Connecting kids to college and careers: five ideas that really work.

• Author: Friedman, Dorian
• Position: OPPORTUNITY IN AMERICA

Maybe Servon Lewis was destined to beat the odds all along. It just took him a while to figure out how. Growing up in the Bronx with his hardworking parents, four brothers, a sister, and two cousins, Lewis dreamed of a better life beyond the tough streets. He applied himself in school, earned good grades, and steered dear of the gangs around the housing project he called home. But when a near-fatal truck accident left his father permanently disabled, Lewis's family struggled to get by on public assistance. Lewis finished high school and set out to find steady work to support his parents. For four years, he languished, holding only part-time jobs at minimum wage with no benefits. "I tried and tried to get a decent job, but after a while I just sort of gave up," Lewis, now twenty-four, explained recently. "I felt embarrassed and defeated, and I stopped looking for something better."

Encouraged by his mother, he applied to Per Scholas, a nonprofit job training program providing free technology training and career development in low-income communities. Lewis attended intensive, hands-on classes five days a week, seven hours a day. But just as important, Per Scholas offered the mentoring, life skills, and basic necessities--a Metro transit card, a new business suit--essential to boosting Lewis's self-esteem and preparing him for job interviews. He graduated last year, and quickly landed a paid IT/desktop support internship with Neuberger Berman, a leading global asset management firm, as the result of a partnership between Per Scholas and the firm. Today, Lewis holds a full-time IT position in the firm's New Jersey office--at a salary he admits he never dreamed of making. He owns a car, leases an apartment, and has enough to give back to his dose-knit family. "My life has changed, and I'm never going to stop working hard. It's what got me here," he says.

Lewis is one of the lucky ones. As many as 5.8 million young Americans--one in seven young adults aged sixteen to twenty-four--are neither working nor in school. Millions more, like Servon Lewis once was, are trapped in jobs that make it tough for them to get ahead. According to a study by Civic Enterprises and America's Promise Alliance, two-fifths of these struggling young people come from families who are middle class or better.

As Richard Florida chronides ("The Living-in-the-Basement Generation," page 48), the inability of many young adults to pursue economic independence comes with enormous and long-lasting costs. While part of this phenomenon is the result of the Great Recession, many young people are struggling because they're simply not equipped to succeed. In central Iowa, for example, 17 percent of young people are "disconnected" from school and steady work. At the same time, "there are more jobs--good jobs--in Iowa than we have Iowans to fill," laments Rob Denson, president of the Des Moines Area Community College and chair of Opportunity Iowa.

The good news in this otherwise dismal landscape is that many efforts now under way in communities across the country are effectively helping young adults succeed in school, job training, and, ultimately, a...