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Challenge Program links local businesses with high school students through hands-on workforce events
Summary
On the Southwestern PA Business Podcast, Garrett Williams of the Challenge Program described how the nonprofit connects local companies with high school students through immersive career days, awards and site visits, funded in part by Pennsylvania's Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC).
On the Southwestern PA Business Podcast, Garrett Williams, a representative of the Challenge Program, said the nonprofit "looks to connect local businesses with local high school students to help them develop professional skills while they're still in school." The program, Williams said, pairs companies and schools for workforce events, curricular supports and student awards.
Williams described two main program elements: immersive career days that set up companies at station-based demonstrations for different roles (administration, marketing, trades, IT) and bused job-site visits so students can see teams at work. "We set them up at different stations, one for their admin, one for their sales, one for marketing," Williams said, describing how students rotate through stations to learn the breadth of jobs within a single employer.
The Challenge Program also distributes student awards and prizes. Williams said the program gives five award categories and "$200 cash awards to 10th, 11th and 12th graders" in categories including attendance, academic excellence, academic improvement, STEM involvement and community service. He also said each participating school receives $3,000 in cash awards that school administrators allocate to winners.
To support that work, Williams pointed to corporate sponsors and tax incentives. He named Cohen Markets and Waste Management as local partners and said Pennsylvania's Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) can cover a substantial portion of sponsorship: "you can get up to 90% of our sponsorship through schools," he said. Williams described the program as free to schools and said the organization handles scheduling, busing and materials so company partners can focus on student engagement.
Williams recounted a recent entrepreneurial contest run with Pen Cove Group Capital that honored the late founder Brian Shanahan and resulted in Ryan Murray of South Park winning a business-plan pitch judged in part by state-level guests. He also highlighted financial-literacy programming with Bank of America's Better Money Habits and Huntington Bank's 'reality day' simulations that give students mock family budgets and credit scores to practice real-world financial decisions.
The Challenge Program currently works in more than 150 schools, Williams said, and is expanding operations into Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania markets. He urged local businesses and funders to engage through sponsorships or by volunteering at events, and reminded listeners how to learn more on the chamber website: "If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, please go to southwesternregionalchamber.org," the hosts said during the episode close.
The episode closed with a reminder that the chamber car raffle is scheduled for August 31 and a call to contact the Challenge Program to explore partnerships or sponsorship through EITC channels.
