How creating pathways for students led to more potential for an entire city

Psalms Joseph’s mother started calling her “Dr. PJ” in the fourth grade.

Each Friday, Psalms’ science teacher would invite students to write a topic on a piece of paper and put it into a bowl—a topic they wanted to learn about. Week after week, Psalms wrote the word doctor and dropped her slip into the bowl, hoping hers would be picked. After it finally was, Psalms was spellbound as her class watched videos on YouTube of doctors helping patients. In that New Orleans elementary school classroom, she imagined herself one day donning a long white lab coat and improving—and saving—people’s lives.

“When my mom picked me up from school that day,” Psalms said, “I remember telling her: ‘Mom, I want to be a doctor.’” The nickname stuck.

Psalms is now 22 and a college senior, and preparing to take MCAT, the standardized test for prospective medical students in the U.S. Her goal is to attend medical school. The dream she’s had since fourth grade feels tantalizingly close.

Psalms is smart, bright, and driven, with a strong work ethic and a mother who always told her she could accomplish whatever she put her mind to. Even with such determination and support, the career-building opportunities, networking, and mentorship that are critical to anyone’s success were elusive for Psalms. But then YouthForce NOLA helped to make them a reality.

Across the U.S., students like Psalms face barriers to success, including a lack of access to financial support and mentors to support their path toward a degree in an in-demand field. These obstacles are so prevalent in communities at lower socioeconomic levels and some communities of color that only 60% of Black and Latino high school graduates and 51% of low-income grads immediately enroll in a postsecondary program after high school, compared with 70% of white high school graduates. Students' chances of success are higher if they start full-time college right away; completion rates are lower for part-time students, who often must balance school, work, and other responsibilities.

In Psalms’ hometown of New Orleans, these disparities are even greater: Just 27% of Black residents have college degrees, compared with 70% of white residents.

“We have very wide differences between the outcomes of white individuals and Black individuals in New Orleans,” YouthForce NOLA CEO Cate Swinburn says. “YouthForce exists to close those gaps so our young people can achieve equitable education outcomes, workforce outcomes, and ultimately economic outcomes.”

Closing those gaps will also help further New Orleans’ continued development, as a growing number of Black students with postsecondary degrees augment the city’s human capital and strengthen its economic prospects.

Opening doors to options and opportunities

When a high school counselor initially told her about YouthForce NOLA, Psalms was intrigued but unsure. She asked her mom, who explained: “They’ll help you with your future career, Dr. PJ.”

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Founded in 2015, YouthForce NOLA helps create pathways for students like Psalms through a coordinated network of education, community, and business partners. Students earn industry credentials and college credits, get paid on-the-job experience, and develop valuable soft skills such as collaboration, communication, and social awareness.

“YouthForce is a weaver, a connector, a capacity builder in service of students like Psalms,” according to Cate. “A big part of the work is barrier removal so that our young people can get access to training opportunities, networks, workplaces, and work.”

To date, 99% of YouthForce NOLA participants have either enrolled in college upon graduation or received a well-paying job offer. More than 1,200 students have completed a YouthForce NOLA internship with one of 250+ local employer partners. The program covers established and emerging employment sectors in New Orleans, including skilled crafts such as architecture, green infrastructure, and engineering; health sciences; digital media; and business services like accounting and entrepreneurship.

Equitable pathways for equitable futures

When Psalms opened her acceptance email from the Youthforce program, she felt a mix of excitement and nervousness. On her first day, her tension dissipated as she listened to teachers and other students introduce themselves. “I started to feel at home,” Psalms says. “And everything got better and better from then on. Every day was something new, something different. We kept building and learning more and more.”

 

Over the next few weeks, the students worked on communication skills and job-related activities and put together resumes and LinkedIn profiles. They also prepared to start internships in their respective fields. For Psalms, that meant shadowing a medical assistant at Oschner Health in New Orleans.

“I was definitely nervous at first,” she says, “because I didn’t want to miss anything.”

She was thrilled when, on her first day, the medical assistant introduced her to patients—and asked Psalms to take their vital signs.

“She had me work hands-on, on my first day,” Psalms says. “We asked the patient first. Then I took their blood pressure, temperature, and pulse. I also listened to their heartbeat. That was great.”

Throughout her time with YouthForce NOLA, Psalms kept achieving milestones that brought her “closer to my destination and my white coat.” She got certified in CPR and then as a patient care technician/assistant. She not only cemented her desire to become a doctor but—crucially—also gained a clear understanding of the path to getting there, through experiential learning.

“I’ve come so far,” Psalms says.

An education and employment ecosystem

YouthForce NOLA is a powerful example of the critical role that so-called intermediary organizations can play in building career pathways, from education to work. Such intermediaries, which range from nonprofit organizations to workforce development boards and higher education institutions, typically build partnerships and coordinate activities among elementary, middle, high school, and postsecondary institutions and employers.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Pathways initiative began investing in YouthForce NOLA five years ago and now supports seven U.S. intermediaries. It has also identified 190 additional intermediaries across the U.S. as potential partners. The goal of Pathways is to facilitate collaboration between K-12 and postsecondary schools and workforce sectors to help students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, and students in rural communities.

Each intermediary organization focuses on tackling specific challenges in its community. For YouthForce NOLA, that’s the education, workforce, and economic disparities between white and Black residents in New Orleans—disparities that have only gotten wider since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The intermediaries partner with local schools and local employers who want to cultivate local talent for local opportunities. YouthForce NOLA has partnerships with 93% of New Orleans public schools and more than 250 local businesses across a variety of sectors.

Trusted advisors work with students to first learn their interests and then identify steps they can follow to pursue education and career goals that align with their interests, including seeking financial aid and preparing applications and resumes. The process also entails exploring options such as a certificate, a two-year credential, or a four-year bachelor’s degree.

Students also get a sense of what a career would be like, through hands-on internships and work-based learning opportunities for which they are paid. They can also take college classes and earn credit while they’re still in high school, at little or no cost.

Mentorships help students build social capital that can help with a job search. And the development of soft skills and problem-solving further support the students not just at school and work but also in life.

The result is a clear roadmap to pursuing and fulfilling their dreams.

Welcome to your future

Another YouthForce NOLA participant, Khaija Faulk, followed that roadmap on her way to becoming an intensive care nurse and nursing instructor. She entered YouthForce in 2019, the summer before her junior year of high school, during which she did rotations at two clinics.

“I got direct exposure to the roles that I wanted to go into,” Khaija says. In her senior year, she began taking nursing courses. “I knew I was making the right steps towards something I wanted.”

Khaija appreciates how YouthForce NOLA, through its strong partnerships with many organizations and individuals in New Orleans, highlighted the wonders of the city she loves, a city that has been through much and has shown much resilience.

“A lot has happened here,” Khaija says. “My city has so much potential.” She’s thrilled to be part of it.

And so is Psalms, who is currently on track to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in biology from Louisiana’s Grambling State University in May.

In medical school, Psalms intends to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology—and she’s also looking ahead to what she’ll do once she completes her training. Unsurprisingly, she has big, bold plans: a private practice in New Orleans that will serve the community in which she grew up and offers medical care to those without easy access to it.

“You want to feel like you can have a good relationship with your doctor,” Psalms said. “I feel that my being from the same hometown will help.” She recalls her own pediatrician and his kindness and patience with her when she was getting her childhood vaccines.

Psalms is also keenly aware of her ability to serve as a powerful role model for others. “If I did it, you can too,” she says. “Anything is possible.”

Creating that sense of possibility for its participants—and ushering in a better, more equitable future for their communities—is what YouthForce NOLA is ultimately about. Says Khaija: “It’s like you’re saving the future. Piece by piece, summer by summer.”