Cultivating a New Immigrant Narrative

The nonprofit Fly Compton Aeronautical Education Foundation provides affordable flying lessons for marginalized youth to help them get careers in the aviation industry.

Owners of the Wonderful Company food conglomerate honed their philanthropic efforts on the community they saw had the most need—their own workers' families—by establishing charter schools to improve the quality of life and education in Lost Hills, California. The K-8 school, one of two, has adopted a "cradle to career'' approach, incentivizing college education through in-school college pathways and renewable college scholarships after completing high school, and integrating parents into its mission through tailored educational sessions aimed at bridging cultural divides.

An Irish-based company, ALISON, provides free, high-quality e-courses to people around the globe in order to help close the gap between education and workplace skills. Particularly focused on providing access to areas where more traditional forms of education and job training are difficult to get, this approach is helping to change lives and the economy for the better.

A partnership between Essex Tech North Shore Agricultural & Technical High School, and Local 22 trade union members is teaching students union norms and trade skills early in their career, connecting them to apprenticeships and greater career opportunities. Other states, including Maryland and Louisiana, have similar programs and students report feeling a greater sense of job security and that they can command higher pay from employers due to the expertise gained from the program.

A college in the poorest county in Maine offers a high job placement rate and a relatively cheap education for seaside communities. At Maine Maritime Academy, students get hands-on experience to pursue relevant careers as navigation officers, engineers, and roles on the business operations side.

The Laudato Si' Leadership Training program, a collaboration between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, uses church teachings on the environment to facilitate actions that address climate change and other socio-ecological issues in the region.

A group of women are restoring abandoned chinampas (ancient Aztec floating farms) in and around Mexico City, combining indigenous farming techniques with university research partnerships to clean polluted waterways, protect endangered axolotls, revive sustainable year-round agriculture, and train a new generation of farmers in traditional methods.

The Center for Black Educator Development aims to attract more Black students to teaching careers through courses at career and technical education centers, summer apprenticeship programs for high school and college students, and paid fellowships for participants who go on to pursue education in college. The organization has awarded 55 fellowships since its inception and employs roughly 100 students each summer in its apprenticeship programs.

Teach Minnesota is a six-week alternative licensure program that provides hands-on classroom experience and intensive training in topics such as literacy and culturally-responsive education, allowing future teachers to earn their license more quickly and at a lower cost than in traditional degree programs. The New Teachers Project, which facilitates Teach Minnesota, has trained 37,000 teachers in 25 states and Washington, D.C.

Career and Technical Education schools teach teens a mix of academic and technical requirements so they can choose to pursue a career in the trades industry upon graduation.