News Release: Royals Charities Donates Professional Attire for JAG-K Officers
The Kansas City Royals wear some of the classiest uniforms in Major League Baseball. Understanding the link between appearance and performance, Royals Charities recently provided professional attire to the 16 JAG-K regional and state elected student officers.
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. JAG-K provides opportunities for students to explore careers through employer engagement relationships. Those experiences may include field trips, job shadows, internships and summer or part-time employment.
Each year, JAG-K students elect officers to head their Career Association. These leaders meet with legislators and business leaders, speak to school and civic groups and lead student events.
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. Many of the students cannot afford professional clothing suitable for such events.
“Royals Charities is grateful to be partnered with JAG-Kansas, an organization that is doing the work to support students that are at risk of graduating high school,” said Luis Maes, Vice President of Community Impact for the Kansas City Royals. “We are especially proud of the 16 students who serve as State Officers that attend regional, state, and national JAG events.
“The work that JAG-K does with these students is truly remarkable, by setting them up with experiences that will prepare them for college, trade school, military service, or direct-to-workforce opportunities.”
Royals Charities donated the jackets, dress pants and skirts to the JAG-K officers in time for the students to wear them at JAG-K Day at the Capitol in Topeka in early February and to the statewide Career Development Conference at McPherson College in mid-March. Both of those events put the officers in very visible positions, leading meetings and speaking to large groups of their peers, as well as addressing legislative committees and meeting with governmental leaders such as Kansas governor Laura Kelly.
“I was so happy when were told we would receive professional clothes, because I never owned a real suit,” said Nuru Abdallah, president of the JAG-K Career Association and a senior at Wyandotte High School. “It made me feel like someone took an interest in us.
“I feel more confident when I wear the clothes we received. I feel like I’ve stepped up and am more ready to speak to people because I feel more professional.”
Kansas’ 104 JAG-K programs, which serve more than 5,500 students in 49 school districts across the state, reports a graduation rate of 97 percent over the past five years.
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.
The 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization is a state affiliate of the national JAG program network which operates in 38 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, Evergy, Goldstein Charitable Trust, the JB and Anne Hodgdon Foundation, John Deere, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, Kansas Gas Service, the Kansas Insurance Department, the Kansas State Bank Commissioner, Royals Charities, Synchrony Financial, the Taco Bell Foundation, the City of Topeka, United Way of the Plains and Walmart.
To learn more about JAG-K, visit www.jagkansas.org, ‘Jobs for America’s Graduates-Kansas’ on Facebook, and on Twitter at @JAG_Kansas.