students became aware of a company that they did not know existed in Rhode Island. When you look at a young person having the ability to see what is out there, there’s a world of possibilities. It’s when they don’t know that they might lock into something they might not enjoy. So, to have children see at an early age what is out there and open to them, they can go directly to what they might enjoy in life.
Given the state is pushing hard to shrink the skills gap and bring up more-skilled workers, how important is this JA Inspire program to strive toward that? It’s really significant and the state is looking to have more children exposed to the different opportunities right here in our backyard. Here at Junior Achievement, we believe it’s never too early to start looking at careers. So, we have programs at the kindergarten level all the way up through the 12th grade. We feel that by starting early, they’ll have a better chance to see what’s out there and what’s best for them.
Do you expect a bigger turnout for the JA Inspire event this year? Our goal is about 9,000 kids [attending the event] in November, which will be about 80% of the eighth graders in Rhode Island. We’re also looking to have about 150-175 employers, all of them coming in with the idea that they’re talking to kids but also providing a hands-on activity that has to do with their company. We had Green Development LLC come in this past year and brought in a 128-foot turbine blade for the kids to see. They brought in solar panels and baby goats.
