When Gina Petersen graduated with her associate degree from Kirkwood Community College two years ago, she described it as “the biggest accomplishment I have ever done.”
As a returning adult college student, she had struggled to fit her studies in part time, online, while working as a trainer for a tech company. She had gotten that job through connections, and she hoped that a college degree would be a big help if she ever needed to find a new job in the future.
We told the story of Petersen’s college journey — which took her more than seven years and a couple of false starts to complete — as part of a three-part podcast series we did in 2022 called Second Acts.
For this week’s episode of the EdSurge Podcast, we checked back in with Petersen to see what the degree has meant for her professional and personal life.
And we found that the credential has not opened as many doors as she had hoped.
A few months after we last talked to Gina, she got laid off from her training job after 10 years at the company. And at first she quickly found a project manager position through her networks. But she felt the job wasn’t a good fit, so she quit after a little more than a year, hoping she’d quickly find another position.
What she encountered, however, was a job market that suddenly felt much more daunting.
“I’ve sent my resume to, I’d say, 150 different places for 150 different roles, and yet, nothing,” she says, even after getting professional help crafting her resume.
What’s worse, she says, she has been ghosted by employers when she does get initial interest. “I’ve had two people reach out for phone interviews and say, ‘Yes’ and confirm, and then I literally don’t get called,” she says.
Petersen is not alone, according to labor market experts.
Guy Berger, director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute, notes that because it has become easier to apply for jobs, thanks to one-click applications on company websites and the growth of platforms like Linkedin, job seekers have more opportunities than ever. But they also have to work harder to find the right fit as a result. Whereas once it might be common to apply to 15 jobs, now it’s not unusual to have to apply to more than 150, he says.
“Now, you’re applying to a lot more things – you’re getting more cracks at the bat — but you’re just getting a lot more rejections,” Berger says.
That can feel demoralizing to job candidates, he adds, while also hard for employers as they struggle to sift through a flood of applicants.
Meanwhile, Berger says that the number of jobs for recent graduates has fallen in recent years, and just having a degree is not as guaranteed a “meal ticket” as in the past.
“College graduates still get generally better-paying jobs than people who don’t have a college degree, and there’s a wider range of opportunities available to them when they’re looking for a job,” he says. “But if you’re looking at how much of a boost it provides, probably it’s smaller than it was in the past.”
Even so, Petersen says she is glad she got her degree, as she learned valuable skills in college that she put to use in her job. But she isn’t looking to go back for more higher education at this point.
Hear more about Petersen’s search, trends in hiring and what colleges can do to respond to this changing landscape on this week’s EdSurge Podcast.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — At the end of each school year at Central High School, seniors grab a paint pen and write their post-graduation plans on a glass wall outside the counseling office.
For many, that means announcing what college they’ve enrolled in. But the goal is to celebrate whatever path students are choosing, whether at a college or not.
“We have a few people that are going to trade school, we have a few people that are going to the military, a few people who wrote ‘still deciding,’” said Lisa Beckham, a staffer for the counseling center, as she helped hand out markers in May as the school year was winding down. Others, she said, are heading straight to a job.
Talking to the students as they signed, it was clear that one factor played an outsized role in the choice: the high cost of college.
“I’m thinking about going to college in California, and my grandparents all went there for a hundred dollars a semester and went into pretty low-paying jobs, but didn't spend years in debt because it was easy to go to college,” said Maya Shapiro, a junior who was there watching the seniors write up their plans. “So now I think it is only worth going to college if you're going to get a job that's going to pay for your college tuition eventually, so if you’re going to a job in English or history you might not find a job that’s going to pay that off.”
When I told her I was an English major back in my own college years, she quickly said, “I’m sorry.”
Even students going to some of the most well-known colleges are mindful of cost.
Harlow Tong, who was recruited by Harvard University to run track, said he had planned to go to the University of Minnesota and is still processing his decision to join the Ivy League.
“After the decision it really hit me that it's really an investment, and every year it feels like it's getting less and less worth the cost,” he said.
A new book lays out the changing forces shaping what students are choosing after high school, and argues for a change in the popular narrative around higher education.
The book is called “Rethinking College,” by longtime journalist and Los Angeles Times opinion writer Karin Klein. She calls for an end to “degree inflation,” where jobs require a college degree even if someone without a degree could do the job just as well. And she advocates for more high school graduates to take gap years to find out what they want to do before enrolling in college, or to seek out apprenticeships in fields that may not need college.
But she admits the issue is complicated. She said one of her own daughters, who is now 26, would have benefitted from a gap year. “The problem was the cost was a major factor,” Klein told me. “She was offered huge financial aid by a very good school, and I said, ‘We don’t know if you take a gap year if that offer is going to be on the table. And I can’t afford this school without that offer.’”
Hear more from Klein, including about programs she sees as models for new post-grad options, as well as from students at Central High School, on this week’s EdSurge Podcast. Check it out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on the player below. It’s the latest episode of our Doubting College podcast series.
Tiaja Gundy was just 19 years old when she started working at Federal Hill House, an early learning center in Providence, Rhode Island. It was 2016, and back then, she lacked experience and expertise working with young children. She had no intention of staying in the field long-term.
But the work grew on her. Gundy started out as a “floater,” helping with infants, toddlers and preschoolers as needed. She found she loved being around children.
As years passed, Gundy gained experience, and she moved into an assistant teaching position in a toddler classroom. Yet she was still missing some of the critical knowledge about child development that would allow her to continue growing in her career.
In 2021, Gundy recalls, one of her supervisors pulled her aside, and said, “You’re very promising. I know you can go farther in this field,” then told her about an interesting opportunity.
Rhode Island was launching a registered apprenticeship program for early childhood educators. With her employer’s support, Gundy would get to continue her paid teaching job as she took college courses, pursuing a Child Development Associate (CDA), a nationally recognized credential for those who work in early care and education settings. It would set her up to one day become a lead teacher. The apprenticeship would come with guaranteed wage increases, too.
Tiaja Gundy, a toddler teacher in Providence, Rhode Island.
The thought of balancing both work and school again was daunting, Gundy admits, but she was encouraged by her colleagues and excited to deepen her understanding of early childhood education. She decided to apply.
For decades, apprenticeship has been a popular career pathway for occupations such as electricians, plumbers and carpenters. In early care and education, however, there was limited uptake of the model.
Recently, that has changed — and fast. A decade ago, only a handful of states had registered apprenticeship programs in early childhood education. Five years ago, that had risen to about a dozen. As of last year, 35 states had an apprenticeship program for child care and early childhood education, and another seven states were developing them, according to a report published by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC).
In 2021, the last year for which there is available data, early childhood education was one of the five fastest-growing occupations for apprenticeship, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“There’s just been an explosion,” says Linda Smith, who authored the BPC’s apprenticeship report last summer and has since joined the Buffett Early Childhood Institute as director of policy. “It is happening all over this country.”
Explaining the ‘Explosion’
Smith sees at least two reasons for the emergence and rapid growth of this model in early childhood education.
The first is that more federal funding has become available in recent years. At least 10 states are using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to build or expand their child care apprenticeship programs, and 13 are using Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five funds. As many as 15 states are using money from the Child Care and Development Fund, which received a $15 billion boost under ARPA.
The second reason is that there is increased awareness of how essential and how endangered the early care and education sector is.
“We’re in a tough spot right now with child care in this country,” Smith says soberly. “We have a workforce problem on our hands. Everyone is crying for child care workers. They can’t fill jobs. Wages are low. Child care programs can’t compete with big box stores, fast food, you name it.”
Broad recognition of that reality, Smith says, made policymakers and other leaders more willing to invest in the early education workforce.
It also helps, she adds, that people understand what apprenticeships are. It’s a well-established model that they can visualize and — importantly — measure.
From day one, an apprentice is a W-2 employee. There is no such thing as an unpaid apprentice.
— Randi Wolfe
Randi Wolfe, founder and executive director of Early Care and Education Pathways to Success (ECEPTS), an organization that provides training and technical assistance to get programs registered as apprenticeships, believes this model is proliferating in early care and education because it’s a natural fit for the field’s workforce development needs.
The early care and education workforce, Wolfe points out, is mostly made up of low-income women, and they are disproportionately women of color, immigrants, non-native English speakers and first-generation college students.
“Asking those people to do an internship that is unpaid creates unintended inequity,” Wolfe says. “From day one, an apprentice is a W-2 employee. There is no such thing as an unpaid apprentice.”
It works well for both educators and early learning programs, she adds. Early childhood educators who can’t afford to miss out on wages while they earn a degree get to do both at the same time — and at little or no cost. They get raises throughout the apprenticeship and, in many cases, are eligible for a promotion once they complete it.
Their employers, meanwhile, end up with highly skilled teachers who, after investing significant time and energy into their careers, are more likely to remain in the field.
“They’re the best qualified candidate,” Wolfe says of apprentices. “You’ve trained them. You’ve grown them.”
For early learning programs, better-qualified teachers can also help them move up the scale on their state’s quality rating system. Higher quality ratings are tied to higher subsidy reimbursement rates in many states. In short, apprentices help a program’s bottom line.
All of these outcomes support children and families, who benefit greatly from having teachers who provide high-quality, research-backed care and education.
The Nuts and Bolts of Apprenticeships
To be considered a “registered” apprenticeship, programs must meet a number of criteria and get approval from the U.S. Department of Labor or a state apprenticeship agency. All registered apprenticeships have a sponsor, such as a community-based organization, a workforce intermediary or a business, that manages program operations. Registered apprenticeship programs have a few other key ingredients:
Employers must partner with apprentices, allowing them to learn while they earn. In early care and education, the employers are early learning programs.
Apprentices must receive on-the-job training with opportunities to practice their new skills in context. Many programs pair apprentices with a mentor to fulfill this goal.
Apprentices must receive instruction related to their industry. In early care and education, that happens in a classroom setting, often at a community college but at four-year institutions too. Employers are expected to provide support and flexibility so apprentices can attend classes and complete coursework.
Apprentices are guaranteed incremental wage increases as their knowledge and skills grow. This is a huge win for early educators, who have some of the lowest wages in the country, but also a point of tension for programs, which are seldom in a financial position to pay staff more.
Apprentices must receive a credential. In early education, that is usually a CDA or an associate degree, and sometimes a bachelor’s degree.
Despite the many criteria, there is still some flexibility for individual apprenticeship programs to put their own spin on the model.
In Rhode Island, where Gundy apprenticed, the program is exclusively for infant and toddler teachers, often the “least educated and least compensated” faction of the early childhood workforce, says Lisa Hildebrand, executive director of the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children, which helped develop and implement the program, in partnership with a state agency, and now manages it.
There is a notion in the field, Hildebrand says, that if you start out as an infant or toddler teacher, you can get more training and education and then “move up” to teaching preschool.
“It’s almost like a promotion,” she says, because preschool teachers typically earn more money and command more respect.
But that dynamic leads to the high turnover of infant and toddler teachers, which, given the challenges many programs already face with hiring and retention, and the legal requirements around staff-to-child ratios, can result in classroom closures and reduced slots for the youngest children. It certainly has in Rhode Island.
“The waiting list for infants and toddlers is absolutely astronomical,” Hildebrand says, acknowledging that’s true outside of Rhode Island too. “It is reaching critical levels at this point.”
With additional funding on the way, the apprenticeship may soon expand to preschool teachers, among whom there is ample interest, Hildebrand notes. But right now, Rhode Island is focused on retaining the teachers who are in the highest demand.
Minnesota’s registered apprenticeship program, which launched in summer 2023, includes a strong mentorship component. Each apprentice is paired with a mentor, often a colleague at the program where they work, says Erin Young, who manages the program for Child Care Aware of Minnesota.
“That’s the secret sauce,” says Young. “That’s the magic.”
Mentors, who receive 24 hours of free training, guide apprentices through questions and topics ranging from children’s behavioral challenges, to curriculum implementation, to family engagement. That can be especially helpful for apprentices who are still quite new to the field of early childhood education, Young explains.
“It’s nice to have someone say, ‘It’s OK.’ ‘Try this.’ ‘Start here,’” Young says. “Having a mentor at the beginning of my early childhood career would’ve been a huge help.”
The mentorship made an impression on Katelyn Sarkar, an apprentice who graduated with her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education leadership in June.
Katelyn Sarkar, a lead teacher and early childhood apprentice in Rochester, Minnesota, reads a book in her Head Start classroom. Photo courtesy of Sarkar.
Sarkar’s mentor would observe her in her classroom at a Head Start program in Rochester, Minnesota, then offer feedback and suggest strategies for her to try. “As an early childhood educator, I grew so much more in my skills because of that,” Sarkar shares.
Next up, Young is developing an apprenticeship model for licensed family child care providers, a group that is currently left out of most registered apprenticeship programs, despite being the “dominant form of care in rural Minnesota,” Young says, and an option preferred by many families.
“If it gets approved, that’s a really big win,” Young notes. “It opens the door for other states to do it.”
No Such Thing as a Silver Bullet
Although many early childhood advocates view the apprenticeship model as a promising strategy for workforce retention and improvement, they’re also quick to caution against overweighting its potential.
In early childhood, we tend to [want] a single solution to a complex problem. That does not work. ... Apprenticeships are never going to be the only answer.
— Linda Smith
“In early childhood, we tend to [want] a single solution to a complex problem. That does not work. The problems of child care in this country are very complicated,” says Smith of the Buffett Early Childhood Institute. “Apprenticeships are never going to be the only answer.”
The model, while exciting, has its limitations, Smith adds.
Right now, apprenticeship cohorts tend to be quite small, with around five to 25 early childhood educators enrolled. Rhode Island graduated 16 apprentices in its pilot cohort and has another 17 enrolled now. Minnesota had 19 apprentices enrolled as of June.
That’s because apprenticeship programs are demanding, resource-intensive and very costly.
In Minnesota, for example, where early childhood apprenticeship costs fall on the high end, Young budgets $20,000 to $24,000 per apprentice per year. Apprenticeships there run for at least two years, she says.
That estimate includes covering 85 percent of the cost of college tuition and books, as well as giving apprentices an annual $2,000 stipend to help with transportation, internet access and their remaining 10 percent of tuition costs, and awarding them a small bonus at the end of their apprenticeship year.
It also includes an annual $5,000 stipend to employers to offset the costs of hosting an apprentice. In Minnesota, employers chip in the final 5 percent of tuition costs, and they are expected to give apprentices a $1 an hour raise at the end of each year, which typically works out to be about $2,000 a year, Young says. It can be hard for employers to budget for that right away, she notes. Mentors also receive a $3,500 annual stipend.
It’s expensive, to be sure, but Minnesota recently received $5 million from the state earmarked specifically for apprenticeships, Young says.
“There’s not going to be one silver bullet,” Young acknowledges, “but professionalizing the field, reducing turnover and increasing compensation is going to have to happen, and I am hoping the data will show this is one positive strategy that moves the needle on that.”
Now 27 and finished with her apprenticeship, Gundy has received her CDA and been promoted to lead teacher in her toddler classroom. She’s also pursuing her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education.
“It was nice to get the science behind what I did,” Gundy shares about her apprenticeship experience. “It answered ‘why’ — why are we doing it this way, why is play important. … It helped me be an overall better teacher.”
My colleagues feverishly jotted down notes as one of my students, Ethan, moved through his presentation on how educators can more intentionally use AI in their classes. Ethan, a high school junior studying to become a secondary history teacher in our Academy for Education and Learning, was presenting findings from his extensive research to the staff at our school.
As part of this program at Morris County Vocational School, in New Jersey, where I teach, students engage in research about key issues at our school and learn how to plan effective professional development to support the staff. Ethan provided strategies and resources for teachers to use in their classrooms, and through this assignment, he learned a variety of skills including how to design compelling professional learning opportunities, how to find and evaluate sources and how to communicate his findings clearly to an audience.
When I tell people I work at a Career Technical Education (CTE) school, also known as a vocational school, they often assume I’m working with students who have struggled academically or behaviorally, but that’s not the case at our school. In fact, it’s a pretty dated misconception of CTE programs.
Over the past decade, CTE schools have transformed into education spaces that commit to giving students a comprehensive experience that prepares them for the workforce, helping them cultivate strong skills in their chosen career path. These programs exist in many districts across the country, some as standalone schools and others as programs embedded in the district. Some include more traditional vocations like automotive, cosmetology, plumbing and carpentry, while others have expanded to industries including education, computer science, business, biotechnology and health care.
The population of students I serve as a teacher in our Academy for Education and Learning are interested in pursuing a career in education. Students from the county apply to the program of their choice during eighth grade, a process that involves taking an admissions test; submitting transcripts, teacher recommendations and a personal video; and entering a lottery, since demand is high. The students in our academy are motivated, passionate and dedicated to learning more about the field they are interested in.
As a teacher in a CTE high school and an alumnus of the same program where I now teach, I’ve seen firsthand the benefits of this type of education from providing industry-specific training as well as key skills to be successful in any field, such as professionalism, maintaining accurate records and communicating effectively.
There are many types of high schools available to students, but regardless of the school model, all high schools need to be thinking about how to address the disparity between the skills that today’s employers want employees to have and the actual skills they have.
By design, CTE programs consider questions that are relevant to this gap. Do students know how to think of their feet? Can students apply the facts, definitions and key concepts they’ve learned to a project? What skills will students need in the next five, 10 and 15 years to be successful? I think about these questions each day as I prepare my students to pursue a career in education, and over the years, I’ve found that incorporating CTE skills into teaching helps students have a deeper learning experience.
To close the skills gap, there are a number of practices, strategies and ideas that any high school can draw from the CTE model. Here are a few.
Develop Learning Opportunities Around Authentic Issues, Problems and Ideas
At my school, we focus on creating authentic learning projects for students, which can be an undertaking, but have shown great benefits. An authentic project has three major components: it integrates a variety of skills, has an authentic audience (think beyond just the classroom teacher) and it relates to a real-world issue.
When I first began thinking about authentic learning projects, I was overwhelmed, but I started small. The New York Times Learning Network, which offers educational resources, runs multiple contests and challenges for students and I picked one for my students to participate in. The one I started with was a multimedia challenge asking students to share what high school is like for them. We spent time brainstorming a list of feelings students had about high school, the hardships, the exciting moments, and everything in between. Students started to have rich discussions about what the purpose of school should be and tapped into their creativity to find unique ways to represent their ideas through writing, images, audio or video. The project was simple for me because it came with the guidance like a rubric, a model and examples to help with lesson planning. My students enjoyed it so much that since then, we have participated in several including a one-pager challenge where students respond to a New York Times story, a contest where students submit an original podcast and a contest where students can share opinion essays on issues they care deeply about.
As I became more comfortable, I began designing my own projects. For example, my students read a variety of books about education to learn more about challenges and solutions in the field. Instead of hosting a class discussion, my students host roundtable discussions about their books, designing their own discussion questions and takeaways to share. The goal is for each student to facilitate a rich conversation based on the main themes of their book, while gaining experience leading an engaging conversation. For this project, students invite teachers, school leaders and families to engage in the conversation.
Recently, I worked on a more complex project in which my students hosted two family learning nights for a local elementary school. They created stations for students, taught parents key math and reading skills so they could better support their child at home, and gained experience running a schoolwide event, learning valuable skills from start to finish. Parents and school administrators were amazed at how well teenagers put together a community event.
Invite Guest Speakers to Provide More Perspective
Guest speakers contribute to deeper learning and help students make connections to the world outside of the classroom. In our CTE program, guest speakers can also expose students more directly to the industry they’re pursuing.
Earlier this year, I was facilitating a series of three lessons about classroom management. Students learned to identify different behaviors , practiced creating a behavior management system and had an opportunity to give and receive feedback on implementing a behavior plan. I invited a local certified behaviorist to join our class to offer insight along the way.
My students observed children in our on-site preschool to identify various behaviors. The behaviorist visited our class and helped students understand the different reasons why young children exhibit various behaviors, led their efforts to comb through data from their observations and offered support as they designed individualized behavior plans for particular students. She was able to provide industry-specific language, discuss best practices and help my students implement real plans to support the preschoolers in our building.
Weaving Subjects Together to Create More Meaning for Students
Interdisciplinary connections allow students to explore topics through a variety of lenses. When students can understand how one topic might be covered in English, History and Science, they’re able to grasp it more deeply. CTE programs are uniquely positioned to build interdisciplinary connections because of the focus on real-world application. Students engage with projects that focus on transferable skills and allow for integration of core academic subject knowledge.
During a recent unit on creating a meaningful curriculum, I brought my students to visit a local museum to meet with the museum curriculum director and curator of collections to learn how they create programming for children. They evaluated the museum’s education program and worked together to design a new curriculum. Through the process, they learned about key historical events and analyzed them through an art and English lens.
Then, they paired their knowledge of how students learn best and their experience as young people visiting the museum to provide feedback to the museum’s educators on the current programming offered by the museum. The unique combination of history, art and English education offered them a glimpse into how subjects can be woven together cohesively, and they were also exposed to new career pathways in the field of education.
Teaching at a CTE high school has allowed me to think outside the box and challenge myself to bring authentic, engaging experiences to my students and has helped me keep my love of teaching alive. More importantly, it has allowed me to provide a strong foundation of skills for my students to be successful in entering the workforce, which is critical, especially in a future that is unknown.
Last year, when Jayla Arensberg was a sophomore at Burnsville High School near St. Paul, Minnesota, a teacher showed her a flier saying that a program at the school could save her $25,000 on college.
“I said, ‘I really need that,’” the student remembers.
She was interested in college, but worried that the cost could keep her from pursuing higher education. “College is insanely expensive,” she says.
So she applied and got accepted to the high school’s “Associate of Arts Degree Pathway,” which essentially turns junior and senior year of high school into a two-year college curriculum. All this year, Arensberg walked the halls of the same high school building and ate in the same cafeteria as before, but now most of her classes earned her college credit, and if she stays on track, she’ll get an associate degree at the same time she receives her high school diploma.
Her plan after graduation is to apply to the University of Minnesota’s main campus to major in psychology, entering halfway to her bachelor’s degree and thereby cutting out two years of paying for college.
The high school is one of a growing number around the country offering a so-called “postsecondary enrollment option,” where students can take college courses during the high school day and get college credit. In fact, the number of high school students taking at least one college course has risen to 34 percent, up from just 10 percent in 2010, according to data from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships.
But Burnsville’s program is unusual in offering a full two-year program within its building, rather than just isolated courses or transportation to nearby colleges for part of a day.
“They really are cohorted like they would probably feel in a freshman dorm,” says Rebecca Akerson, who coordinates the Associate of Arts pathway program at the school, of the students in the program, who take most of their courses together. “They’ve gotten to know each other well. When you think about college, that’s what you’re thinking about.”
It’s a stark example of how the line between high school and college is blurring for more students. While such programs may help students access college who may not have been able to before, they also raise questions about the purpose of high school, about what social opportunities might be lost, and about whether the trend pushes students to make decisions about their future careers at too young of an age.
But college is not the only option that students can get a jump on exploring at this high school. The associate degree program is part of one of four career pathways that students can choose, pointing to careers in specialties like culinary arts, manufacturing and automotive technology.
In fact, officials have gone out of their way to highlight the variety of options, to try to attract greater diversity of students to whatever they might be interested in. For instance, the school’s “fabrication lab” — which once might have been called wood shop — is located adjacent to a high-traffic commons area, and glass walls allow anyone walking by to see what the students are doing.
“This was designed very specifically because engineering and fabrication have traditionally been a very white, male-dominated career field,” says Kathy Funston, director of strategic partnerships and pathways for the Burnsville school district. “We really did want our students of color and our females to be able to look through these glass walls and say, ‘That’s cool. I like that. Nobody’s getting dirty in there. I think I want to try that,’” Funston adds. “So it’s a way to help underrepresented populations see career areas and career fields that they would not have been exposed to either in their sphere of influence at home or at other classes. If you go to a lot of other schools these types of classes have been in a remote part of the school.”
Teachers at the school say that they work to communicate these career pathway programs early and often. That means the pathway options are a big part of the tour when middle school students look at the school, and posters featuring the four main career pathways, each with its signature color, adorn hallways throughout the building.
How is the program going? And how do students feel about these options at a time of growing skepticism about higher education?
This is the fifth episode of a podcast series we’re calling Doubting College, where we’re exploring: What happened to the public belief in college? And how is that shaping the choices young people are making about what to do after high school?
Young people are struggling with mental health, and for many, the challenges have worsened over the last decade. About one in three high schoolers report persistent feelings of hopelessness and an alarming number say they’ve had thoughts of suicide.
Blame it on the pandemic, or climate change. Blame it on hyperpartisan politics, or the ubiquity of social media and smartphones. Regardless of the cause, today’s teenagers have made clear, in numerous surveys and anecdotes, that they need support.
But across the country, there are too few mental health specialists to serve the growing number of adolescents who could benefit from their services. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than a third of the country lives in an area where there is a shortage of mental health professionals, with at least 6,000 additional practitioners needed.
What we’re really trying to do is to get our youth more people in their corner who understand what they’re experiencing and want to invest in their success.
— AJ Pearlman
A cross section of leaders across government, philanthropy and the private sector believe that youth can be the solution to both challenges: They can simultaneously offer help and resources to their fellow Zoomers (as members of Gen Z are often called) while building skills that will draw them into — and will make them successful in — careers in behavioral health.
This fall, at least 500 recent high school and college graduates between the ages of 18 and 24 will make up the inaugural cohort of the Youth Mental Health Corps, a national initiative led by AmeriCorps, America Forward, Pinterest and the Schultz Family Foundation.
To start, it will launch in four states: Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Texas. A year later, in fall 2025, seven more states are expected to join the program: California, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Virginia.
“It is really an innovative effort to try to address both parts of this crisis, by enabling initially hundreds and then thousands of young people to serve … in communities,” says Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a managing director at the Schultz Family Foundation.
Members of the Youth Mental Health Corps will serve for at least one year, with placements in middle and high schools as well as community-based organizations and health clinics. The program, which supports members in enrolling in or continuing college courses to work toward earning a degree, offers members career guidance on selecting a credential pathway to pursue and preparation and training for their placement.
Because members are just starting out in behavioral health, they will not be working as therapists or counselors, Chandrasekaran notes. Instead, they’ll primarily serve as “navigators,” helping connect peers and near-peers to services that already exist in their communities that they may not know about or know how to access.
“Folks often don’t know where to start,” explains AJ Pearlman, director of Public Health AmeriCorps. “That navigation and resource support is incredibly helpful, being in school or at a community clinic, meeting people where they are.”
Last year, AmeriCorps invested upward of $260 million in programming to support mental health nationwide, a spokesperson shared. In recent years, AmeriCorps applicants have increasingly shown interest in the mental health and behavioral health fields, at the same time that demand for mental health services has risen. The Youth Mental Health Corps is launching in response to those twin trends.
As a current AmeriCorps member serving with Colorado Youth for a Change, an organization that will become part of the Youth Mental Health Corps this fall, Nelly Grosso, 24, is getting a preview of what this work will look like. She connects high school students to mental health resources, food banks, pro bono immigration lawyers and public assistance programs such as SNAP and Medicaid.
Grosso, who identifies as a “first-generation American student,” says she primarily works with students who, like her, are the first in their family to navigate the American education system. Grosso has found that many students face language, income and resource barriers that are making it difficult for them to show up to school and engage in class. Those barriers are also taking a toll on students’ mental health. She introduces different coping mechanisms and calming strategies to students who are experiencing anxiety, depression, stress and anger, she says, but most of all, she’s trying to help remove the obstacles causing those feelings in the first place.
“It’s really hard to ask for help … because you don’t [always] know what you need,” she says. “It’s easy to feel isolated and alone.”
Grosso has created packets for her students that direct them to a host of free resources available to them. “I’m planting little seeds in everybody’s brain,” she says, so that when they are struggling, they’ll remember there’s a whole list of people and organizations that can help them.
Although Youth Mental Health Corps members will be acting more as liaisons to behavioral health services than delivering those supports themselves, their exposure to such services — and the people who provide them — is intended to help members learn about the field and further incentivize them to launch careers in it, Pearlman adds.
During their service year, they’ll receive a living stipend and an education award, along with training and credentials that will get them started on the path toward behavioral health.
“It will give them a leg up, a head start, in their journey to hopefully become a trained mental health professional,” Chandrasekaran says of the experience.
Nobody understands teenagers more than somebody who has recently been through high school.
— Nelly Grosso
Both Pearlman and Chandrasekaran refer to the youth mental health challenges today as a “national crisis,” echoing a sentiment that the U.S. Surgeon General has made clear in recent years.
They believe other young adults, of the same generation as the teens and tweens whose mental health is imperiled, are well positioned to help.
Corps members will know firsthand what it’s like to navigate high school in the era of social media, for example. They’ll know what it’s like to experience regular lockdown drills throughout the school year and to feel that the future of the planet rests on their shoulders.
“What we’re really trying to do is to get our youth more people in their corner who understand what they’re experiencing and want to invest in their success,” Pearlman says.
Grosso has found that to be true of her experience in AmeriCorps.
“Nobody understands teenagers more than somebody who has recently been through high school,” she says, noting that she uses TikTok and Instagram to relate to the students she works with at a public high school in the Denver metro area. “That’s a huge privilege that comes with being my age.”
But it goes deeper than that for Grosso. Raised by her monolingual Spanish-speaking grandparents, she felt that she was left to navigate the U.S. education system on her own. Surrounded by peers who spoke of things like SATs, PSATs and FAFSA forms, she felt lost.
She says that’s why this work resonates so much with her.
“My students are going through the same, or very similar, things that I did in high school,” Grosso explains. “I’m able to be the person to my students that I didn't have, which is really healing.”
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