Kurtz Wants to Expand Mentorship, Career Programs for Atlantic City Students

ATLANTIC CITY — Atlantic City Councilman Jesse Kurtz says he wants to explore expanding efforts that connect city students with successful professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders — and says he plans to begin working on the idea.

Kurtz, the city's 6th Ward councilman, discussed the concept Tuesday during an appearance on Talking with Anne with Anne Baker on WOND.

The conversation began with a discussion about bringing adults with successful careers into Atlantic City schools more regularly to serve as mentors and expose students to career possibilities they may not otherwise encounter.

Kurtz said Atlantic City has an unusual resource that could be tapped: people who live, retire or own second homes in the city after successful careers in a wide variety of professions.

"There's a lot of talent in the town," Kurtz said.

He said a structured program could connect some of those residents with middle- and high-school students.

"Wouldn't it be great to, through a structured effort, to get those people who were super successful in whatever area of life they were to just regularly interact with students?" Kurtz said.

The goal, he said, would be to expose students to people who have succeeded in different professions and let them hear firsthand how they got there.

"Just getting folks to interact with people who were really successful and to talk about the things that they did, have good conversations that hopefully put a little spark of inspiration in the minds and hearts of these different students, I think that would be a fantastic idea," Kurtz said.

Going beyond Career Day

Atlantic City Public Schools already brings professionals into its schools for career events.

In April, for example, Superintendent La'Quetta Small spoke with seventh- and eighth-grade students during Sovereign Avenue School's annual career fair, discussing her own path from becoming the first person in her immediate family to attend college to eventually becoming superintendent.

Kurtz acknowledged those existing efforts during the WOND interview.

"They do something called Career Day at the different schools, where they do invite people from the community," Kurtz said.

But he said there may be an opportunity to go beyond occasional events and create more sustained interaction between students and professionals.

Kurtz compared the concept to career-oriented education in which young people get exposure to different fields before deciding what interests them.

He envisioned connecting students with people accomplished in areas ranging from medicine and banking to real estate, entrepreneurship and invention.

"I love this idea," Kurtz said, describing the potential of linking students with "somebody who is a really incredible inventor or somebody who is very good at real estate or really good at banking or really good at being a surgeon and everything in between."

"Things like that would be awesome to complement the learning," he said.

Similar career-exposure programs elsewhere in Atlantic County have brought students directly together with employers and professionals. The Atlantic County Institute of Technology's career fair earlier this year included 54 businesses, trade unions, colleges and community organizations, while a Hispanic Youth Leadership Summit at Stockton University connected students from Atlantic City and other area high schools with professionals in medicine, engineering, law enforcement and other fields.

'The value of inspiration is undervalued'

For Kurtz, however, the potential benefit goes beyond helping a student decide what job to pursue.

He said exposure to successful adults can show young people what's possible even when other circumstances in their lives are difficult.

"Sometimes the value of inspiration is undervalued," Kurtz said.

"You can have a system that's not ideal. You can have a family that's less than ideal. You can have a neighborhood that's less than ideal."

But inspiration and examples of success, he said, can help young people persevere.

"The inspiration factor is something that could be accomplished through those efforts," Kurtz said.

Baker challenged Kurtz to help organize a broader effort that would bring accomplished people into the schools on an ongoing basis rather than only once or twice a year.

Kurtz accepted.

"I'll take the challenge," he said.

Kurtz noted that some organizations and individuals are already doing work along those lines, including STEM outreach to Atlantic City young people and coding programs.

Rather than duplicate existing efforts, he said he wants to determine how they could be strengthened and expanded.

"It's important to strengthen what is there, make it better, and then also to develop the next level," Kurtz said. "How do we improve on it? What do we do at this moment to respond to the unique challenges now?"

Then he made a commitment to follow up.

"I'm going to roll up the sleeves," Kurtz said, "and I think I'll have something to report back to you as we have future conversations."

Kurtz said he also intends to highlight some of the mentorship and career-development efforts that are already underway in Atlantic City.

The idea remains in the discussion stage, and Kurtz did not announce a formal city or school-district program Tuesday.

But his comments could mark the beginning of an effort to take programs Atlantic City already uses — career days, STEM outreach and other interactions with professionals — and turn them into more regular opportunities for students to develop relationships with people who can show them where their education might lead.