And now the 419 with Gretchen DeBacker, Matt Killum, and Kevin Mullan.

Welcome to the 419, powered by WGTE and presented by Whetro Wealth Management.

I'm Kevin mullan, Gretchen DeBacker.

No.

Tell me.

It is a Thursday dish where we take a look at our Thursday.

It is, it is.

It's Thursday.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

You're right.

You take it down.

Yeah.

It's the day we take a look at our toledo.com community calendar driven by.

Tada!

We're tally the top five events in the region.

Yes.

And, a chance to to share.

You guys are passing notes in class?

Yes.

That would what I got.

I got demerits for all the time passing notes got because they didn't have phones and text me when I was in school and chewing gum.

Interesting.

I would have to go around the school and scrape gum off the bottom of.

Oh my God.

I didn't know that was a real thing.

Yeah.

Well, the nuns, that's what they make you do.

My, kid's school just got the, So they've got iPads in all the classrooms.

The older kids, I think can take them home, but like the younger grades, they'll stay in school.

But the camera apps just got turned off on all of them.

Oh my gosh.

Because they were, totally taking pictures of each other, flicking off somebody, and they would like.

They have that.

That one kid does it.

They save it on their phone and then would message it to anybody in the school that they wanted.

That first kid is on their way to being a congressman.

That's right.

That is exactly right.

It's, Yeah.

So I, I, but it's funny.

My wife is teaching there.

That's right.

And so, you know, she is also now saying, like, developing lessons that would rely on the camera.

Oh.

And she's like, I want to do these cool things, but, like, you guys ruined.

Be trusted.

You ruined it.

So there it goes.

Did you were you, my note passer in school?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

The answer is yes, but my handwriting is, really difficult to read.

You know, the class clown?

I was.

No, I wasn't, but I sat near him and knew he has to say that I was homeschooled.

So I'm waiting for the note to my mother.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Do you like me?

Check.

Yes.

She said no.

She's never replied.

Maybe so.

Reiterated that.

Yes.

No.

Maybe so.

Yeah.

Add in an additional option there.

There were I mean, I remember having people had books like, like, absolutely.

Nope.

Yeah.

Pets for friends.

And they would just fill it out and pass them back and forth.

It was big doings.

Yeah.

Now, in full candor, if I write anything for from, like, the timer in the crumbs or, defeat.

Yeah.

That's right.

I can't remember a time I wrote last time I really wrote anything.

When I do, it's embarrassing.

Yeah.

I mean, you write, you scribble like a sociopath on your paper every day.

Yeah, yeah, we're going to publish all of our all of our scripts.

We're going to publish them as a children's, coloring book.

Give them to a team of scientists to study.

That's right.

That's our datelin I was worried we could send them to the zoo if they be able to analyze these.

Yeah, sure.

Because you are sometimes just a rabid animal.

Yeah, it's called evolution, guys.

You'll catch up.

Speaking of evolutionary, let's talk about.

Did you like that segue?

I, you know, it would have been great if you hadn't said stopped it or if you came in on a Segway.

It'd be so good anyway.

I'm not allowed on those.

Okay, so we have the toledo.com top five events of the week.

First one being Friday, March 27th.

This Friday, tomorrow an evening with Sy Smith at the Toledo School for the Arts at 7:00.

She is a go ahead.

Oh, I thought you're gonna say something.

She's an army star.

She's going to be performing with some of the students there at TSA.

It's a big do their website yet.

That's very cool.

It's going to be in their black box theater there.

Yeah.

Cool opportunity to expose the students, to somebody professionally that's doing this work, but also kind of bring that into the community and continue to foster what they do at a different level.

I know they're super cool.

So same thing.

I know we said multiple times that theater is incredible.

I've seen multiple things there.

And it's it's great for kids to be around that level of sophistication, I think.

So, big props to that group.

I just saw Rob Koenig, the director of TSA, last weekend at the Saint Johns Musical.

He's been helping out with that for 25 years.

And, we were talking about TSA and how things are going, and, it's just it's cool kind of seeing, what they're able to do, the support they have for their students and just, you know, yeah.

An important kid in my life.

Because the TSA loves it.

And I don't know that that was the right fit for them.

And I don't know if it worked out perfectly someplace else, so I really.

I'm a real Mecca.

And places.

Tell us on Adams Street next event, Friday, March 27th.

Is the rock the rink a little walleye?

We've talked a couple of different times about how the walleye continue to do these theme nights.

Their fans love, fans that want to just drop in on occasion can get involved in these theme nights.

This is all about, classic rock music.

They're going to play rock hits the whole time.

They're going to have live music at the first intermission, and they're going to be giving away guitar picks themed guitar picks.

So it should be a fun night.

Friday, March 27th.

They always do such a good job with their with their themed stuff.

It's like, I'm there's some there's some organizations that like presents, you know, catchy theme.

And it's like, I'm not sure how this is going to go.

Right?

Like a, you know, a restaurant just randomly does some random promotion.

It's like you're just trying to sell something, but legitimately somebody who's worked with and for the organization.

You know, they do this for the fans and are really, the term that uses fanatical experience.

And they're really, you know, trying to create that with everything they do.

Very cool.

Third event Toledo.

Com calendar was where you can get all the details is the masterworks Chorale spring concert called The Voice Within.

This is Saturday, March 28th so you can go to hockey Friday night.

Go to the Masterworks Corral Spring concert on the 28th.

You can get tickets at Masterworks toledo.com.

And this is going to be out at white House, at a church, at a Lutheran church, out in white House.

The voice in your head, Gretchen, is whose voice?

The singing voice.

You know, like when you're inner monologue.

Whose voice is it?

Oh, mine.

Cool answer.

This is real genius.

I understand the question.

That doesn't surprise me.

Okay, politico.com for the better of the week.

Battle of the badges hockey game again.

Saturday, March 28th.

This is the Toledo Police Department versus the Toledo Fire Department.

I meant to reach out to find out what the record is.

This is the 12th annual, event, and I didn't I forgot to do that, but I'm going to go with the fire department this year.

I think that they're they're probably good.

I bet you are.

Yeah.

The lights.

So I've been to this game.

And surprise, the ice is an melting pot smoking hot.

Great is words.

I have been to this game, a couple of times over the years.

Tell me you coached it or you played in AC units?

I used to be the coach.

I, I announced it.

See?

Yeah.

Random.

But it's not random.

It's what I do as an announcer.

But the police department consistently, wins this.

Well, I hope your house doesn't get on fire.

I didn't say they should win it.

You're saying I heard you?

Yeah.

I'm rooting for the fire department.

Okay, let's do this.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay, the fifth and final thank toledo.com.

Event of the week again is Saturday night.

It's the great American songbook with the Toledo Jazz Orchestra.

Toledo Jazz Orchestra is, the newest minted member of Live Arts Toledo.

This is going to be American popular songs, jazz standards, and the full, jazz orchestra.

And they're all nice.

They are.

They do it well.

Ice skating.

It's so impressive.

Valentine Theater, 8 p.m.. You can get tickets at Live Arts theater.com.

All of these events, you can find more information on them@toledo.

And of course, today I can get you to each and every one of these.

You can check out, their information, as well.

We appreciate Tata's support, for helping us, deliver our toledo.com community calendar, of course, driven by.

Tada!

We're going to take a break.

When we come back on the other side, we'll be joined by Josh Rankin with the Glass City Wranglers professional basketball team in downtown Toledo to hear about the cool things they've got coming up.

We'll be right back on the 419.

Support for the 419 comes from Whetro Wealth Management, where we understand that your financial path is personal.

Advisory services are offered through capital investment advisory services LLC, securities offered through Capital Investment Group member Finra, SIPC.

More information at whetroadvisors.com The 419, powered by WGTE is made possible in part by supporters like you.

Thank you.

Welcome back into the 419.

It's a toledo.com community calendar edition, driven by Tara, talking about some of the great events happening across northwest Ohio.

And there's consistently an awesome time happening in downtown Toledo.

New this year in downtown Toledo with our friends from the Glass City Wranglers.

We're joined now by Josh Rankin, the owner of the Glass City Wranglers professional basketball team, playing their first season in downtown Toledo.

Josh, thank you so much for joining us.

Oh, I appreciate it.

Yeah, it's super exciting right now with us being downtown, playing at the Glass City Center.

I've seen I have not admittedly, I've not had a chance to make it out to one of the games yet, but I've seen some of the videos and, the halftime contests and some of the things you guys are doing.

It looks like it looks like it's out there.

Right?

great time.

Yeah.

So like we focus on our fans.

So we have to make sure our fans are having a good time because that's what this is about.

It's about bringing the community together and having a really good time.

Yes, we play really good basketball.

Our guys are professional athletes.

Most of them have played high level Division one basketball.

We have athletes that played at University of Toledo.

We have athletes that played at, Bowling Green, and now we actually fly athletes in and housing, and we give them contracts to go overseas to play professional basketball.

But first and foremost, we focus on our fans.

We want to make sure our fans are having a really good time and that's what we're doing.

We'll start at the beginning.

Josh, how where are you from?

How'd you become a professional basketball owner?

I know that this is an unusual story.

Yeah.

So it's it's a really good story.

We probably don't have enough time, but I'll just make the short version of it.

But, we we started out as an amateur team.

And, went undefeated, got a key to the city, and then we got asked to join this pro league.

And so you have the NBA, and then you have the NBA, G League.

And then you have our league right underneath it.

So we're kind of like a feeder, right.

But all of our staff, all of our athletes on the resume is professional athletes.

So they can start the career or they can continue their career while they're maybe in between seasons over overseas.

And so what happened is we got asked to go to this pro league and, what's the actual league?

Yeah.

So the league is called the Basketball league, okay.

Or TBL right to the NBL.

Right?

Right.

And so before this basketball happened, I used to actually, promote the MMA fights around town.

I used to put on the MMA fights like cage fights, you know.

Yeah.

And so I did that for a while, and I just kind of realized like, man, it's, you know, it's not really working too well.

Like, it's not really bringing the city together, you know.

So I eventually we brought two people together.

It did brought two people together.

But it was like, how do we how do we bring more fans together, you know, to support a whole team?

Because MMA yes, you have an MMA team, our gym, but you're just an individual competitor fighter.

Right.

And so, I've always loved what the Mud Hens do or in the wall I do.

Right?

We talk about it all the time.

They're amazing.

Right?

But I've just always felt like my roots were basketball.

And I'm like, man, there's just there's so much.

Did you enjoy?

What?

Josh, are you.

I did play basketball.

Yeah.

And so, like, I don't like to go up.

So I, I went to Molly Valley Country Day for high school.

And so I actually still hold the highest, highest scoring record at Molly Valley for a single game or for, I think it's both, like it's been a while.

I kind of forget I'm getting a little bit older now, but yeah, I think it's.

I think it's going on right now.

No, no, you're say it's a safe place.

Yeah.

It's it's never made.

But we have.

Oh okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you are a record holder in basketball.

This is a passion of yours.

I love sports, I absolutely love sports because it's it's with all the chaos going on in this world, I just I know it's the best way to bring everybody together under the same roof.

You know, it's it's beautiful to see that.

And that's what we're doing with our fans.

You know what I mean?

We're bringing everybody together.

They're having a really good time.

We're putting on good halftime shows.

Kind of like you mentioned.

We have great music.

We do a lot of we do a lot of engagements.

We're always involved with our youth as well.

Like we're in the community, so we just don't play basketball.

That's a full time all year round.

Gig.

I cannot imagine the complexity of running an organization like this and starting it.

So I tell us a little bit about the organization, the org chart.

I mean, you you have to wear many hats, I'm sure.

Yeah, yeah.

So I've done it all.

And the reason why I've done it is because I want to make sure when we hire those staff to do those jobs, that I understand how it needs to be done.

And also it's a representation of myself and my wife, like when people come to our games or they hear about the Glacier wranglers, I know they're always saying, oh man, that's so much fun.

That's a really good organization, you know?

kind of again, that's how my wife and I want to leave our legacy.

It's like we're really good people.

We want to do good.

We want to leave a good legacy.

We want people to remember us in a positive way and do something good.

Right.

And so, you know, starting out, we were an amateur team, got got invited to the Pro League, but there's many variables on how we've grown so quickly within five years to be downtown.

Sure.

And part of that is my strategy was to go to a different gym every year to work with different communities at different gyms.

Right.

Like different schools.

Okay.

Right.

So as we went to different communities and gyms every year, we were able to work with that community and that built awareness very quickly.

Right?

Absolutely.

You know, so it was you're in community.

You're in community.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you were two feet in all time.

Yes, sir.

Yep.

And so we got to a point last year where it was like, man, our social media is doing really good.

People are coming to our games and then coming back and then other people are coming to games like, hey, my friend was just here.

My, you know, so-and-so was just here last week.

I love this game.

And so we were seeing the product of people enjoying our game.

We have a, we're on bikes and all of our games are fully broadcast on bikes.

And so then the viewership was going up, which then our sponsorships were going up, our partnerships were going up because we have a great ROI return on investment for our partners.

And we got to a point where I was like, man, if we are going to really continue to grow, we need to be downtown, we need to be downtown.

And now we're now we're downtown to Glassy Center.

Yep, we're on Ticketmaster as well.

We have a professional dance team that is led by, a lady that dance for the NBA and the WNBA.

Our mascot got an award mascot of the year?

Yeah.

What is the mascot?

So our mascot is.

It's the Redskins, the French, the fighting red.

You know, it's right.

It's an MMA fighter that comes out of that.

You talk about decisions they've made.

True.

And people watch.

I don't know why, but yeah.

But yeah.

So our our mascot is a big yellow duck.

Okay.

For the Jeep.

Not necessarily necessarily not necessarily.

Right.

Oh, edit that out.

Yeah.

Just what was your first hire when you started the Wranglers?

Who was our first hire?

The coach.

Was it the duck?

What was the.

I think our first major hire was the mascot.

Yeah.

My vision was, you know, not to replicate the Savannah bananas, but it was.

It's a good product to replicate.

Right.

But how do you make it your own?

Right?

Yeah.

Like, there's so many products out there that have already existed.

But how do you make that product better?

Or for your, you know, I mean, cater to yourself and how you operate.

And so like the Savannah bananas do a lot of dancing and singing.

Right.

And that's just what's the trend is right for those of people that do not know what the bananas are, give us a little bit of background.

Oh man.

So, like imagine the Harlem Globetrotters.

That's what the Savannah bananas are.

It's very for baseball.

For baseball.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes, I know what it is.

And.

Yeah.

And it's they're they're selling out stadiums.

But like they literally started with selling zero tickets and that's how we were.

We were we sold no tickets at one point in time.

But then, you know, to go back to like, the mascot, my vision was I wanted a mascot where people of all different ages could look at that mascot and say, hey, that's pretty cool.

I like that, you know?

And the the hardest thing that I've learned is selling something to or promoting something to an adult, because sports is very easy to get the attention of a of a youth or a child, right?

So if we have a seven footer and they walk in a room and the kids are like, oh my gosh, look how tall he is.

Right, right.

And so that's kind of like an easy sell or like get attention.

Right.

But then how do we grab the attention of the adults.

So I wanted to identify ourself to the Toledo area, but I wanted to have different forms of people being able to identified themself with our organization.

Right.

So even though we're the Wranglers, there's many ways there could be ten different ways that ten different individuals can say, I connect with the glacier wranglers for some type of history or story that I've been through with growing up in the Toledo area for one nine, and part of that, I wanted it to be our mascot.

Right.

And so it is a big yellow duck.

There could be many ways to for people to identify with it.

But also when people see our mascot, they're going to know, man, he could he dances like Michael Jackson.

I have a good memory of seeing Michael Jackson dance and, you know, love his music or whatever.

But also there's other dances that are built off the way Michael Jackson has danced.

Right?

But that's like the trend of social media because content sells.

Right.

But then also people are having a good time because that makes them smile.

That makes them laugh.

Right?

I'm talking with Josh, Redken, the owner of Glass City Wranglers.

Josh, what what's a typical week look like in terms of training, travel games, you know, for the team?

Yeah.

Yep.

So I'm all in with everything I do, so I travel with the team.

You know, I'm at all the practices I'm talking to.

I'm talking to everybody, you know, so I can't really tell you what my week looks like because it's literally a thousand things every single day.

And I'm just getting all those things done as fast as possible.

But being efficient, because I've have 5 to 6 years of operations where I've, I've developed a very good routine.

And my other jobs that I do as well.

Right.

And so it's a lot to handle, but as the years have gone by, I've been able to hire staff to be able to help out and that also have a passion for sports and also that are connected in the community, because that's what we need.

We need all of our staff to be very positive, connected in the community and really enjoy what we're doing because we're building something very special.

Introduce us to your roster.

I saw Chris Derek.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean phenomenal local product, but you've got some local guys.

You got some folks from out of town.

Yeah.

Tell us who's playing for the game okay.

No, that's a great question.

So Chris Denton's, a former MVP of the whole, he was the MVP of the league.

The Pro League.

He's played overseas.

He went to the University of Toledo and played he played at University of Tennessee as well.

We have another local athlete who's DeVante Pratt.

He, graduated from our went to, went to Rogers and played overseas.

He also played for ESPN's Slam ball.

That's where they're jumping on trampolines.

We're like football gear.

Yeah.

And there was on ESPN.

Right.

And so like he's very tough.

Right.

And he's he's scoring a lot of points.

He's he's a local a local guy that does a lot of great stuff in the community as well.

We now fly people in that are now staying in housing of ours.

We have a seven footer on our team, which is the first time we ever signed a seven footer.

Yeah.

And he's a great person.

He's got a great personality, a great character where, you know, we can put him on, we can put him on camera, we can get him in front of youth.

We have, athlete that played at Bowling Green State University as well.

That's going into, he's he's going into business starting some franchises up.

We just have a really good roster.

So how do you find or how do they find you?

How do you.

There's 13 or 15 people in the roster.

Yeah.

So we'll have 12 plus 12.

Yep.

So that's a really good question.

So how do we find people.

In the beginning it was like hey do you want play for me.

Yeah sure I don't know.

Yeah.

And then start people start playing for us.

Yeah.

But I have always wanted to put our staff in the best, give them the best opportunity we can with great resources, with, really good film and really good stats and content so they can promote themselves.

Okay, so what I've always done is say, hey, you're playing for our organization, but you're a business within our business.

Like what?

How how can I give you more resources to be able to promote yourself, you know, teach you how to, you know, promote yourself to get overseas contracts and everything.

So with these overseas contracts, we've gotten about, 15 contracts for guys to go overseas to play professional basketball.

So those are the results that we're getting for our athletes to play on our organization.

Attractive, right?

Yeah.

And so now our organization of course looks better.

Yeah.

And now we're having more athletes reach out and say, hey, I want to play for you guys.

Right.

And so that's that's really amazing.

I can ask a million question, Josh, in five years.

I hope that you have a tremendous amount of pride.

That doesn't happen by accident.

That's true.

It wasn't a straight shot.

But we do have to get to Gretchen's wacky quiz.

Let's go.

All right, that's it.

I mean, just that you should have for this.

I'm asking for rapid fire questions.

Okay?

Gretchen's asking for your favorite thing in or about Toledo.

And then you.

In order to describe Toledo in exactly nine words, I'll have 39.

I got your question number one.

What's the what is your ultimate comfort food?

Oh, shoot.

I like pizza.

If you could pick one family member and take them anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I would take my father to Hawaii.

Yeah.

All right.

Man, when you leave h Probably would say bring him back.

It's a one way ticket.

What's your favorite way to travel?

First class, I. Man.

Oh, yeah?

And what?

Something that makes you happy when you're having a bad day, seeing other people smile.

I mean, what's your number one most favorite thing?

Or where you consider to be the best thing about the city of Toledo?

The support that we have for our organization.

Great.

All right, buddy, nine words to describe the city and our region.

I'm going to put support right on top.

Okay.

That's a great way to start all individual words.

If you have any way it could be a phrase whatever okay let's do it.

The seasons for seasons.

Yep.

Good.

Okay.

Mud hens, butt heads, all eyes.

Walleye.

You got three more.

You're doing, the wranglers.

Wranglers?

Affordability.

Affordability.

What's your wife's name?

Jessica.

Jessica.

That's nice.

Now we you can.

You are getting kept me out of jail.

Well done.

Saturday, downtown Toledo at the Glass city center.

Glass city wranglers versus the lake County legacy.

Off at 7 p.m.. Yes.

People want more information.

Where can they find it?

Glass city wranglers.com.

Lots of information.

Five years of operations, lots of really good stuff.

What?

I know you guys have been doing some cool stuff at halftime.

What, what can people expect, from the game on Saturday?

So.

So we like to do halftime performances where our mascots or special guests kind of do, like certain songs and then there that are popular songs based on maybe the theme that we're doing those nights.

But same thing with our dance team.

They get out there a lot of great energy with them.

And, you know, we have we have, $5,000, you know, basketball shot that people could win as well.

A lot of freebies.

So there's just a lot of engagements, you know, really quickly you brought us a gift for our bookshelves.

Yeah.

Bring that to this onto the screen.

So it's got your Glass City Wranglers, logo on it.

It's a glass jar of little basketballs, so definitely put that on our bookshelves.

I love it.

Glass City Wranglers, now permanent part of the 419.

Josh, thank you so much for joining us.

Hey, we got to have you back on.

Let's keep talking.

We'd like to if we could get that seven footer, seven footer into our cameras, we can find a way to do it.

Yeah, that'd be fantastic.

I think first up in our high bracket with the Glass City Wranglers, when we come back, we're talking with some folks from Junior Achievement about their exciting I think we still say new program.

Yeah.

In its second year right now, fifth year.

We'll learn more about that.

And the other side of the break here on the 419.

Welcome back into the 419 powered by.

We're joined now by Julius Simon the event and marketing manager for Junior Achievement of Northwest Ohio.

They've got some incredible programs, but one of them that is certainly making waves across northwest Ohio and around the country is fifth year.

Julia, thanks for joining us.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for having me.

What is I guess let's start with what is what is junior achievement.

Yeah.

So that's a great place to start.

So Junior Achievement is a national organization.

There's 99 offices throughout the United States.

And it started in 1910.

Oh you're kidding me.

No about that.

Yeah.

So it's it's been around for a very long time.

And in Toledo, it's been around since 1946.

Okay.

So that's how you graduate.

I'm sorry for saying that.

You're out of your experience.

That's all right.

And so what Junior Achievement does is we help students, in northwest Ohio, predominantly, our goal is to help students graduate from high school with a vision of success and a pathway to get there.

The three pillars of junior achievement are financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and working career readiness.

Locally, we really hit on that working career readiness, as well as the financial literacy.

Julie, has that been or have those been the tenants since the conception of Junior Achievement, or is it sort of more of the fit with time?

Those have always been the tenants of interest that you met.

Yep.

Each area gets to kind of pick and choose what works best for them.

So over time, we've really hit on that workforce development and worked more with high school and post-high school students.

How do students get to you?

How do students get involved?

Or their parents, get involved with Junior Achievement?

Yeah.

The first question if I, Gretchen.

So we for the most part had been working within high schools, we would take our programing to high schools, but now, we work predominantly with Post High school, but we still go and do a lot of presentations with the local high schools.

How did you get involved with Junior Achievement?

And there's a particular how long have you been with them?

It's just a passion of yours.

You connect with kids.

What's.

Yeah what's wrong with you?

It's a great question.

Maybe many things.

But I actually intern with Junior Achievement my senior year of college.

Okay, so, our president, Jim Pollock, I worked with him for my my last semester of college, and then Covid hit.

So I actually went to habitat for humanity for, for a year.

Also another good institution.

Yes.

Yeah.

And then I came back.

So I've been back at Jay for four years now.

But you like kids?

You like mentoring?

What?

What's the hook?

Yeah.

So that my path kind of leads into what our fifth year program is.

But I started out in early childhood education at Bgsu.

I quickly learned after two years that that was not exactly what I wanted to do.

I didn't really want to be in the classroom.

And so I switched to tourism, hospitality and event management and have a great program at BG for that.

Exactly.

Sure.

Yeah.

And so the internship position that I found with Jay was like, oh, I can still work with students, but I don't necessarily have to be in the classroom.

And so that's kind of how I landed at Jay.

Yeah.

And how long have you been with, four years.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So the thing that you're finding that that students of that age, junior, senior year of high school, are looking for guidance wise, they they they don't know yet.

Should they go to college?

Do they go into a trade?

Should they take time off?

Should they go out?

What what is the sense that you're getting from students of that age?

Exactly.

All of those things that you just said.

I think there's a lot of pressure, to go to college or to have their next step exactly figured out when they graduate.

And we feel that that's a really unfair expectation of 18 year olds.

So we're trying to create a space to, give them the opportunity to explore, most schools, their metrics are employ at a job, enlist in the military, or enroll in college.

And we've created what we call the fourth E of explore.

So explain to what you just said.

Yeah.

So so this is a great transition into why don't you tell us what is fifth year.

Yeah.

So fifth year is a career discovery gap year.

As as I mentioned, junior achievement throughout the country, we're able to kind of create our own programs and so this is the first of the kind in the country.

For the last two years, our students have lived on Lorde's university campus.

So they're non-degree seeking students, taking a career gap year where three days a week, they're in a paid internship.

Okay.

So they're getting practical work experience.

Great idea.

Yeah, yeah.

Gretchen did that, by filling out.

Is that is that a similar program?

But I was also kicked off campus, so not exactly the same.

We can't recommend that.

But.

Yeah, I'm sure Robert Frost and attempted with all of us, travel.

But at the risk of like, making that a serious comment, I mean, that happen, of course, in large part because, I mean, you think about how many kids go to college and have no idea what they want to be.

Yeah.

And so they pick a major.

I'm one of them.

They get into it and they're instantly bored.

They don't see how it connects to real life.

Yeah.

And so, I mean, and that story is tried and true across universities around the country.

Absolutely.

Where, you know, the reason why the four year graduation rates are so abysmal.

I mean, colleges don't even report four year graduation rates anymore.

Oh, really?

They report six year graduation rates.

Yeah.

That tells me we have a problem with how we enroll somebody in a four year program that we say, well, what percentage make it through that four year program within six years that take that, that's masks.

And we're just going to talk the whole time I guess not actually talk to the expert, which is what we do too.

I know I know this, so I will challenge you on that.

But I think the statement that I feel pretty I feel pretty expert about this, but I will tell you that if graduating within four years, can also be like a bad marriage, right?

Just because you got through it, that isn't that isn't a good metric either.

Like now you're trapped.

You.

Your story truly is not one that is dissimilar.

Like you started down a career path and like, I don't want to be in the classroom.

Yeah, but people sometimes feel that financially or pressure for someplace else to be trapped.

That's just a little about some of those experiences.

Yeah.

So like I mentioned, three days a week, they're in a paid internship to, one day a week, they're doing site visits around to 50 plus of our different companies in northwest Ohio.

Really just getting to explore all of the different opportunities and get to network with people.

Mondays, they do life skill sessions.

So we're teaching them how to cook, how to clean, how to change a tire, professional skills, those needed soft skills.

Then I think a lot of 18 to 20 year olds now are lacking how to communicate in the workplace, how to what it means to show up on time and come prepared, how to write a resume, how to interview.

And then we also really emphasize financial literacy.

So we're teaching them how to budget.

So out of their internships those are paid.

And so we're teaching them how to budget with that money that they're getting.

How to invest.

We have students that open for a one keys in Roth IRAs.

This is a real passion of of things they do talk to me a lot about, I guess the fundamental points of it.

And I'm sure that we're going to get to screens and social media here is one of the culprits of it.

But yeah, the building blocks of soft skills.

Can you talk to us a little bit about how that is taught?

Yeah, through our program, we actually bring in business professionals who are experts in that field to teach our students those skills.

So we try not to have our staff teach any of the sessions as much as possible.

We really want to bring in experts to, be able to teach that, because they're the ones that are living it every day.

They're seeing it.

And so we feel that they're the ones best to be able to communicate that.

We're talking about.

Julia Simon with Junior Achievement, talking about the fifth year program.

For this program to work, you also need corporate partners as well.

I've had the privilege of having, a Georgia intern, either through rotary.

And now in my role with awards, we've had, one both the first and second semester.

So I've got some firsthand experience.

So why don't you talk about what the responsibilities of, responsibilities are of the corporate partners?

Yeah.

So ultimately, we hope that the the corporate partners get as much out of the program as the students do.

We would like to see ourselves as the workforce talent pipeline in northwest Ohio and potentially beyond that.

Because what we've seen happen throughout the program are students get in with a company, the company get to know the students, the students get to know them.

And that creates their their talent pipeline.

We've had students get hired through their internship companies and really, what we're hoping is that they get a return on their investment.

So they're getting to kind of test run employees before they actually, would hire them full time.

So and as the students are nearing the end of that fifth year time period, what are the kind of evaluations that are done or conversations that are had with those students for them to decide, like, okay, what six year, what are they doing after that?

Yeah.

So throughout the whole program, we're really intentional about providing them opportunities to check off things that they want to do and things that they don't.

So we emphasize is just as valuable to learn something that you don't want to do.

100%.

That's really well said, I that and it's okay to not right, right.

Like something and that giving people permission to say that that's probably one of the underpinnings of why this is such a successful program.

It doesn't you don't have to make this work.

You're going to be working for the rest of your life.

Yeah.

That would that would an important point.

Yeah.

So that sound is, it's now time for.

Gretchen, I'd like to play some if I were hoping to meet a fireman every week.

So I think it's warm in here.

We'll just go.

Right.

So far.

So we're good.

So far, we're good.

It's just yourself with water that makes the fire that this is.

This is what I get for making a joke about this police department.

Nice way to go.

And now here comes the fire department.

They won't be coming to ambush what was here?

What is your data?

What are you finding about what students are doing in the year after the fifth year?

Yeah, so it's split really well, we we've had about 50% of our students go to college afterwards, but they're just more deliberate about it.

So our goal is that they've experienced it, they've spent time in it, and they're confident that that's what they want to do.

As we were alluding to earlier, the six year graduation rate is 60%.

So if we can help students get through college more deliberately in four years without a financial burden, and we're teaching them how to prepare for college, financially as well.

So, about 50% go to college.

We've had about 50% go into the workforce.

And then out of our class last year, one, is now in the Air Force.

So yeah, right.

Yeah.

Julia, you grew up, your parents are, tried and true, professionals and demanded you go to school.

What?

But how did you.

We know a little about your vocational background, but what brought you to this career from your.

From where'd you grow up?

Yeah, I grew up in Bowling Green, so.

Yeah.

Born and raised there.

And I had just always wanted to be a teacher.

That was just you parents, teacher?

No.

Not really.

I just always enjoyed playing school with my friends.

And I really liked my teachers growing up.

Yeah.

So I think that definitely played a big influence.

I wanted to be a teacher because I want to do the bulletin boards.

That's a good reason, right?

I don't know that it is.

You don't think that's the way I would describe that, which is why I now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I mean, there's got to be an excitement for you guys as you talk about I mean, junior team is a national organization with an incredible history around the country, with phenomenal leadership in markets all across the 50 states.

And this is a true first of its kind.

This is the pilot program.

And I think this is, you know, it started with Jim being the only one saying this.

And now we're here in the rest of the country, sort of agree that this is a pilot for the whole country.

Agreed.

Talk to me about what what it's like to be a part of, you know, the ground floor of something like that.

Yeah, it's it's been truly amazing just to see how many people are on board with it.

And I think it's because it is such a recognized need that anywhere you go, talent and workforce is the buzz word.

Really trying to hire people that have skills is kind of difficult these days.

So really us being able to be at the forefront, providing a different opportunity that doesn't exist and one that we actually see outcomes coming from.

If people want more information on junior achievement of the fifth year program, where can they find it?

My fifth year.com.

Awesome.

When we come back, I hope you stick with us.

We're going to have a student.

Yes.

Join us.

Yeah.

Tell us who's going to join us on the program.

Yep.

So we have Donovan Antoine with us today.

He is one of our current students, and he just has an awesome story of him finding his path in fifth year.

But we'll judge how great the story is.

All right.

Let's let's take a break.

When we come back, we'll have Donovan come join us on the set.

We'll learn more about his experience and then other ways that folks can get involved in the program, either as a volunteer or a corporate partner.

I know there's opportunities for people to be able to support, this incredible work you're doing.

So we'll take a break.

When we come back, we will be joined by Donovan Antoine talking about the fifth year program, a junior achievement here on the 419.

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welcome back into the 419 powered by ZTE.

We're talking about the J program, junior achievements, fifth year program here in northwest Ohio.

We're joined now by Donovan Antoine.

Hello, Donovan.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

You are one of this year's fifth year students.

Yes.

Talk to us about.

I guess let's start from the beginning.

Kind of tell us where you grew up and how you got into this, or how you were, why you were interested in this program.

So I was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, and I let's say thank you.

So I, I was working, I was going to college, and I was just trying to find my own way when my brother, he came to me and he said, come, this man.

And I'm like, this man, that's never a good way to start show like never is.

So I'm like, I'm telling my brother I have to focus on my future at the plan.

I have to I have to prep because I have to pay for my own college, and I still have to make my way.

And, you know, so my brother says, well, I basically I know your schedule, so you're free.

But he has me sit down with Jim and he explains what fifth year is.

And I it just sounded amazing because your older brother is always going to mentor to you.

Is this a voice of reason?

So just for love, we we're very similar in age.

So it's kind of like I bounce ideas off of him.

He bounces like we're kind of two peas in a pod.

Yeah.

So it's like he's if he has a good opportunity, the more charming to me that I knew it.

But he doesn't want me.

Yeah, yeah I will say me, but but yeah, it was at the gym.

Told you that sounded that was that like shouldest.

Honestly.

Yeah.

Living on my own.

Yeah.

Yeah that's really what it was.

He was like, well, we're going to give you an opportunity to basically experience independence, experience being on your own and get a little taste of without completely removing that safety net, but also being able to also go out, learn to cook, learn to be by myself and what it's going to look like.

So you're I mean, this is a really unique, pathway into the fifth year program because it's it's traditionally I think the thought when it was developed was we got folks that are graduating high school with no idea where they go from here.

And we're going to develop a program that becomes their their fifth year of high school.

Yeah, that to figure out what do we do next.

But for you, I mean sounds like you were already in college.

Yeah.

And saying it isn't right when, when, was there a moment in college that you realize, like, immediately after my immediately after my freshman year?

Yeah.

I was like, I look back that I look back at my whole year.

And I was like, I'm so exhausted.

I don't even know what.

Like, obviously I want to learn the language and I want to learn the passion, but it was just I wanted to basically get an opportunity to see if this could work.

Sure.

Because, I was also informed by Erica that through the internships, I would be able to basically get a test run of media.

So my first internship was with 13 ABC.

Okay.

And so I worked with them.

I they're amazing people.

And but it showed me I dive in.

If you had to rate who's more amazing based on just meeting us for the first time, who's more amazing us or 13?

I honestly believe that.

I feel like I love everybody equally.

Okay.

There's no one that's that nice.

Yeah.

Somewhere in there is just a dark person.

I could feel it.

Go on with your stupid comments, Donovan.

I can tell me I'm guilty.

Life that I do, but when, What was you started school.

You were already in the path, though.

When it when it wasn't fitting.

What was that path?

Did you feel some pressure?

Just keep grinding away?

Yeah, that's just about how that felt internally.

So I absolutely I felt crushed.

Sure.

Like I felt absolutely crushed.

I on my fifteens, on my 30s, I was literally cramming out papers and then I'd come home, still have a presentation, do work till three in the morning and then get up at seven.

So it's like I was constantly moving, constantly trying to make up for what I'm trying to do here.

Yeah, right.

So to be able to take a step back, even just from that grind was like, take your breath and take a breath reset.

In a sense, yeah.

And honestly, it was the best thing I could have done, tried to do.

That is not that easy to change things, especially thinking I'm going to be well.

How I was told it was like falling a year behind.

Yeah, but really it is.

It isn't.

It really isn't because I found a complete love for it and I completely flipped my whole story around.

Tell us about that.

So what what kind of internship or placement or work did you do that caused you to change to an IT?

More importantly, you're going to be the most charming IT person in the history of I.T.

In the history of ever.

I don't get to talk to your colleagues, but they are the weirdest and least approachable people in the history of time.

Well, that's why I got a change.

You're going to make it.

You got to survive.

That's right.

Yeah, sure.

But, basically what changed it was I did the media thing I was making commercials.

I was producing commercials within Monster League.

And your words.

But then something about, I don't know, I was like, it's probably not the software, but it's probably the hardware.

Okay.

You know, I was like, it's probably not absolutely sitting there at a desk, but being able to break it apart and rebuild it.

Sure.

And so, we did an assessment with future plans where they basically they talked about personality types, and they broke it down to us with our own coach.

And it was actually one of the possessions that I, they said that would go very well with me.

So I was obviously I was talking to Erica and she basically said, well, the second internship coming up, what do you want to do?

I told her, well, I'd be really interested in it if you could give me a position there.

And then she got me, an interview on Directions Credit Union.

How about that?

Yeah.

Cool.

And it felt it felt better.

Different almost immediately.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, yeah.

Good for you.

I walked through the door and they were just so polite and so nice, you know.

Yes.

And I don't know, it was just I told redrafted my checking account from directions.

Do you still have me?

And you know, it's really funny, they said even if it's just an intern position and you will be your family's banker.

Oh, honey.

Julia, can you talk?

Donovan mentioned the future plans kind of program.

Can you talk about that program and some of the other community partners that wrap around this beyond the corporate side, and tell us who Erica is, is?

Yeah, a whole program.

That's okay.

No, no one wants to hear about it.

Yeah.

So we started Erica on our team, thanks to Kevin, actually, she works with all of our internships, so she helped facilitate.

And Courtney, all of those working with our corporate partners to make those a success.

But we work with a lot of community partners.

Future plans.

Pamela over there really helped get those coaching sessions set up.

And that's been the highlight for a lot of our students, is helping them dive in with the things that they're seeing.

The site visits, the corporate people they have coming in, helping them make those connections of where their future could be.

So that's that's what we have going on.

How long is each you get three different internships.

So how long is each session?

So there's two internships.

Yep.

And it's a whole college school year.

So roughly 15 weeks okay.

So she was anticipating are you getting fired into your it into the thick and woods of it.

I hope to get my, CompTIA certification, which is base, umbrella it you can do it work professionally and so belittling people.

Yes, yes.

When I get their computer, I can push my glasses up and I can see them go, well, technically.

That's right.

Yeah.

Nailed it.

So do you have a gift card?

That's for sure I do, in support of punctuation and text messages or no punctuation like messages?

No.

You know, that's a decorate.

Look at some of my notes.

Definitely talk to me about the kind of family and community approach to this as you were.

You know, you were on the traditional path that everybody expects you to be on, which is go to college, get a job, pay off debt for the rest of your life.

And you're like, you know what?

Let me let me do this program.

What was, you know, families kind of initial, thoughts around it.

And when did you know if they weren't on board?

Right away?

When did they get on board?

So actually, we did a meeting with my father.

So it was my brothers and my fat and he was on board right away.

He he was like, yeah, well, if you guys don't do this, you got to figure something out.

And I was like, well, I feel like this would give me a good little detour just to sit back.

And plus I'm with my brother.

So it's like, you can never really go wrong when you have family.

So it's like, if my brother is going to do this, my dad, he's already approved.

Yeah.

Good for him too.

Yeah.

What are some of the other they referred to as soft skills that you've learned that you enjoy?

Do you enjoy, a particular level of cleaning?

Is there something you've learned to cook since that?

So something that I absolutely fell in love with was the art of, like, dressing professionally.

Yeah.

So, I didn't really necessarily know what that looked like going into all of this.

And, thank you to Tammy, my previous boss, who was very, very patient with me and telling me what is and what isn't okay to wear in the workforce.

And so basically, I feel like that was a big thing for me, was learning not only to dress professionally, but to just dress casually, even when I'm not doing, like, professional things, you know, like, I just like the feel of it.

I like to be yourself.

Yes.

And I feel like very.

Yeah, I know you can't love to be proud.

Yeah, yeah.

Before we get to the quiz real quick, Donovan, you, what do you what do you.

Where do you see yourself five years from today?

So hopefully I see myself channel 13.

I swear to God.

You know, I, I see hopefully I mean, it hopefully I get more than just my CompTIA certifications in five years.

I'd want to I want to be far.

I want to be able to go to different states.

I want to be able to carry my work no matter where I decide to go.

But it's it's what what business doesn't need it.

That's right.

Antoine, a fifth year student from the junior teacher program, and Julia Simon.

It's now time for Gretchen's wacky quiz.

Oh, we're thinking about what?

About that.

Let's just.

We got two minutes, so we're going to rapid fire about four questions for me.

Who's your favorite comedian?

Favorite comedian?

Kevin Hart Sebastian Maniscalco.

If you could be a kitchen appliance, which one would you be and why?

A wooden spoon childhood.

A mixer.

All right.

Favorite Netflix show?

Favorite next Netflix show?

Does it have to be on Netflix?

So, pose.

All right.

Heartland, at what time of the day do you feel your best?

Do I feel my best?

Five in the afternoon.

I think in the morning.

All right.

What is your number one most favorite thing or what you consider to be the best thing about the city of Toledo?

The food downtown.

Okay.

I absolutely love the food spots.

Nice.

What's your favorite, Kaito ramen.

Yes, I like the coffee shops.

I'll pick your favorite.

Yes.

Queen Bee and honey.

Yeah, that was on the show.

Those are awesome.

Yeah.

All right, nine words together.

Just throw out words that describe the region and or city.

Sunsets.

Sunset.

Skyline, skyline.

Beautiful, beautiful.

It's like food.

I'll give you food, dude.

Coffee, coffee.

Love it.

We're almost home.

We got four left.

City center left.

Metro parks.

Yes.

Young.

Don't you do that.

Truly, as a suck up.

Turns out we're going to close out with Metro parks.

Enjoy the screens.

They burn out your eyes indoors.

You've nerd.

Donovan.

Best of luck to you and finish the program.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

Do you, help us bring it home?

People want more information about junior achievement in the fifth year program.

Where can they find it?

Yes.

My fifth year.com.

We are still admitting students for the class of 2027.

We have 42 already.

We're up to 60, so we'll take up to 60 students.

So applications are still live always looking for business partners.

And so corporate ventures or internship places are interested people that can host interns.

They should reach out to that same address.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Great.

Awesome.

Julia Simon and John Donovan, thank you so much.

When we come back, we will wrap up this Thursday edition of the 419 Every day when you laugh with us, you learned with us a neighbor.

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So many incredible things happening around the community.

I before by something Kevin.

Yes.

That the fifth year program is was kickstarted here in.

Oh yeah.

This is I mean most of the junior achievement programs that that we operate in the history of general West Ohio have been national programs that are, adapt, adopted or adapted for Toledo.

And this is truly the brainchild of Jim Pollard.

That's really cool.

And I didn't know that yesterday when I started my consulting company.

Jay was one of the first, companies that I had worked with.

Okay.

And so I had the privilege of being on the ground floor of this program and kind of helping Georgia reinvent what their, what their vision for the community is.

And Jim was this crazed lunatic going out around the community talking about this vision of a world where kids graduate high school with a clear understanding of what they do, for the rest of their life.

And here's some of the programs that we need to be able to do that.

And so they've got a career fair that they run for high school students.

I'm from the downtown of the city, so monster, it is huge.

So it's called momentum.

It's May 7th this year at the Glass City Center.

It just did.

Incredible.

The whole team is doing incredible work, but but it all started.

I give a lot of credit to Jim's board at Georgia and some of the other corporate partners that saw this vision and said, you know what?

Let's take a risk on this crazy thing.

And in, you know, it's a bittersweet moment for me to say this, but, you know, Lord's University was also an integral partner in getting this off the ground.

They've been an incredible partner for the last, for the last two years.

The students live on campus at Lord's.

They take, some of the, the coursework that Julia talked about is actually earning college credit.

And so, and they get they get paid, they pay rent, they, you know, buy their groceries, they do all of these things.

And I've had three different, interns that I've worked with, over the last two years with the program.

And it's, it's really it's very remarkable.

I knew little about it before they came on.

And Donovan is probably going to be president of the United States.

Yeah.

That's right.

We could certainly do a lot worse than he is.

I mean, he is great, but he is not unique to the kids that better in that program.

But that kind of thing to say when he's in the studio.

Yeah.

He's just not there's nothing unique about the special about that kid.

You know, it's three first names.

That's.

What's he doing?

That's right, that's right.

So.

And then, of course, it was great having Josh Rabkin.

Yeah.

You know what?

You know, you see the stories and he mentioned the Savannah bananas.

But like, you know, you see those stories and kind of where that started.

And to think, you know, we've got sort of our own little development of that, happening in downtown Toledo.

If somebody five years is no, actually an independent owner, of a and a community organization family thing for kids and adults together.

Yeah.

Those games are easily scheduled on you, usually Wednesdays and Saturdays.

So it's a very fun thing to do.

And Glass City wranglers.com is their website for more information.

Of course you can find all of our community events at toledo.com as part of our toledo.com community calendar driven by Tara.

Thanks to our guests for joining us on the program, and thanks to you If you missed any part of the show.

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We're doing good.

We're doing well.

All right.

Just checking in on you.

Thanks so much for joining us.

We'll see you back here tomorrow for another episode of the 419, powered by CTE and presented by Retro Wealth Management.

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