Volunteering at Beacon Academy
by Jen Goldsmith
At the MLK Shabbat Service, when speaker Dr. Charles Carter Jr. described his own journey and the impact of Beacon Academy, I wanted to jump out of my chair in praise, with enthusiasm and as a true believer in Beacon’s ten-year arc of student education and support. But I also wanted to jump on the bimah to share my Beacon commitment and help other TI members see where you might fit in. I stayed in my seat then, so will share my thoughts now. And I will start and end at the same place: if you ever want to know more about how you can be a part of the Beacon community, please be in touch with me.
Beacon is a ten-year comprehensive education and support model that begins in eighth grade, prepares students for independent high school and college and continues to work with them early in their careers. Beacon Academy was located in the walls of Temple Israel for years and now owns a beautiful building in Roslindale that offers a gorgeous and highly functional learning and community space. And the model works: a 97% high school graduation rate and 95% college matriculation rate, and countless more nuanced measures of success and satisfaction. If you’re a parent you’ve probably offered guidance to your kids into adulthood, and if you’re an adult you probably can remember insights adults in your life offered as you navigated professionally. Beacon creates that resource through an extensive professional staff and volunteer network.
I began as a Beacon volunteer in 2016, as a mentor coach to a terrific and talented young woman who is now a college senior at Connecticut College. We made school visits, had weekly lunches, worked on admissions essays and had study hall at my house with my then junior high school sons. I visited her through high school and continue to today. At the same time my husband tutored two boys in math weekly. Coaching and tutoring students in the Academy year are terrific Beacon opportunities well worth considering. Beacon alumnae go on to prestigious independent schools and to highly competitive colleges. And almost without exception they are first in their families to have these opportunities and to navigate new paths.
Because of the ten-year model, there are more and often better fitted volunteer opportunities for individuals with professional insights and guidance to offer young adults emerging in the workforce.
Consider this statement from a Beacon alum, a recent Smith College graduate working in a cancer lab: I am already the most successful person in my family, and I have no model in my family for what my next step looks like.
These words were so honest and poignant, and I was honored she trusted me with that vulnerability. During her senior year at college, we had worked together by shared screen completing countess job applications, practicing interviewing, strategizing for salary negotiation, even selecting health benefits. After three years in her research role we worked together on grad school apps. By then she had many mentors but still needed a trusted partner.
Another Beacon alum with whom I worked when he was a college senior accepted a job in New York only to discover the reality of unaffordable housing. Together we tapped every possible resource — friends, family, Facebook housing groups from NYU and Columbia — and we found him a reasonable option. But a reality became very clear: entry level jobs in medical research are compensated at levels so low only kids with family financial support can accept them. First, last and security deposits correspond to months if not years of savings and are unimaginable to many Beacon kids and their families. While at a macro level this model invites reimagining, in the moment it’s an individual crisis and one I’m honored to help navigate.
I’ve found my sweet spot as a Beacon volunteer is working with late college and early career young adults on resumes, interviewing, job searches, grad school applications and so many of the next steps in the ten-year Beacon journey that are truly uncharted for most Beacon kids.
In my professional life, working as a senior program leader in healthcare, as a consultant and as university faculty, I have reviewed so many resumes and cover letters and interviewed more people than I can count. I have an extensive professional network, and expansive exposure to so many career paths and journeys that are just not evident to kids early in their careers. This is true for many of TI members. And it’s likely that your experience has benefitted others in your network in informal and formal ways. As a Beacon Connect volunteer, I put all this experience to good use.
For many at TI, our assets are our connections, our knowledge of career paths that can be straight or twisted, the norms of networking, casual communication and making connections that could transform the journeys of Beacon young adults. And some of those assets come from our workplaces. For example, a friend recently secured a pro bono consulting opportunity for Beacon through his company. He then led a career session for college students on interviewing in the consulting industry.
Here are five ways you might engage with Beacon Academy to expand opportunities for their students beginning in eighth grade and across their novel and highly successful ten-year support model, and enrich your own experience.
- Volunteer at the Academy supporting eighth graders as a mentor, tutor, or in other direct support ways.
- Help with specific programs of support: preparing college and prep school care packages, delivering thanksgiving turkeys, helping with a clothes swap boutique to be sure every student has great outfits for high school interviews.
- Join Beacon Connect, a staff and volunteer team that meets monthly focused on internship and job placement for individual high school, college and post college Beacon alumnae, and on programs and opportunities for the alum community.
- Consider your career path and network and how you can share that with young Beacon adults. Could you host an intern, have a student shadow you, sit on a career panel, make a video about your profession, or offer a 1:1 conversation with an interested student?
- Explore how your workplace can support Beacon career paths. Could you host a group of alums for a day of exploration, develop a pipeline of entry level opportunities, post job openings with Beacon, or spread the word of Beacon with others in your organization amplifying and expanding reach and possibility.
Of course this model costs money. The staff are experienced, dedicated, and truly remarkable. We invest in Beacon kids in countless ways over years to enhance their success. (One support that has stayed with me is supplementing unpaid or underpaid summer internships for a small number of Beacon kids. Wealthier kids often accept these internships as implied first steps in career exposure. This model of advantage is so embedded we often accept it as a given. But it is one of countless ways kids from economically advantaged homes perpetuate advantage. Beacon levels that and many other playing fields).
Please reach out to me if you’d like to discuss what’s possible. You can learn more about Beacon here. If you would like to support the work of Beacon, here’s more information. Beacon’s 20th anniversary gala will be on May 4. Consider joining the celebration and the Beacon movement.