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50 For 50 #26: Summer Youth Success

November 26, 2019  |  50th Anniversary
Summer Youth Work Experience participants on the job
Summer Youth Work Experience participants on the job

This is the 26th in a continuing series of stories--one every day for 50 days--to conclude IKRON's year-long celebration of our 50th anniversary. Missed one? No problem! See the entire series on our news page here.

A few summers ago, we had a student participating in our Summer Youth Work Experience program who was a great worker, so much so that one of the local businesses we collaborated with that year offered that in the future, when he was ready, they'd love to have this student as an employee.

The following summer, we were delighted to see Craig* indeed had found a job--not at the same business from the previous summer, but one of our local partners nonetheless. We were not surprised to see he was still a hard worker.

What was beautiful to see was Craig's growth as an employee and his personal connection to his former job coaches at IKRON. That summer, and in summers since, he went above and beyond to help the new summer youth students learn and understand the job to be done at his place of employment, which made the other students' experiences more valuable for his having been in their shoes in the past.

Craig used his summer youth experience as a springboard to move from student to employee, trainer, and friend.

*Not the student's real name

 

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