KIPP St. Louis’ Post

Please spread the word!

Today marks my two year anniversary with Universal Technical Institute- Austin! In these short two years we have opened a brand new campus and brought 4 programs to the Austin market. We’ve connected with over 100 employer partners, hosted 5 job fair events (not including in between recruitment and student events), and promoted over 5,000 job opportunities to our student body. We’ve hosted our grand opening ceremony and invited friends, politicians, and community leaders to our campus. We’ve held open houses, future student workshop events, high school educators and chamber of commerce personnel, women in STEM, Summer Ignite, and many other campus events! We’ve hosted over a dozen new student orientations and helped over 1,000 students in multiple areas including employment, community resources, and problem-solving to ensure they make it to the finish line. We’ve held 6 graduation ceremonies and graduated over 250 students. We’ve employed over 150 of those graduates, and continue providing in field job opportunities to those still searching. I have managed to build a powerhouse dream team while running TWO departments and creating systems to increase our efficiencies. All while testing out a lean model (half the staff members in comparison to other campuses, 5 team members total to be exact). All in all…it’s been a busy, but successful two year journey if I do say so myself. Today I celebrate all that has been, and offer a “cheers”to all that will be! I open my arms and welcome new opportunities, growth, and happiness. “This is 10% luck 20% skill 15% concentrated power of will 5% pleasure 50% pain And 100% reason to remember the name” Cheers!

I've been getting a lot of questions about the event we're putting on, so I wanted to answer some of the most common ones: ✨ Is this a job fair? Technically, no. This event is a conversational roundtable featuring young people and professionals alongside employers and leaders. It's a chance to share perspectives about each other and discuss how we can overcome generational obstacles as a community. ✨ This event is FREE! Originally, we considered a fee to cover costs, but I wanted to be fair and absorb the cost as an investment. ✨ This is NOT confrontational. This isn't about hearsay. We'll be using statistics and key indicators observed within our community to facilitate discussion. ✨ Who's participating? We'll have students from high schools and colleges across the Springfield-Branson metro area. This includes international students, Springfield-Branson natives, and those planning to leave or enter the workforce. ✨ The goal? To share perspectives and find common ground.

I stood out at a virtual job fair with this strategy! 💼 I made my own background that cuts the intros and tailored it to the industry that the job fair is for. Added a QR code with my resume, and had a link in hand to copy paste in the chat. Did I feel "cringe" at first? Yes. But my small talk felt more straight to the point. It was interesting to see them a bit surprised, but then what I had hoped would happen, happened. There were multiple people in that fair, But I gave hiring managers talking points to start with. My intention was to get more people interested quicker without cutting anyone off or having that initial first small talk that can sometimes be a bit awkward. "Oh! I see you got your highlights behind you." I thought I was insane for having this idea and implementing it, but I'm glad I did. As for the background color, I chose dark green to help contrast easily with the lettering, and well, most good things are green. If you don't want to use green, use dark blue. Then, wear a top that is a lighter color to stand out. Every step of this search, I'm learning that being bold, within reason, is the thing to do. I've been enjoying finding creative ways to execute it. Pair strategies like this with confidence in your voice, and you'll likely stand out from the crowd! 😉 I hope this helps!

great demos and good vibes at the 🌉 sf hardware job fair yesterday! ∙ Tomás and the Augmental team sharing their latest hands free mouthpad ∙ Noah and Telepathic Technologies team working on non invasive bcis for defense tech ∙ Nate and the informal team demoing latest client projects ∙ Natasha and SnapMagic demoing their ai copilot for electronics design ∙ Bert and infiniRel Corporation team sharing their control system for solar plants ∙ Meghan sharing new residential solar set up ∙ Kaylyn with sneak peak at what her team is building also some great takeaways shared: ∙ Robert shared that peronal journeys in hardware don't need to be linear. also, network matters with real relationships to unlock future opps as well as get referrals into new roles. ∙ Christian shared some super user features when using linkedin platform for finding new opps and activating network. for example, some free ones include people can subscribe to future company opps with 'i'm interested feature,' top skills in profile = for recruiters, and prefences can be set up in profile ∙ Nate taking the time to do portfolio reviews! portfolios are common in design, but not always in other areas of hardware. it's one of the best way to demo skills and past projects in ways a cv can't. even the Studio 45 team sharing a sneak peak of the new space opening next month to expand to studio 55!! ps. everyone above is also hiring!

Hey, employers! The Centennial High School JAG classes would like to invite you to their Spring Hiring Fair on May 9. This is a unique opportunity for local businesses/organizations to conduct open interviews with soon-to-be high school graduates interested in a variety of fields. This hiring fair is unlike most hiring fairs in that it is a REVERSE fair; the students are the ones on display for this fair! Each student will have a table make that best represents his/her desired career and educational aspirations. They will be showcasing what they are hoping to do and they types of jobs they are looking for. Employers can then walk around to talk to specific students who best fit the job/apprenticeship which they are looking to fill. The goal of this hiring fair is to have all students either be offered a job, apprenticeship, or enrollment into a specific post-secondary training program that gives them valuable experience in their desired career fields. If interested, please contact CHS JAG teacher Megan Haynes at [email protected]. If you know of other employers or apprenticeship programs who might be interested in attending, please share the our flyer with them!

Today we filled our last current newsroom opening, and these numbers show how every hire truly matters. It has taken a decade of intentional recruiting, hiring, training, development and retention efforts to build a newsroom that is more diverse and inclusive than ever. * Sometimes that means holding a job open longer then you’d like. * Sometimes it means spending fruitless hours at job fairs, speaking to glassy eyed students in classrooms and swallowing your introvertednes at networking events to connect with that one right person. * Sometimes it means giving challenging assignments to less experienced people so they can BECOME experienced. * Sometimes it means creating a new staffing tier to develop an internal leadership pipeline. * Sometimes it means promoting someone in-house who will need more support than an outside candidate would. * Sometimes it means examining your own biases, owning your missteps and adjusting your approach. * It definitely means that men, women and people of color are all needed at the decision-making table together. Special thank you to Nick Feely and Denise Ritter for their unwavering commitment to this.

Content is king! But to truly captivate your audience your content must be compelling and engaging, merely posting isn't enough. 💡 Here's the harsh truth: if your content doesn't grab attention, it's essentially money down the drain. 💸 Investing in compelling content is about driving engagement, and ultimately, driving results. 📈 #StopTheScroll Check out this recent video I produced for Candibots as part of a series to promote their upcoming job fair. Ben Sofer

Hey, employers! The Centennial High School JAG classes would like to invite you to their Spring Hiring Fair on May 9. This is a unique opportunity for local businesses/organizations to conduct open interviews with soon-to-be high school graduates interested in a variety of fields. This hiring fair is unlike most hiring fairs in that it is a REVERSE fair; the students are the ones on display for this fair! Each student will have a table make that best represents his/her desired career and educational aspirations. They will be showcasing what they are hoping to do and they types of jobs they are looking for. Employers can then walk around to talk to specific students who best fit the job/apprenticeship which they are looking to fill. The goal of this hiring fair is to have all students either be offered a job, apprenticeship, or enrollment into a specific post-secondary training program that gives them valuable experience in their desired career fields. If interested, please contact CHS JAG teacher Megan Haynes at [email protected]. If you know of other employers or apprenticeship programs who might be interested in attending, please share the our flyer with them!