ACADEMIC & CAREER EXPLORATION PROGRAM
A NEW CHAPTER FOR KING STREET CENTER TEENS
Imagine you're 14 years old, just starting high school, and already you are being asked what you want to do when you grow up. The truth is, you have no idea. Right now, you are just trying to navigate everyday life – social pressures, academics, and family expectations. Where would you even start anyway? Besides, you have more responsibilities than a lot of the kids in your grade. Your parents work really hard, have non-traditional work hours, and you have to take on an after school job and/or be responsible for your younger siblings. Even if you wanted to figure out what your future might hold, you simply cannot add that to the list of things to juggle.
Senior year arrives in a flash. Fellow students your age have spent the last three years building up a resume and are starting to apply for colleges, frantically writing essays about where they see their future headed. You too have worked hard in school, but you’ve also had to work outside of school and there’s been no room for future planning. It feels overwhelming to know what to do next, and you freeze. Graduation day arrives and you are feeling no closer to knowing how to answer the question you were asked at 14 years old: what do you want to do? And as you listen to the opportunities your friends have had time to build for themselves, you dream of one day having the resources and support to do the same.
For many kids in our community, this is their experience. The reality is that for low-income families, every member is responsible for the overall well-being of the household. After learning from and listening to over 200 members of our King Street Center community this past year – including parents, youth, and alumni – it was clear that parents want nothing more for their child than to find a successful path in life. Yet, there is a serious gap for high school aged youth in Burlington with limited or no financial resources to have equal access to opportunities helping them discover their passion and direction.
For more than 50 years, King Street Center has served the youth of this community, and we know that just one exposure to a potential career can change the trajectory of a child’s life. A little over a year ago, one of our students took a flight lesson with his mentor and is now a Civil Air Patrol Cadet with his eyes set on joining the AirForce. Another student determined to become an FBI investigator is now personally connected to Vermont’s sole congressional representative who is putting her in touch with FBI officials. We’ve witnessed this moment of spark in many youths’ eyes over the years. Now, we’re reaching for more of it.
That is why we are expanding upon our current Job Club program for middle schoolers and establishing an Academic & Career Exploration (ACE) Program for high school youth. In its 26 years of existence, our current Job Club has helped over 300 students learn vital job, life, and financial literacy skills. The ACE Program aims to build on this impact by exposing high school aged youth to a variety of career fields, such as tech, medical, customer service, culinary arts, education, government, and more, and will provide a stipend for participation. Financially resourcing them means more kids will no longer have to choose between opportunities and income. The program will also support youth interested in exploring additional academic endeavors – whether through community college, technical school, or a traditional four year college – by examining what that would be like and supporting them in getting there.
A program like this will catapult more kids into a reality where they do not have to wonder what might have been if they only had the financial resources to say yes to opportunities. It is a bridge to the future, and there is so much for our kids to explore on the other side.
We are so thankful to the Courtney and Victoria Buffum Family Foundation for a generous endowment gift that will seed this essential and critical programming for our future leaders.
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