“I believe in you. Go do great things because I know how much potential you have.” And with those words of encouragement to seven teens, Heather Featherstone kicked off the graduation ceremony for the summer’s first TRAC session. TRAC, or Training for Retail Associate Certification, provides real-world work experience for teenagers ages 14-18. The four-week course focuses on customer service and communication skills and introduces career and job options for each student to consider.
There are two TRAC classes each summer and the June class spent time in a teepee and heard the story of the Lakota tribe by J.J. Kemp. His lessons in diversity were taken to heart said many of the students at their graduation. The teens were also given a personalized tour of an ambulance by EMTs, visited a Marriott Hotel, radio station, and heard about one man’s journey from the streets to jail and back to being a member of society.
TRAC facilitators Featherstone and Tom Lee, see a payoff when working with the students. “We are preparing them for adulthood,” says Featherstone. At the graduation exercise, it was apparent that the teens took many messages about their futures to heart.
In just four short weeks, Aaliyah Judkins’ mother, Denise Graves-Judkins, said she saw a remarkable change in her 15-year-old daughter. “Her self-esteem has improved. She’s motivated and she knows she has options.” Aaliyah has epilepsy and beta thalassemia, a blood disorder. “She loves to play basketball and wanted to play professionally. But because of her medical issues she won’t be able to. TRAC training has helped Aaliyah see all of her options and realize she has a lot of choices.”
Her choices include teaching. “I knew I wanted to become a teacher the day Catherine Clark spoke to the class,” says Aaliyah. Clark is the assistant to the director of Goodwill’s Career Solutions. “She said never to give up on our dreams and listen to what your heart says and that’s what I’m going to do now.”
When students graduate from the TRAC program they receive a $100 stipend from Goodwill. All TRAC classes are held at Goodwill’s corporate offices in Nashville. Information about TRAC for 2011 can be found at www.giveit2goodwill.org in the spring of 2011.
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