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Their Post-Grads Got Off Track. Then a Brooklyn High School Launched ’13th Grade’

Thousands of young adults are not working or going to college. How high schools like NYC鈥檚 MESA Charter can bolster support well after graduation.

By Marianna McMurdock | August 28, 2023
The alumni lab has been especially impactful for student parents like Adeli Molina '17 (Isabel del Rosal)

Some had children and other family caretaking responsibilities. Others started and stopped degree programs, racking up debt for careers they thought they wanted at 17. 

Now, dozens of young adults in Brooklyn have moved into their own apartments or been able to provide health care for their children as they jumpstart sustainable careers as computer scientists, carpenters, health care and IT technicians, education specialists and chefs.

Paid $500 to participate in a six-week 鈥13th grade鈥 Alumni Lab, Bushwick鈥檚 Math, Engineering, and Science Academy Charter High School grads are showing the country a model for engaging disconnected youth, those unemployed and not attending college.

鈥淟ife has not gone as they were led to believe it would,鈥 said MESA鈥檚 co-executive director and co-founder Arthur Samuels. 鈥…You have all of these kids who are not tethered to any institution, but the institution that they are tethered to is their high school. We need to leverage that relationship.鈥 

鈥淲e create this artificial bright line that happens on the day of graduation: June 23, you’re our kid. June 24, we give you a diploma and you’re someone else’s problem,鈥 he added. 

The population of disconnected or opportunity youth under 25 is growing in several states including , and , each home to at least 100,000 respectively. Including teenagers who鈥檝e dropped out of high school, nearly 15% of 鈥檚 young people are in the same position.

The counts underestimate just how many young people are struggling post-graduation. According to the those who are working under age 25 make up 44% of people at or below federal minimum wage, often without benefits. 

in New York City鈥檚 workforce programs designed for unemployed youth are unfilled because of recruitment and retention challenges. 

Yet MESA鈥檚 workshop and coaching alumni lab is near full capacity, this spring wrapping up their third cohort in its inaugural year, with 71% of 42 young adults matriculating back to college or into a free workforce development program. About 25 students participated in the 2021-22 school year in a one-one, case management model. 

Alumni say workshops feel welcoming and family-like. During one April session, a four month old napped in a stroller next to her mother. The cohort goes for lunch regularly, chatting about internship possibilities or recent TV obsessions. All sessions are taught by former MESA teachers, far from judgemental strangers.

Beyond technical resume writing and interview support, biweekly 90-minute sessions explore growth mindset, self-awareness and making goals 鈥 skills that help young people, particularly alumni of color, work through feelings of inadequacy, shame, or feeling like an imposter. 

鈥淚t requires a real vulnerability,鈥 Samuels said. 鈥…I think they’re willing to do that because of the relationships.鈥

Brooklyn鈥檚 MESA Charter High School and its alumni lab was founded by Arthur Samuels, left, and Pagee Cheung, right (Marianna McMurdock).

Launched three years ago as school leaders encountered more and more alumni who appeared to be working low wage jobs or dropping out of degree programs to make ends meet, the model is expanding. Other Brooklyn principals have identified the urgent need to support alumni, particularly those in the pandemic generation.

MESA has formally partnered with the High School for Fashion Industries for next school year; at least two other schools are in talks as well. The partnerships would enable MESA to serve 100 students in their north Brooklyn campus next school year, in the heart of a large Latino community. 

While a high school鈥檚 success is often sized up by its graduation rate, co-executive director and co-founder Pagee Cheung believes metrics from alumni鈥檚 post-secondary lives should serve as a wake up call. 

鈥淭he goal is beyond just graduation numbers 鈥 how are they surviving once they leave?鈥 said Cheung. 鈥淭here’s a vacuum in accountability and responsibility.鈥 

Jessica Bloom, senior director of career-connected learning, chats with participant Adeli Molina ’17 in MESA’s hallway. (Isabel del Rosal)

鈥業鈥檇 still be lost鈥 

Five years after graduating, Jackie, a young mother, sat intensely focused at a full table in her alma mater鈥檚 media library. She and Eduardo, who graduated in 2020 into an uncertain world, shared a table as they decided their top three work programs from a packet of options.

Without MESA, Eduardo said he鈥檇 be scouring the internet for programs that he felt met his interests, without much understanding of financial literacy or what made a high-quality program.

鈥淚t would be a waste of my time,鈥 he told 成人抖阴. 

And time is of the essence 鈥 his younger brother recently graduated from MESA as well; his younger siblings still have a few years left in school. He knows that this age is also when some peers start contributing to retirement.

鈥淚 want [my siblings] to chase what they want to do without restrictions,鈥 said Eduardo, whose last name has been withheld for privacy. 鈥淲ith my financial stability, I might be able to help them get to theirs, and just create this long line of financial stability.鈥

Starting in 2023, participants were compensated $500 for attending two 90-minute workshops for six weeks.

Brooklyn native and MESA college counselor Jay Green leads a workshop on SMART goal setting. (Kayla Mejia)

鈥淚f they’re cutting back on their hours at Footlocker [to attend], that’s a hard ask,鈥 Samuels explained. 鈥淔orgoing income in the short term might mean getting evicted or missing meals. Having the ability to offset some of that lost income through stipends made a huge difference.鈥 

Beyond financial obstacles, there are often mental barriers that prevent young people from being able to participate in similar programs. 

鈥淔or many of them, there鈥檚 this shame and guilt attached to not being where they should be or comparing themselves to others,鈥 Cheung said. 

Participants also described a sort of imposter syndrome when they are accepted into a workforce or degree program, that they鈥檙e not deserving of the opportunity. 

鈥淭he conditioning has been, this probably isn’t going to work out for you anyway. When there is an obstacle, it confirms that thought process,鈥 Samuels said, adding that they are encouraging a 鈥渕indset that I am entitled to have a career that is financially sustainable and personally satisfying. I can advocate for that and there are people who are able to help me.鈥 

Creating a network of peers was essential: instead of individual counseling, MESA offers cohorts that go through workshops as a group.

In leading workshops, MESA teachers emphasize trial and error to counter the narrative that young people have to know exactly what they want to do by 20. A former student who wanted to become a firefighter, for example, was coached to try out a common exercise regimen, then decided he couldn鈥檛 sustain that for years. 

When second cohort alum Luis Rodriguez first graduated alongside Eduardo in 2020, he followed the path he always imagined: pursuing college sports. But when the pandemic halted athletics and he didn鈥檛 feel the quality of education at Buffalo State was 鈥渁s good as I thought it would be,鈥 he left. 

Rodriguez worked at various factories and warehouses in Pennsylvania and New York before he heard about MESA鈥檚 workshops from a friend. He didn鈥檛 hesitate to get involved, wanting to figure out a new path instead of working nonstop. 

But it wasn鈥檛 until MESA鈥檚 alumni program presented culinary arts as a career possibility and a former coach pushed him that he seriously considered it.

鈥淚 just be in my head so much鈥 What if I take this path and it doesn’t work out, then I have to start all over? It took me a while to realize that sometimes that’s just what happens. It’s not a bad thing,鈥 he said. 

MESA鈥檚 position as a high school that has kept strong relationships with alumni and their families for years makes it uniquely positioned to push participants when they start to doubt themselves, or advocate on their behalf.

In late April, Rodriguez finished his first shift at a Mexican fusion restaurant in Astoria, a new culinary placement through the . 

鈥淚 would still be at a warehouse job, honestly, if I didn鈥檛 find this workshop. And still be lost.鈥  

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