News Release: JAG-K Helped Concordia Grad Overcome Hardships, Achieve Success as Husband, Father, Soldier
In 2014, Concordia High School senior Zach Roberts said, “JAG-K saved my life.”
Like many students in the JAG-K (Jobs for America’s Graduates-Kansas) program, Roberts experienced a string of traumatic experiences that affected his motivation and success in school.
A fatal car accident, financial hardships, a lack of role models and the absence of structure all contributed to Roberts’ chaotic youth. His mother struggled with addiction and found it hard to hold a job, so the family moved a lot. Roberts tried to adjust each time he started a new school, but the transitions were hard. By the time he was a freshman in high school, he’d been abandoned by his mother. He slept in a pickup truck and worked jobs before and after school in an effort to provide for himself. He frequently fell asleep in class and missed homework assignments because his time and energy was dedicated to survival.
Roberts fell further and further behind in school until JAG-K launched in 25 Kansas high schools – including Concordia High School – in the fall of 2013. Students with barriers to success were recommended to participate in the new programs. Roberts entered the program and quickly began to experience a change.
“JAG-K came at just the right time in my life,” Roberts said. “The biggest thing is JAG-K gave me hope. I wasn’t alone. It gives kids a place to belong and feel like someone cares.”
JAG-K is a multi-year, in-school program for students in grades 6-12 that offers tools to successfully transition students into post-secondary school, the military, or directly into the workforce with marketable skills. Participants in the program face multiple barriers to success that their JAG-K Career Specialist helps them overcome through a nationally-accredited, evidence-based model.
“I bounced around to all these schools. I didn’t care if I graduated. I wouldn’t say I was a lost kid, but I didn’t have any rules or guidance, and I just thought school was a waste of time. I was behind on credits, so I had to make up classes on top of going to school in order to graduate on time.”
Roberts found in JAG-K an adult who provided mentorship, structure, discipline, and a vision of what was possible.
“The JAG-K Career Specialists are there to mentor you for your life outside of high school,” Roberts said. “They were honestly the best teachers I ever had. Obviously, they cared about what you had to do to pass the class, but they cared about you. They weren’t just teachers. They were role models.”
Lacking reliable adult influence for most of his young life, Roberts found a mentor and encourager in his JAG-K Career Specialist. He found another role model his junior year when he was invited to live with a farmer in the Concordia area named Rusty Carter in exchange for help on the farm. Roberts was thankful for a place to call home, and he enjoyed the physical labor and the discipline on the farm. He enjoyed working outdoors and developed a love for hunting and fishing. He even began trying his hand at rodeo.
“I had goals to do things in life that I wasn’t learning in my regular classes in school. Having spent so much time working with older men, I saw that there was a lot of practical knowledge that I needed to be equipped to succeed. The JAG-K class taught me real-life stuff that I realized that I needed to learn. It prepared me for the real world.”
Roberts thrived in JAG-K. At the state skills competition, Roberts placed second in the Public Speaking event and was voted Vice President of the Career Association. He went to the national competition in Washington D.C., where he placed in the top five in two competitions.
During the summer between his junior and senior years of high school, Roberts enlisted in the U.S. Army.
“Before I got into the JAG-K program, I never had any vision of leaving the state of Kansas,” Roberts said. “I never had a set path before me growing up, and the structure the military offered really appealed to me. So one morning I just woke up and called a recruiter. And two weeks later I was enlisted.”
Upon completion of basic training, the 2015 graduate of Concordia High School was stationed in Hawaii as a military police officer. While most people would find the beach the most appealing part of that assignment, Roberts explored the hunting and fishing opportunities on the islands.
After three years in Hawaii, Roberts was stationed at Fort Riley. While there, he met his wife, Monica. During his three years assigned to Fort Riley, he deployed to Iraq and Syria. During that period, Roberts also found an opportunity to tap into his love of ranching and animals. He served the Commanding General’s Mounted Color Guard, a ceremonial detail that keeps alive the tradition of soldiers on horseback. Roberts trained the cared for the detail’s horses while at Fort Riley.
After three years at Fort Riley, Roberts was stationed in Hawaii once again, where he and Monica currently reside with their one-year-old daughter Willow.
Roberts is excited to show young people that they can overcome the harshest of circumstances, find their talents and achieve their dreams. While he is happy to promote careers in the military, he is also anxious to promote the Jobs for Americas Graduates program.
“I hope I can get more involved with JAG-K and with the national JAG program, to help kids like me,” Roberts said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without it.”
Kansas’ 114 JAG-K programs serve approximately 6,200 students in 48 school districts across the state. JAG-K Career Specialists help students graduate and learn career, leadership, and life skills by executing a nationally-accredited, evidence-based model. Participants must meet criteria to be selected for the program and have potential to overcome various barriers to post-secondary success. Last year, JAG-K had 805 high school graduates.
The 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization is a state affiliate of the national JAG program network which operates in 36 different states and territories. It is primarily funded through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant to the State of Kansas administered by the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF). In addition to school districts and DCF, JAG-K partners with the Kansas Department of Education. Other JAG-K funding sources include ADM, AT&T, EagleU, Goldstein Charitable Trust, the JB and Anne Hodgdon Foundation, Honeywell, John Deere, Johnson County Community College, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, Kansas Gas Service, the Kansas Insurance Department, Mark One Electric, the Office of the Kansas State Bank Commissioner, United Way of Kaw Valley, United Way of the Plains, U.S. Bank and Walmart.
To learn more about JAG-K, visit www.jagkansas.org, or ‘Jobs for America’s Graduates-Kansas’ on Facebook, X and LinkedIn.