“We help [high school students] connect to industry professionals and essentially have them working as consultants to the business and nonprofit communities as a way of them exploring what’s out there for them – work opportunities, career opportunities – so they can try things out and rule things out before they get out into postsecondary or into the workforce,” says Corey Mohn, president and executive director, CAPS Network.
WorkingNation sat down with Mohn at JFF Horizons in New Orleans.
He says, “When you break down the walls of the classroom, of the learning space, you connect learners to those out in the world who are doing really interesting things and authentic things –and not only showing them what’s out there, but actually letting them roll their sleeves up and do the real work.”
Regarding employers, Mohn says, “What we’ve observed is this snowball rolling down the hill. An employer gets engaged. They’re not exactly sure what this program is. They’re curious.”
“We step them into a process where they do some mentoring or some guest instruction, then they take on a project. What happens is they’re highly impressed by what the students have created for them. They enjoy the process of working with young people. They see the talent that’s there.”
Mohn says the typical CAPS student is between the ages of 16 and 18 – and comes from different types of schools including public, charters, private, parochial schools, and students who are homeschooled.
Learn more about the CAPS Network.
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Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
