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I'm Stephanie York, your host today.

Thank you for joining us for a global outlook with a local view.

Started in 2002, Project GRAD Akron has successfully partnered with the Akron Public Schools to positively impact the lives of students and families.

In a world where COVID took two years of normal learning away from students, Project GRAD has been able to show students the pathways to a successful life.

Today we are talking with Jacqueline Silas-Butler, executive Director of Project GRAD, and we are going to learn exactly what Project GRAD does, who it serves, and why programs like Project GRAD are important.

Thank you, Jacque, for joining us today.

- Oh, thank you for having me.

- Absolutely.

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background.

- Okay, a little bit about me.

So I'm a native of Middletown, Ohio, which is in Southwestern Ohio, grew up in Madison Township, went to college at the Ohio State University, and I came to Akron to go to law school.

So I've been a lawyer since, well, 39 years this month.

- Wow.

- Wow.

Where did the time go?

- I have no idea.

- And so that's a little bit about me, and I've been with Project GRAD since 2006.

- Perfect.

So what is Project GRAD?

Tell me about it.

- So Project GRAD Akron is part of a national program which started out of Houston, Texas.

And the GRAD stands for...

It's an acronym for Graduation Really Achieves Dreams.

And so our mission is to work with students.

And Akron, we work with the students in the Akron Public Schools, and primarily to raise and increase graduation rates from high school and college.

So we work with students from kindergarten through career.

- So how did you get involved with Project GRAD?

I mean, you're an attorney.

You're probably out in the world working as an attorney at some point.

- I was.

I used to be a magistrate at our juvenile court, as well as domestic relations court.

I was an assistant prosecuting attorney and just a lot of other things, but used to do a lot of volunteer work, and I was tapped to do some work with another nonprofit.

And then later on, I was recruited to serve as the new executive director of Project GRAD when they were seeking a new person in 2006.

And so that's how I got involved and been here ever since.

- Great, so you were probably the second executive director or... - Actually, there was an interim director who started Project GRAD.

And so when Dr. Sylvester Small, who was the superintendent of Akron Public Schools, he brought Project GRAD to Akron.

It started out of Houston, Texas.

And Mr. Joe Coleman and Judi Hill were like the co-conveners of Project GRAD, and then they ended up hiring an executive director, and I replaced her.

Dr. Flora Dees was my predecessor and I replaced her.

She served a little less than four years, but I guess she was the second and then I would be the third.

- Okay.

- Yes.

So what are the goals of Project GRAD?

Is it just to graduate students and then you're done or... - No, we do a little bit more than that.

We have a lot of goals, but in the nutshell, we work with the families and the students, and we start as early as kindergarten.

We have a program called Bridge to Kindergarten, and it's a literacy-based program where we work with students in the summer before they start kindergarten.

But we're trying to get more family involvement and family engagement.

But we go from kindergarten through career.

So some of our goals, some of our programs would include something like our College and Career Central.

We're in the Akron Public Schools.

We're currently in four clusters.

We started in the Brookdale cluster, and then we're now in the East cluster, the North, and the Garfield clusters.

And we have different programs and services, but, you name it, we do mentoring, we do financial aid support, social emotional learning, after school summer and programs, just a lot of different things to work with the students and their families.

And with our college students, we work with them to see what we can help them with to finish school.

We give scholarships.

We've awarded more than $2 million in scholarships since 2006.

So we have a host of programs and services for students and their families.

- So when you say you have these programs, do kids come to you in a building or do you go to the schools?

Do you go to their homes?

How does this work?

- So we're actually embedded in the schools.

We have office space and program space at Brookdale where we initially started.

We have it at East, and now we have services in the North cluster, and I wanna say Kenmore-Garfield, but the Garfield cluster.

But we have classes that we co-teach with the teachers in the schools.

We have summer programs where the students can sign up for the programs.

But basically, we're in the schools with their teachers, and so that makes us at an advantage in a sense because they look at us as part of the staff.

We have, I won't say 24 hour services, but we're there for them and with the families, so we're like an added value for the schools.

So they don't have to come to us.

We actually recruit them out of the schools.

If you're in one of those schools, you're considered a Project GRAD student.

- Oh, okay.

So if you're a student in one of those schools, do you just like stop in and see what's going on?

How does somebody get involved with that?

- So it depends on which grade level.

So for example, in our middle schools, what we have, we co-teach classes in our College and Career Central.

And so we have classes for seventh and eighth graders, and sometimes sixth graders, depending on which school we're in.

And so we are assigned to a class with the teacher, and we co-teach the classes.

Our program staff will co-teach classes with them.

We also have programs where people can sign up for some of our summer programs.

We recruit students.

But if they're in one of those schools, they can receive our services.

- Okay.

- Yes, and even with our kindergarten program, we do a lot of recruitment for those to make certain we're hitting all of the various, like preschools or daycare and places like that, and we work very closely with the Akron Public schools when people sign up to make certain that those students have that opportunity before school starts.

So just a lot of different ways.

But if you're in one of those schools, that's how you can get our resources.

- If you're not in one of those schools, but you're an Akron public school student, can you still get services or it is more difficult?

- It depends.

It's a little bit more difficult because, depending on our grants that we receive, some of our grants are specific to certain schools and things like that.

But over the years, especially during COVID, we were able to provide services to students outside of our normal clusters that we work with.

So it just really depends on if we have the availability and if space and the resources are available.

- So at its core, Project GRAD aims to show students the pathways to a successful life.

What are some of those pathways?

- So some of the Pathways could be our mentoring programs.

We have what's called GRAD Mentors, and we do one-on-one mentoring with our students as well as group mentoring.

So that's one of the pathways we do.

Our summer programs are awesome that we offer to the students.

We did, this past summer, Entrepreneurship Adventures, and we worked with Northside, and Bounce, and all these other organizations.

We work very closely with our colleges and universities, including Kent State and the University of Akron, and sometimes even with Stark State, but we do a lot of different things.

You meet the students where they are, and then you try to get them what they need.

We have great staff that works with our students.

They may have individual case management needs, but just a lot of different pathways.

I mean, you think about what's needed and we try to get the resources for the students and their families.

- So when you work with Northside, and Bounce, and all that, were any of these students able to come up with a product to sell or something like that?

- They did, they did.

It was a lot of fun.

And so they put 'em in groups and things like that.

They had different entrepreneurs come in.

They would have some of the classes at the various schools, and then we would bring 'em together at Northside for different things.

They were a wonderful partnership.

We had the last day of the program.

The students were in their groups and we were over at Bounce.

And unfortunately, that day is when there was a problem downstairs, so we had to be upstairs.

It was in the summertime, so you can imagine the heat, but we were upstairs, and so...

But all the students were there.

They were competing, and they had judges in front of them, and they told 'em how, how they did with their services and what they offered.

Some of 'em had boards, display boards.

They had their products there.

It was just awesome, and the kids did an incredible job.

And then they had the opportunity to have their wares at Bounce later, but they were able to sell their items.

But just again, it's an opportunity for them.

We started that in June and then we came back again in August, and then we have different activities for the students.

And the good thing, we were working with our students from Brookdale and East.

And so a lot of times, kids don't know each other from different sides of town, but they got to work together and that was wonderful.

And so, recently, we just had a bowling activity for the kids where they got to get together and- - Have fun.

- Exactly.

Just be a kid and have fun.

And so these are just opportunities for them to learn some things about entrepreneurship.

They have instructors.

They go over everything, and they came up with names, and they did an awesome job.

- So you'll never know, one of these kids might have the next big product on the market.

- They had some great things that they were looking at, and it was exciting just to see.

And our program staff, they love working with them.

And then the folks that are volunteers, they enjoyed working with the students as well.

So, yes.

- Awesome.

So I wanna remind our viewers and those who may have joined late, that we are here with Jacque Silas-Butler, executive Director of Project GRAD Akron.

We are talking about the ways Project GRAD helps young students through college and career, and how Project GRAD focuses on teaching students to become successful and productive adults.

So how many students do you think you serve each year?

- Oh my.

It really varies.

So if you imagine the schools and different programs that we offer, we'd serve over a thousand kids easily every year.

And so, just some things, we might be a one and done.

For instance, we're doing a financial aid night for the students, and so anyone in the school can participate in that.

But we have thousands of kids.

We have a program for our, we call it Breakfast and Educational Fund with Santa, and we have that.

And so lots of educational activities for the kids.

Some kids are there every day with us and some kids are with us for like a certain period of time and their family.

So we offer- - And some grow up with you.

- Yes.

- From kindergarten all the way through, right?

- Yes, yes.

In fact, we've had one young lady that just graduated in 2023, graduated from high school.

She was in our first Bridge to Kindergarten program.

- That's amazing.

- It is.

It has been great to just watch the students grow up and they're like, "Oh."

I was at an event this past weekend, saw some of the students there.

So they do grow up with us, yes.

- So this young lady, how was her I mean, how was her path?

How did it go?

- It went well.

And she's in college now.

She's a freshman in college.

- Wonderful.

- She was one of our students who worked with us this summer.

- Good.

- And so we have opportunities for some of the younger students to be mentored by the older students.

- [Stephanie] That's incredible.

- And kids, they like to hear from other young people, so they get that opportunity.

Some of our students in college, they come back and they talk to the students.

So we have lots of opportunities, but yes, several of our kids have been with us from the very beginning or we picked them up along the way, but we hear from them and they're doing well.

So that's the good thing.

- That's awesome.

So what is the GRAD Helping Hub?

- So the GRAD Helping Hub, we recognize that families and students have needs.

And so we learned, especially during COVID, so many different things took place during COVID, and sometimes we just... People make assumptions about what people can do.

So when you shut down the library, if you go to the library to do all your studying, where do you do that?

So sometimes we help students with laptops, food needs, and things like that.

Kids had to come back home from their colleges and universities.

So it's just depending on what the need is, from basic needs to some things that a little bit more substantial, So we raise some money to help some of our students and their families.

And so that's what the GRAD Helping Hub is.

- Is that like you can supply food and clothing, as well as like internet access and things like that?

- Yes.

You name it, we were able to assist the students, and it was very beneficial.

We found, during COVID especially, that a lot of our college students, they're first in their families to go to college, and to have to come home... You name it, food supplies, baskets, just anything that you could possibly need, and we try to help out, or we try to get them to resources in our community.

- So is that hub still ongoing or is it just during COVID?

- It's still ongoing.

It's not as large because we had a grant to assist with that.

But we do help students wherever we can find the resources, or even their families.

During that time people needed help with their electricity bills.

And fortunately, the County of Summit had some additional resources and we were able to avail those services, and then we were able to support the families.

Yes.

- Great.

So if someone wants to help out, other than sending money, what can they do?

- Oh we have lots of volunteer opportunities.

We have, as I call 'em, the one and done.

we have people who are professionals who say, "You know what, I don't have a lot of time to be a mentor, but I would be willing to come and share about my career.

I can come in and tell you about my story."

We have people who are volunteers, who are mentors.

We ask for a one year commitment for mentoring our students, and they do that.

Sometimes people volunteer on our different committees.

We have two fundraisers a year, and so people will do that.

So we just have a lot of different opportunities.

Like I said, sometimes people will say, "I wanna donate some clothing 'cause you have some high school students, maybe they could use these things, gently used items."

Just a lot of different ways people can support.

We rely a lot on volunteers, 'cause we're a very small organization.

- Sure.

So if you have a mentoring, say someone wants to come in and mentor and it's a year long, you have to give a commitment, do you get one person, two people?

Does it vary?

How does that work?

- So it depends on what you're interested in.

Most people will do the one-on-one mentoring.

And during COVID, we started with our virtual mentoring.

So we did not stop our programs with our students, and it became like a lifeline for them, and so we had one-on-one mentoring.

Those who are able, we will go into, they'll go into the classes.

They get great training.

We make certain that they receive the training.

So it's not like you're sitting out there cold, and we really work with the students and the mentors for smart goals and things like that and things that will help those students who are graduating from high school and making choices of what they're gonna do after high school.

So mentors are very supportive of our organization and very needed too.

- That's great.

What can schools or other communities that do not have a Project GRAD program do for their students to help them become successful?

- So I think so many people don't understand that students are not the same as when they went to school.

I think about myself.

And so things that you might take for granted that your parents may have done for you, they may not have these same opportunities.

So many people are working.

So many of these students have social emotional needs and things like that.

I think people need to take that in consideration when they're looking at young people.

And when you're working with young people, they need that kind of support.

When you see, for instance, financial aid support, kids might wanna go visit a college and things like that.

Just think about what you would want for yourself or your child, and think about somebody that may not have that.

And those are the types of things I think would be very important.

If you're able to mentor, that's great.

If you're able to just go into the schools and volunteer.

Be a career day speaker.

Tell about your story.

Everyone's story didn't start the same way and they didn't end the same way, and people take different paths to get to where they wanna go.

And so help the students understand everyone doesn't go the same route to get there.

- Sure, and not everybody goes to college either.

- Exactly, exactly.

- So tell me about some of the other paths that people take that you support.

- So our scholarships are for students for post-secondary education.

So it doesn't have to be college.

We have had students.

We've supported them for beauty school or cosmetology school, some type of art school or masonry work and things like that, the trade schools and things like that.

So when people think college, we say post-secondary, so anything after high school, because we recognize people have different ways that they're gonna go be successful.

- And the trades are needed.

- Exactly.

- I mean, more now than ever, it seems.

- Exactly.

And so we support those students, and we have.. We try to match up our students with others who may have that same pathway that they've chosen, so it makes it very nice.

And we try to make certain our students get volunteer opportunities so they can see that people help them and how you can help others, and you get into that mindset of giving, and sharing, and learning.

- Sure.

You guys all went to Texas to figure out how to do Project GRAD, not you specifically, but the previous administrator.

Is anybody coming to Akron and asking you about Project GRAD or is it spreading throughout the country?

- So Project GRAD at, one point, was part of this whole national organization, but so many of our groups, separate Project GRAD sites are now embedded in the schools.

Some of 'em are with universities, but they've merged a lot of them with that.

And so because with so many things changing from No Child Left Behind and all of that, people saw the need.

I mean, if you look at Akron, the College and Career Academies is kind of similar to what we were doing at Project GRAD before they started.

So yeah, so people have different ways to do it.

- And they're all good.

- Exactly.

- Right.

- Exactly.

- Get it to the kids.

Get it to the families that need it and- - Definitely, definitely.

So we're just very pleased that we've been able to work with a lot of different schools and people.

For instance, there's a GRAD Cincinnati, and they're still around.

Project GRAD in Columbus merged with their schools, same with some others.

- Nice.

- So yes.

- So is Project GRAD thinking of expanding further in the Akron schools?

- So it's interesting that you asked.

So when we initially started, it started in the Brookdale cluster, and so then they asked us to do a pilot at North.

And so we initially did a pilot at North, and so there was a greater need at East, and so that's when we went to East.

We co-wrote a grant a few years ago called Gear Up Grant.

And so Project GRAD is the lead partner in that grant, and so that gave us four clusters in Akron.

That's how we got to the- - Out of how many clusters are there?

- Seven or eight, depending on how they count them now.

It used to be eight.

We have a new superintendent, so I know they're making some changes of some things, but, at one point, it was eight.

But yes, we're in half of the clusters and it's based on the greatest need.

So yes.

- So are the co-teachers at the school certified in teaching or education?

How does that work?

- So many of them are adjunct professors.

We've worked with Stark State College to get that set up so that we could do that.

Most of them...

So that makes it really good from the standpoint that we have additional credentials to work with.

And especially with the college and career and a lot of the different things that students need and want, it helps the school district as well.

So yes.

- So give us a success story.

Tell us about one of your students whose life was changed by Project GRAD.

There's probably so many of 'em, right?

- Right, right.

I think about a number of years ago, and I could tell you so many stories about our students, but I remember a young man.

We were at our old office, and he came in, and we were just doing some videos of different students.

And I still remember hearing these words from him.

He said, "Project GRAD Akron changed my life."

I mean, it was just a powerful statement, and he was so sincere, and he talked about what we did and what we do at Project GRAD.

And so we just celebrated our 20th anniversary last year.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

What I wanted to do is have a variety of people talk about Project GRAD over the years from parents, teachers, students, from very young to our more seasoned students.

And so just to hear the students talk about what Project GRAD did for them, and so many success stories, I mean- - So where's that young man now?

Do you know?

- He's doing well.

He's doing well.

I mean, so many of these young people, it's just powerful to see these students.

And then you hear them talk about some of the people that did not have the opportunity, the people they knew who didn't have the opportunity, didn't avail themselves of the opportunity, but life's changes impacted them.

And just to see, being surrounded with people doing the same thing, interested in the same thing really makes a huge difference.

- Do you find that some of these graduates come back to help?

- They do, but so many of our students are in so many different places.

So we've had them come back.

They've been mentors.

I still see Steven when he came back as a mentor, and we have several people.

I can name more than just them.

Yes, they mentored, they volunteer.

One young man started a scholarship at Project GRAD.

Dante started a scholarship.

So they have different ways of supporting.

We know with student debt, it adds up, but the fact that they're willing to do that.

And so it's just great to see what they're doing and how they come back and how they're willing to come back and talk to the students, be mentors, just be another ear for them.

So yes.

- So your suggestion to people is get involved, be a mentor to someone.

I mean, even if you don't wanna get involved in Project GRAD, find a student that needs your help, be a mentor, be that sounding board, read a book to a kid.

- Yes, yes.

- I mean, just anything you can do, it all helps.

- It's so true.

Recently, we did a book...

They did a trick or treat at the building.

And so we decided to give books to the students because you get a lot of candy, - You can't get too many books, right?

- And so we had books.

They did have school supplies and things like that for the students, but we had books for them.

And so, just so many different ways to support students and families.

And again, as you said, you could be a mentor, you could pick up the phone, you could come volunteer in the office and make phone calls and tell people, "Your child is doing okay today," or "We want you to know about this meeting."

So many different ways people can support.

They can go online and help with registering children for things or making phone calls.

- Even helping with college applications for goodness' sakes.

I mean, I've seen my kids go through that, and it is not for the faint of heart.

- Exactly.

And if you have those skills, come on in and help.

You may say, "Well, I can give you two hours."

We have different programs.

Like I say, some are done in a day and some are longer, depending on what you're interested in.

So yes.

- That's wonderful.

Well, thank you, Jacque, for the great discussion about Project GRAD and all it encompasses.

Who knew about all the great things Project GRAD is doing for our students in our community?

We are very lucky to have such a dedicated professional at the helm of Project GRAD and look forward to what Project GRAD accomplishes under your leadership.

- Thank you.

- And with your children of course.

Thank you for joining us today on "Forum 360" for a global outlook with a local View (bright music) - [Announcer] "Forum 360" is brought to you by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, Hudson Community Television, the Rubber City Radio Group, Shaw Jewish Community Center of Akron, Blue Green, Electric Impulse Communications, and "Forum 360" supporters.