‘It kept me engaged’: This Philly nonprofit fosters higher graduation rates through career experiences

Robert Williams’ life changed during his junior year of high school.

A student at Thomas A. Edison High School, Williams’ high school career started with getting “caught up in the wrong crowd” and held back his sophomore year, to excelling at school and becoming the master of ceremonies his senior year.

The catalyst to Williams’ change was his introduction to Philadelphia Academies Inc. (PAI) as a junior in 1982. After being placed in the school’s electrical science program, Williams was offered an internship with Peco, made possible by the school’s partnership with PAI.

“It caught my attention, it kept me engaged,” Williams recalled. “I couldn’t wait until I got back to school my senior year to see what was next.”

Founded in 1969 to address rising numbers of students dropping out of school, PAI has been using career development as a method of keeping students engaged and motivated for their futures. The nonprofit, which partners with over 20 Philadelphia schools, has since expanded beyond its school-to-career pipeline, offering support programs for school administrators and teachers to help their students succeed.

“My role now is very much to support the frontline staff, to support the directors, to support the staff that are going out in the schools every day to be able to do their job and make that change,” said Cheryl Lafferty, senior program director of PAI. “And I love seeing doors open up for students and them being prepared to walk through them.”

Teachers work with PAI predominantly through the organization’s 9th Grade Success Network, through which they and administrative staff can examine student data using a grade-monitoring tool and detect warning signs for interventions.

“Numbers tell me nothing if I can’t see who they’re talking about,” said LaJuana Stidmon-Frazier, an assistant principal for 9th and 10th grades at Murrell Dobbins High School. “[PAI] helped me find my students in the numbers, and how I can provide more support to groups of kids to make incremental progress.”

For example, with the help of a data coach, Stidmon-Frazier realized last year that none of her three Latina students were “on-track,” or passing their four core classes. In response, she created a mentoring lunch to support those students. By the end of the year, two were on-track to graduate.

“Because we were able to drill down into the data and we were able to provide support, we use it to determine celebrations for our kids,” Stidmon-Frazier said. “It’s a very powerful tool to use.”

According to PAI, on-track rates for 9th graders they work with improved by nearly five percentage points on average from the 2018-2019 school year to 2021-2022. And those gains were even higher among Black and Latino male students, at around a 10 percentage point increase. Comparatively, schools not participating with PAI actually saw a slight decline in on-track rates for Black male students, and a smaller percentage point increase (4.3) for Latino male students.

Involvement with the organization often looks like pre-apprenticeship programs or internships, such as in PAI’s Hospitality and Tourism Management Program. Students also get to meet professionals at different companies through career days and presentations at the school, as well as field trips to company locations for “master classes.” In addition, students receive trainings to navigate the professional world with workshops on resumes, interviews, and time management.

» READ MORE: Three Philly neighborhood high schools will revamp with a career focus

“Students really have obstacles taken out of their way so that they can be successful, so that we can help them plan individually for their careers and for what’s coming after high school,” Lafferty said.

That much has been true for Shamica Fordyce, who connected with PAI at Dobbins Technical High School. Fordyce not only benefitted from the career training PAI offered her, but also received a scholarship from the program, which she’ll be using to pay for her books when she starts her freshman year at Chestnut Hill College this fall.

“The funds that they gave me and the help they gave really helped me to stay focused,” Fordyce said. “I’m really trying to stay on track and become a better and mature adult.”

For Williams, the experience opened him up to “a whole new world.” He was raised by his great-grandmother in North Philly, where he says he was surrounded by drugs and poverty. Now, at 58, Williams is a teacher with PAI himself.

“I go through that neighborhood from time to time, and I see some of the guys who I grew up with,” Williams said. “I can only imagine where my life would be if it wasn’t for PAI.”