Young male Buffalo Public School students in the 7th and 8th grades could be spotted around town Friday, dressed in white shirts and blue uniform ties, touring five different venues where they were encouraged to think about future careers.
These were tours facilitated by My Brother's Keeper Male Academy, a federal program introduced under the Obama Administration to provide young males of color with learning and mentorship opportunities.
After being divided into groups of five, the students - enrolled in 7th and 8th grades - boarded public transportation and arrived at one five destinations: M & T Bank's downtown headquarters, the GM Powertrain plant on River Road, the Buffalo Water Authority's facilities on Porter Avenue, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's offices on Ellicott Street and Buffalo City Court.
"Most of them came through our mentorship program and we started last week through Mayor Byron Brown," said Jason Hall, an instructional coach with Buffalo Public Schools and curriculum designer for My Brother's Keeper. "We were able to make a lot of local connections and community connections with places like NFTA and GM, places that like to reach out. They know what our mission is."
That mission is to get the students out into the community and look at potential job and career choices. WBFO caught up with the group visiting Porter Avenue, where the students learned about the water intake and filtration process, and even observed some unearthed fire hydrants to find out how water flow is prevented in the event of an incident such as an auto crash.
"When we ask our young men in 7th and 8th grade, most of the time they say they want to be an NBA player or an entertainer," Hall said. "We're out here to show them what happens at the Water Authority and what kind of jobs await them when they graduate from high school and college."
