L-K students invited to advancement workshop Saturday

Linden-Kildare High School students are being invited to an education and economic advancement workshop Saturday in the school’s cafeteria.

The workshop will focus on college and career readiness and is Phase Two of a community and law enforcement effort to impact the lives of young people.

The city council recently voted an expenditure to fund implementation of The HOPE Initiative and its Beyond Change program that provides community engagement activities for youth and law enforcement to build trust and promote positive change through partnerships and community service.

The initiative also has a special connection with the National Football League’s Foundation Social Justice Grant Matching Program and the NFL Inspire Change Initiative.

Dr. Robert Harper, a native of Marietta, Texas, and a 1996 graduate of Linden-Kildare High School, is founder and CEO of The HOPE Initiative and executive director of Beyond Change.

Here is his personal letter to the

“The cool thing about this opportunity is that we are going to offer a college and career readiness planning program for all the high school students. Any Linden-Kildare High School student that shows up on Saturday will get opportunity to go through a 2.5 hour workshop to identify their non-cognitive strengths, learning styles and personality type as well as matching careers.”

—Dr. Robert Harper

public to explain and serve as an invitation. Details are at the conclusion of these remarks. Dr. Harper writes:

“As a result of our relationship with the Linden City Council and the funds they provided for first phase of our Beyond Change Social Justice Summit in July, we are headed into phase two to focus on the education and economic advancement of the Linden-Kildare students in our program.

“The cool thing about this opportunity is that we are going to offer a college and career readiness planning program for all the high school students. Any Linden-Kildare High School student that shows up on Saturday will get opportunity to go through a 2.5 hour workshop to identify their non-cognitive strengths, learning styles and personality type as well as matching careers.

“We’ll have community members, who serve on the Linden Together committee, to be there going through some of these exercises, too, so they can become college and career readiness mentors.

“We know in rural East Texas, often times the employment opportunities are limited. We’ll equip our young people with access to SAT and ACT prep tests. These programs will be available during the fall and spring semesters. We will expose the students to different career pathways and credentials required to