COLUMBUS – FORGE has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Promising Practice in connection with its newly released “Thriving After High School: Community, School, Service, and Work” report from the Commission on Opportunities After High School.
FORGE is among more than 100 promising practices from communities across the country highlighted through the commission’s accompanying national online resource. The collection showcases programs and approaches helping learners navigate education, training, service, and career pathways after high school.
The recognition places FORGE’s Mississippi-based work within a broader national conversation about how communities can better prepare young people for success in education, work and life.
“Seeing FORGE recognized on a national level is incredibly meaningful, particularly because so much of what this report recommends reflects the work we have been building here in Mississippi,” said Melinda Lowe, executive director of FORGE. “We believe students need opportunities to see and experience different career pathways early, to interact directly with the people doing the work and to understand that there are many different routes to a successful future. That is at the heart of what FORGE does.”
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences convened the multidisciplinary Commission on Opportunities After High School to address challenges students face in choosing postsecondary pathways and securing fulfilling livelihoods. Commission members brought expertise from K-12 and higher education, workforce development and business, philanthropy and nonprofits, medicine, military service and service programs and the arts.
Among the commission’s recommendations is a call to expand awareness, exploration and participation in activities connected to career, college and service, including career-connected experiences that help learners discover their interests, strengths and values.
The report also emphasizes that awareness of different postsecondary pathways should begin earlier in a learner’s journey and identifies hands-on experiences, supported by advisers and mentors, as an important way for young people to learn about their options.
Those recommendations closely mirror FORGE’s approach.
Through partnerships among schools, businesses, industries and communities, FORGE creates a pipeline of career awareness and exploration experiences designed to help students discover pathways and connect what they are learning with the world of work. Programs include hands-on career expos for eighth-grade students, seventh-grade career pathway tool kits, career interview days, BuildHER Girls Construction Camps, elementary career-literacy initiatives and other workforce-focused experiences.
The report also calls for breaking down silos and strengthening cross-sector partnerships between education and workforce systems – another central component of FORGE’s work.
“This recognition belongs to far more than FORGE,” Lowe said. “It belongs to the educators who open doors for their students, the businesses and industry professionals who give their time and expertise, the volunteers who show up, the sponsors who invest in these opportunities, and the communities that believe young people deserve the chance to discover what is possible. They are the reason this work happens.”
The Commission’s report argues for a collaborative ecosystem of education, workforce and community partners that provides multiple pathways to prosperity and equips learners to adapt to a changing labor market.
FORGE’s Promising Practice profile can be viewed at amacad.org/opportunities/in-practice/forge. The full Thriving After High School initiative, including the report, recommendations, learner pathways and national map of promising practices is available at amacad.org/opportunities.
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