(add)ventures encourages career exploration, opens doors to high schoolers

Recognizing the important role businesses can play in education, (add)ventures recently offered several job shadowing opportunities to public high school students.

In Miami, Angie Moncada, (add)ventures’ managing director, strategy/PR spent the day at the Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High School Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, engaging students in a discussion about how social media is changing the way brands and consumers interact.

“We opened up a great line of dialogue with a group of people who use social media every day,” said Moncada. “It was incredibly rewarding to introduce them to (add)ventures and encourage their career interests, but equally enlightening for us to hear their perspective as young, social media savvy consumers.”

In Providence, ten students from the Providence Academy of International Studies, a public school near (add)ventures’ headquarters, were given an opportunity to shadow experts in design, marketing, PR, business administration and web development. After brainstorming their biggest career questions and observing the (add)ventures team in action, the student group was asked to put their new skills to work building a Facebook page that showcases their experience and allows them to share it with peers, teachers and parents.

“I think they had a really great time at (add)ventures,” said Nora Crowley, the firm’s manager, social impact/branding. “At the end of the day, they left feeling excited about opportunities that exist in this industry, and they were better informed about what to study, what experience to get and where to eventually find jobs.”

With unemployment rates throughout the country too high, it is all the more essential that business-education partnerships be developed.

(add)ventures CEO Stephen Rosa said, “We can do our best to create jobs and stimulate the local economies in Providence and Miami, but we can also be a classroom for the next generation of employees. It’s our responsibility to be teachers and to help prepare and inspire the next workforce.”