By Ajer Qureshi | Program Manager
Pointters was founded on the principle of helping Black and minorities have easier access to better jobs. This principle extends to the young high school students of Black and minority descent who are at a pivotal moment in their lives where they need to decide on their future. For some students, opportunities for discovering career potentials aren't often made available to them in school. For others, a combination of cultural stigma and expectations prevent them from wanting to pursue careers they desire.
Pointters' efforts to change that include our Academic Career Empowerment (ACE) Program. This is an annual program for high school students in the Fox Valley in which twice a year, students are invited to spend a full day at an event in which they meet professionals from across different job fields and participate in hands-on workshops that teach students some of the practical skills they can bring to this new job field. On top of that, we also provide students with resources towards mentoring programs and chances for early career opportunities via internships or part-time jobs.
This program is run twice every year, for the Fall and Spring terms each. Typically, this program was for high school students of the Appleton Area School District, but last year, we ran an additional program for students of the Oshkosh school district. From Appleton, we were able to get in touch with over 150 students, while Oshkosh had us reach to about over 80 students. In total, we have reached around 230 students last year, and our numbers are expected to grow as we introduce the program to more school districts such as Menasha and Neenah.
Reception to our program has been overwhelmingly positive from both our partners and our students who attend. We have had tremendous success in giving students a jump-start towards their dream careers, as we've had students immediately sign up for interenships with big organizations like Thedacare upon the program's completion. In addition, one of our students was inspired by the ACE program to start a business of his own, and it has been growing steadily over the past year. We're proud of our students and we want to reach out to more!
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