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Tag Archive for: career support

Career Launch: The Missing Piece in My Job Search Puzzle

Career Launch alum Anthony Melena shares how the program helped him get his job search on track. Perkins School for the Blind is a grantee partner of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, and this blog post was shared from Perkins with permission.

I used to think that getting a job was easy. Graduate high school, go to college and voilà, a job would be granted, simply because I’d sat through four-plus years of sleep-deprived lectures and never-ending assignments. Boy did I have a lot to learn.

In 2019, I graduated from UCLA with my BA in sociology. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of employment, but I was sorely disappointed when I still found myself unemployed nearly two years later. The job applications had become fruitless exercises that I forced myself to complete weekly, and the rare interview that I did manage to get seemed like nothing more than a tease by the time the Zoom call was ending.

Of course, the Covid pandemic was a huge reason that everything came to a standstill for part of that time, but as the country began to reopen, there was nothing more frustrating than to hear things like, “There are so many jobs, and nobody wants to work.” Well I did, and whatever I was doing to achieve that goal needed to change, because my stubborn determination was slowly but surely turning into a bitter disconnect in the process.

Ever heard the saying “It’s not what you know but who you know?” It’s quite true.

I had dismally failed when it came to tapping into the only thing that keeps us from ending up on these self-made islands of hopelessness: the people around us. It was the missing piece to this dreary puzzle.

On a whim, I began looking for opportunities to talk to anyone about my situation. And why not? I had wasted so much time trying it on my own that, at this point, I was willing to put messages in bottles just to have conversations with someone other than myself!

That’s when I came across Career Launch and the Perkins School for the Blind.

The Career Launch program promised to teach blind and visually impaired adults the skills and the training for employment in the spectrum of customer service. This included industries such as retail, human resources, health and technology, and even the medical field.

More important to me, however, was the notion that someone that answered my call, and was offering to walk with me through the process of finding the meaningful employment that I had been searching for since graduating from UCLA.

It was better than I could have ever imagined. During the intensive eight-week program, I learned everything from Google Suite and lessons on the fundamentals in business, to improv lessons and job simulations to help me be as prepared as humanly possible, and know how to proceed when the right opportunity came along.

It had been a long time since I had felt that kind of support outside of my home. Every step of the way, every lesson felt like music to my soul, and just what I needed to find the confidence that had been eluding me.

Now, I am happy to report that I have found a job that I love. I learned a lot about myself these last two years – undoubtedly the most important being that we can’t do everything alone.

Career Launch is offered through a residential program and a virtual program. The next session of the virtual program will begin this fall. There’s also a Business tech bootcamp. The next Business tech bootcamp takes place this summer. Learn more about all the Career Launch options by visiting the website or contacting Perkins.


Anthony Melina is a graduate of Perkins School for the Blind’s Career Launch.

The Importance of STEM Initiatives to Indigenous American Communities

Every child should have the freedom to dream big. At the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), it’s been our mission to encourage Indigenous children to not only dream big in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), but to make those dreams a reality.

The current, and increasing, underrepresentation of Indigenous people in STEM is cause for national concern because it deprives our nation of the potential for innovation and transformative solutions arising from a diverse STEM workforce (Corbett & Hill, 2015; National Academies, 2011). Further, research suggests diverse voices, such as those of Indigenous learners and professionals, contribute to creative and critical STEM enterprise of problem solving (Page, 2007; Spencer & Dawes, 2009). Equally, it is morally imperative to support all individuals, including Indigenous men and women, and Indigenous two-spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, who wish to pursue STEM education and careers.

Too many bright and talented Indigenous students at all levels encounter challenges academically for a multitude of reasons. Working with its partners, AISES creates brighter futures for them by ensuring equal access to STEM educational programming, closing gender and learning gaps, placing a premium on diversity, and improving access to essential support services and resources. And while encouraging Indigenous students to pursue STEM studies because today’s fastest growing, most in-demand jobs are in STEM fields, the skills and principles acquired through STEM education are equally important for those looking to create and manage businesses of their own someday.

For over 40 years, AISES has been committed to substantially increasing the number of Indigenous people in STEM studies and careers. AISES’ three key focus areas are student success, career support, and workforce development. In the advancement of our mission, AISES works with exceptional Indigenous students who all too often face educational and economic inequalities. As such, AISES offers programming and resources to encourage, guide, and fund Indigenous students on their pathway into a STEM field. Upon completion of their STEM degree or certification, AISES continues to provide supportive programming and resources as well as access to the nation’s largest network of individuals and institutions dedicated to supporting the ongoing career development and advancement of Indigenous people in STEM fields.

In 2017, AISES launched a STEM and Business initiative to expand opportunities and provide resources for AISES members who want to combine their interest in STEM with starting or expanding a business within their own tribal communities. Since then, AISES has engaged hundreds of students and professionals by delivering sessions at its annual conference, creating a cohort of individuals for entrepreneurship training and mentorship, and providing start-up capital to program participants. To support this work, AISES partners with allies who are also committed to providing resources to help grow and expand the numbers of Indigenous STEM students and professionals. One such collaboration is with the Johnson Scholarship Foundation.

With support of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, AISES STEM and Business program is delivering an entrepreneurship training initiative to (1) expand access to the AISES STEM and Business curriculum via AISES microsite along with outreach and promotion of these resources to the entire AISES network; (2) create a 10-person STEM and Business cohort and recruitment of 5 professional mentors; (3) conduct a three-part series of STEM and Business trainings, two in-person trainings hosted in conjunction with AISES events and one virtual training; and (4) award mini-grants to support Indigenous STEM Business development.

Thanks to partners like the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, AISES has enabled many Indigenous people to develop businesses. It’s helped grow tribal enterprises, and supported tribal communities as they strive toward economic independence and the assertion of tribal sovereignty. Now more than ever, it is essential for AISES to further expand our partnerships to create more opportunities for Indigenous youth and young professionals seeking careers in STEM fields. It is time to make Indigenous STEM representation a priority as a critical component of the larger global effort to develop the most innovative solutions to today’s most pressing problems and issues. Together, AISES and its partners are creating those opportunities – and I hope you too will join us.


Sarah Echohawk is a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, and is CEO of AISES.