Page 34 - BusinessWest May 29, 2023

Things Are CLICing
JA Commences Work on Career, Leadership & Innovation Center
It was officially called a groundbreaking, but Jennifer Connelly says it was more of a “wallbreaking.”
Indeed, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, representatives of
the many sponsors involved with the project, and other VIPs took turns swinging a large sledgehammer at a wall just off the entrance to the Tower Square offices of Junior Achievement ( JA) of Western Massachusetts.
The hole they left behind is still there more than a month later, a poignant symbol of the work — at least the physical construc- tion work — soon to commence on what is being called the Career, Leadership & Innovation Center, or CLIC, a facility that will focus on those first three words with a number of intriguing programs.
Indeed, the center will help students identify career options and make smart decisions regarding post-secondary education; expand their thinking and skill development, thus better preparing them
to be future leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators; and provide them with the skills and knowledge that will allow them to make informed and effective decisions with their financial resources.
JA is creating the center in collaboration with MassHire Hamp- den County, the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, other agencies, and several area employers, said Connelly, and is designed to address a gap when it comes to educating young people about careers and the paths to them.
“We found that there’s a piece missing in the pipeline when
it comes to inspiring young people to have careers here in the region,” said Connelly, adding that the center will enable students to learn about and then explore options in fields they may not have been thinking about. In that respect, it will help open doors for young people while also helping to put workers in the pipeline for
“We found that there’s a piece missing in the pipeline when it comes to inspiring young people to have careers here in the region.”
Jennifer Connelly shows off the wall in the wall that is the symbolic start of work to create JA’s new Career, Leadership & Innovation Center.
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34 MAY 29, 2023
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