The role of education is to help learners discover, develop, and apply their unique gifts so they can help themselves and others succeed. Transformational learning experiences also can lead to career opportunities that are a source of fulfillment, but far too many learners never get these opportunities. They are never connected with pathways that allow them to discover who they are.
The Make It Movement (MiM) meets this challenge by providing students, parents, and high school counselors with insights that illuminate the path from high school to rewarding careers and lifelong learning. By engaging with students to understand their interests, and then building an information source that helps them and their guidance counselors identify new pathways, MiM helps young people discover their purpose and talents early in life so they have the confidence to create a life doing what they love to do.
“After extraordinarily challenging times, young people across America need hope. We are on a mission to use marketing as a force for good to help students discover their talents and purpose while they are in high school and middle school and show them there this is a whole new world of high skilled, high income careers waiting for them,” said MiM Co-founder and Chair Roy Spence. “If you discover when you go to makeitmovement.org that you love welding, carpentry, electrical, mechanical engineering, or want to pursue a career in manufacturing or nursing, we want to make sure you can Make It. There is extraordinary potential across America for every young person to make a great living and life doing what they love to do. We are starting this movement in my home state of Texas and will scale across America.”
The Make it Movement launched late last fall in central Texas and already has initiated a series of partnerships with local schools and organizations like the Austin Community College District, the Texas Association of Builders, United Way for Greater Austin, the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association, the E3 Alliance, and others. Support from the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) will allow the MiM to apply research to better understand the barriers that students encounter when exploring education and career pathways.
“A career filled with purpose enriches a person’s life. The challenge often comes when students don’t have access to, or even information about, the learning opportunities that could help them discover who they are and push the boundaries of their potential,” said CKF Executive Director Ryan Stowers. “The Make it Movement will demonstrate what’s possible when individual learners, their interests, and passions are critical inputs in shaping learner pathways.”
Read more about the Make It Movement and learn more from Roy Spence.