February 18, 2026 • 13 mins
Ashley Dubois is our guest, a former participant in the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative program. It reaches out to students in Cincinnati Public Schools to show them the myriad opportunities they have after high school, from military, to post-secondary learning, or right to the workplace. Ashley is passionate about CYC, since it's exposure has taken her around the world, down the college graduate aisle twice, and now to Skanska, where she works as the Community Outreach Manger. Skanksa is an eager sponsor of the program, since their corporate culture is to support the issues important to their employees.
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CYC Dream Makers
Thursday, April 23, 2026
American Sign Museum, 1330 Monmouth Ave, Cincy, OH
Click here for Dream Makers fundraiser information - April 23, 2026
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back. This is iHeart Sincy.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Today's special guests talking about mentoring young people here in
Tri State through the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative with Ashley Dubois.
She's a manager with Skanska USA Building, which is one
of the big sponsors of this collaborative.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
She going to be in here since our Youth Collaborative
has been around for some thirty some years. But for
people that don't know what it is, you want to
give a little background on that and a little background
on how you came to it.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yeah, absolutely, So we have been in existence a little
bit over thirty years. It came together as some of
our ironically, some of the P and G executives realized
that we were going to have a work for shortage
years ago, and so their biggest thing was if we
can get more young people to be mentored and understand
that there are careers for them here in this city,
then we will do better in our own pipeline. And
so there comes Cincinnati Collaborative and where our big emphasis
(00:53):
is on the collaboration. Our youth are looking for those
safe and trusted adults people to lean in into their
lives and understand where they are and how they can
grow and prosper. And so we heavily focus on education,
employment and enlistment. And then this year we really started
to think about entrepreneurship because a lot of our young people,
now we're in this age of influencers right, are becoming
entrepreneurs significantly younger. For me, I got involved in two
(01:15):
thousand and eight. So I went to eight and high
school here and so I got involved. I got a mentor,
and then this same exact gala that we're having, the
Dreammakers Gala, I won that award in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, so the Queen returns.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, how fun is that. There's a lot to unpack there.
So we're gonna start kind of picking away at what
you said. So basically, for those that are over maybe forty, Yeah,
you know, mentors were really pushed as we were younger.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
There was always talk of it in school.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
There was always talk of it, especially when you first
get into the workplace, you need to find a mentor. Yeah,
that's not the culture anymore. And you were telling me
earlier about the fact that so many young people today
that are in high school don't have a trusted adult
that they can name that will help them find their
way through school and post secondary education. Kids just don't
(02:08):
have anybody they can talk to her trust, so tell
me how she why she wants to fill that.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
So we have two really big programs that people know
about in the city Saturday Hoops. So a lot of
people come to us because they'll realize like, hey, I
want to get involved, I'm not sure what I want
to do, and I want a mentor. But maybe they
don't have all the time in the world to do
one on one mentoring. We highly suggest people come to
Saturday Hoops. So typically every Saturday we are in four
neighborhoods in the city and then in the summer we
do them all at Ziggler Park and so we have
(02:35):
people come out and it was just basketball at first.
It was a way to bring kids together around sports.
And the group of people got together and said, I
don't play basketball, but I still want to help, and
so we opened a reading room, an art room, a
crafts room, we have a dance studio, like we have
people doing yoga and so it's kind of like bring
your talents to the young people and expose them to
the things that you love to do so that you
can mentor them in this atmosphere where it is safe.
(02:56):
We give them breakfast and lunch, We know their families.
They can come and have a good time for a
few hours with us on a Saturday.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And there's no cost, no cost to this student. We
take care of everything, and then you fundraised in order
to pay for that. And that's what we've got coming
up with the dream Makers. You got a mentor, and
how did your mentor affect you and change your thought
process of who you are and what you wanted to
do and change your trajectory.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
So a fun fact, I wanted to be a corner
when I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
It's probably a very weird thing to say a corner.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Corner.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Doctor Odell Owens Guy restiss So was one of the
mentors that I was allowed to have, and he was phenomenal.
But he told me like you're a little too bubbly,
do want to be a corner? No one's going to
talk to you. And he's great, and so I would
say our past cross again in another job that he had.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
But I was able to get this mentor from Ge.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
So back then GE adopted schools and so I was
in a science and engineering program.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
It was the first time I'd.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Ever met a woman engineer, and I was like, this
is awesome for you fifteen and I was like, oh
my god, this is amazing, Like women can be engineer.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I had never seen it before.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
And she actually got me connected with a science program
at Xavier and so I still work in a science
lab as a teenager, which is kind of how I
connected with doctor O'Dell owens, and he's like, you're brilliant
in science.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I just don't think you want to be a doctor. Sure,
but at corner.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
But then as life, I grew up and I went
to Miami of Ohio, and so CYC helped me get
into college. I moved to China, and I came back
and decided I want to be a college president, which
doctor odell Owens.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Was a college I don't so our past crossed again,
but I think too.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Just seeing people have these multiple careers, multiple things that
they're good at, right it was not one thing they
were good at, multiple things really helped me see as
a young person growing up in this city, I can
be anything I truly want to be, and I can
go explore the world and to see what comes and
so that's what I've been able to do, so I'm
trying to.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Give that back to the young people today.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
The program starts at what ages and work in students
in Cincinnati Public Access.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
So we're in Cincinnati public schools, and we do start
in elementary, so we have some elementary school programs, but
we're going for that fifth seventh grade, and we're really
trying to get them in high school because that's where
we find that.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
The most young people don't actually have hope.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
So it's actually one of our key pillars now in
CYC is to instill hope back into our young people
that they can achieve whatever dream they set forth. And
so we don't define success for them. We asked them
what success looks like, and then we make sure they
have the trusted adult they need to be able to
get there.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
You have any interesting stories of youth that you've helped
out that kind of come to mind?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It like one in particular. Yeah, I was just like,
oh my gosh, this is such a great story.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
So funny enough the mentor that I had, it's kind
of like when you mentor, you mentor an entire family.
You don't always realize that you're going to mentor an
entire family.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
But I had a young lady in middle school.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
She was at AGM because I wanted to go back
to the same high school that I came from. She
was also interested in the medical field, and so I
was like, Okay, I didn't actually take the medical route,
but I can totally help you get there, and just
watching her grow and bloom and understanding that as we
get deeper into it's similar to what doctor O'Dell wanen's
there for me.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
As I saw her creativity thrive, I was like.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
I don't think you want the metal I think the
metal feel sounds like a lucrative job. I don't think
it's going to be something you're going to love, are
you okay if I expose you to other options? And
her entire family was like, absolutely right. They were behind her.
But she was like, she's more of a creative person,
Like she can do anything with her hands. She can knitch,
she can sew, she can do hair, like she's just
very creative. And I said, those ways can be those
(06:18):
passions can turn into careers for you. And so she
ended up kind of giving up the science route because
she was like, I don't love. I can do it,
but I don't love it.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
You don't want to go into science if you don't love,
you don't want to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
If you don't love, student loans till you're old.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Yeah, and so she kind of took her bline and
went into the hair industry, and funny enough, her sister
is now my mentee.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Oh yeah, almost fifteen years later her sister.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
The hair industry is amazing because everybody has to get
their hair done. And so that's a great that's a
great career to be involved in, and it can be
very lucrative, especially if you're in a high end salon
if you just joined us. I'm speaking with Ashley Duboan.
She is with Skanska USA. It is a construction firm. Yeah,
(07:03):
and tell me how your role from your high school
through the collaborative got you to this construction firm And
how is now your company supporting the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
So, growing up in Cincinnati Public, I went to Miami
of Ohio. I actually went over to China to go
teach English. I took a very small pit stop in
Katar because I thought I would stay there. And this
is while they were building the FIFA stadium that is
there now. So this is many years ago.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I came back, went to New York, got a master's
and then went to Texas for years, and as the
pandemic shut down, it brought me back home. And so
I've always been a person to I can talk to anybody,
like my dad would always say a rock could be
her best friend, Like I will talk to anyone.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I just love it.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
But when I got back here after the pandemic, I
realized that if we don't start making true impact, we're
going to lose a lot of the young people. Right,
we didn't have a pandemic to go through, we had
other life crisis, but the pandemic is really going to
be hard on them. And so I started working in
education again but from a very different lens for the
Kentucky Department of Education, and I got tapped to go
work at the Chamber, and then after that I got
tapped to come working construction.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
It was essentially, we need you in.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
This field because we know that you will help us
make the difference in the impact. And so when I
came over to work in construction, I said, I've been
heavily involved in CYC and it's really near and did
in my heart will you all continue to support me
in this?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And they said one.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So they decided to back the organization because you personally
advocated yep for them to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
And that's a part of their work model.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
That's our culture yep. So in our company, if you
care about it, we care about it. And so they
will say, if you put in your time, talent and treasure,
then we will try to match that. And so they've
been able to sponsor this event now for the last
few years because I've been involved in the organization.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And didn't you say before that they just built the
Butler Aviation Place out there.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
In Butler Tech.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah. Yeah, Butler Tech.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Has a brand new, humongous, it's beautiful hanger and classrooms for.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
High school students.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It was just amazing start now in their sophomore year
to get into the aviation industry, anything from flying to maintenance,
to know other side portions of the of the career field.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
They can learn about that.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And your company actually built that, built it up.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
It was awesome, such a beautiful party. I would encourage
everyone to go see it. But it is absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
So if you got a kid it's in Butler County
that wants to get involved in aviation. You can contact
Butler Tech if you are in Cincinnati Public school system.
And also Mount.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Moult Healthy, North College, him Nor College Chill.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So those two schools as well are involved in the
Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. So let's talk about your crown back
in the day when you won the dream Makers.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
It's called the Outstanding Student Award.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Tell me about that this is coming up in April
and you and your co chair Claire are putting this
together this year. And tell me about what's going to
happen there, who's invited, yes, and where is it?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And tell us why it's important.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Okay, April twenty third, that is a Thursday five point
thirty is when the doors open in thirties when we're
going to actually hit back that valet line and go
back home. But this dream Maker's Gala is our biggest
fundraiser of the years, the one we really put our
emphasis on. Because we highlight our students, we also highlight
two people who get into what we call the Hall
of Fame. And so this year's doctor Blaylock, who is
the superintendent of North College CEO and Chuck Ackerman, who
(10:18):
has raised over seven hundred thousand dollars for us in
our golf outing, so he's been involved with us for years,
and so we're inducting these amazing people.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But we really wanted to change it just a little bit.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
If you know Claire, she is student focused at all times,
and because I was a student, we were talking and
I said, what if we make it more student focus,
more student led. Typically all of the adults get up
and we host the formal gala. Well, we've decided we
want to move away from that model. If we're talking
about young people, we want to empower them to be
the best that they can be. So they're actually going
to help us lead this entire gala. So you will
(10:49):
see them during that auction. You will see them through
what we call the garden pool. They'll be walking around
taking you to your table. You're going to see all
of our amazing young people and their various talents because
this is a about them. We're also going to honor
for outstanding students this year, and so we're going to
give them their scholarship so they can go to school
and not have to worry about something whatever. That scholarship
money can take care of, but our biggest thing is
(11:09):
making sure that we highlight those students because without them,
the organization wouldn't exist. And they really are amazing, like
they are doing some phenomenal things.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And overcoming some phenomenal problems.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yes, absolutely that you can.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Actually show them the light at the end of the
tunnel and they say, hey, we can get around that,
we can figure that out.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
We can help you.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So if if you have a business, you want to
be a part of this, you want to be a sponsor,
I'm sure you'll take some stop.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
We would love that. So we have If you want
to buy a table, you can buy a table. If
you just want to come have what we call the girls'
night out right, you can come and bring a couple
of your girlfriends and find out well them where it's
going to be because it's at the American Sign Museum,
which we did it there last year and it was phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
It's like so picturesque. You can take all these different
pictures and.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
It's bigger now than it was even a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
And it's if you like history, you kind of walk
around and go, oh, I didn't know that I didn't
know that and so that was me. But it is
a beautiful way, like the way we set it up
is also really beautiful and amazing. We have the photographer,
there's food, there's music, and again students are at the center.
So if you are interested, we would love to have
you join us Thursday, April twenty third. That will we
have five thirty doors open. We will have vla so
(12:18):
you just pull up and hand the keys off and
then come on in and hang out with us.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yes, it is a great time.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Do you have students, it's gonna be the valet drivers.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Now those tesla's there, you got I gotta get into
this century.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
How do we get your website?
Speaker 4 (12:36):
CYC youth dot org is where all the information will be.
If you go over to the events tab, you will
see dream Makers and that is already live and you
can buy tickets or you can buy tables and if
you would like to sponsor, Don Yelle's information is online.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So that's CYC youth dot org, Cincinnati Youth Collaborative.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Ashley, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
For being here, and are you going to be wearing
like the crown from the outstanding Student?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I think I think you should wear a crap.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I think you should have a clear talking me into it.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Now Claire, if you're listening right now, I want you
to get her a nice little crown and put her
little year on it. Please and uh and then that
way everybody can know that you're another one of the.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Great success stories from Cincinnati is Collaborator.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
It's going to be amazing. Please join us, Please join us.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
That wraps iHeart Cincy for this week.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
If you've got a comment, suggestion, or question, just shoot
me an email to iHeart Cincy with an I at
iHeartMedia dot com. We'll see you back here next week.
I'm Sandy Collins. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
iHeart Cincy is a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati.
Welcome back. This is iHeart Sincy.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Today's special guests talking about mentoring young people here in
Tri State through the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative with Ashley Dubois.
She's a manager with Skanska USA Building, which is one
of the big sponsors of this collaborative.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
She going to be in here since our Youth Collaborative
has been around for some thirty some years. But for
people that don't know what it is, you want to
give a little background on that and a little background
on how you came to it.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yeah, absolutely, So we have been in existence a little
bit over thirty years. It came together as some of
our ironically, some of the P and G executives realized
that we were going to have a work for shortage
years ago, and so their biggest thing was if we
can get more young people to be mentored and understand
that there are careers for them here in this city,
then we will do better in our own pipeline. And
so there comes Cincinnati Collaborative and where our big emphasis
(00:53):
is on the collaboration. Our youth are looking for those
safe and trusted adults people to lean in into their
lives and understand where they are and how they can
grow and prosper. And so we heavily focus on education,
employment and enlistment. And then this year we really started
to think about entrepreneurship because a lot of our young people,
now we're in this age of influencers right, are becoming
entrepreneurs significantly younger. For me, I got involved in two
(01:15):
thousand and eight. So I went to eight and high
school here and so I got involved. I got a mentor,
and then this same exact gala that we're having, the
Dreammakers Gala, I won that award in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, so the Queen returns.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, how fun is that. There's a lot to unpack there.
So we're gonna start kind of picking away at what
you said. So basically, for those that are over maybe forty, Yeah,
you know, mentors were really pushed as we were younger.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
There was always talk of it in school.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
There was always talk of it, especially when you first
get into the workplace, you need to find a mentor. Yeah,
that's not the culture anymore. And you were telling me
earlier about the fact that so many young people today
that are in high school don't have a trusted adult
that they can name that will help them find their
way through school and post secondary education. Kids just don't
(02:08):
have anybody they can talk to her trust, so tell
me how she why she wants to fill that.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
So we have two really big programs that people know
about in the city Saturday Hoops. So a lot of
people come to us because they'll realize like, hey, I
want to get involved, I'm not sure what I want
to do, and I want a mentor. But maybe they
don't have all the time in the world to do
one on one mentoring. We highly suggest people come to
Saturday Hoops. So typically every Saturday we are in four
neighborhoods in the city and then in the summer we
do them all at Ziggler Park and so we have
(02:35):
people come out and it was just basketball at first.
It was a way to bring kids together around sports.
And the group of people got together and said, I
don't play basketball, but I still want to help, and
so we opened a reading room, an art room, a
crafts room, we have a dance studio, like we have
people doing yoga and so it's kind of like bring
your talents to the young people and expose them to
the things that you love to do so that you
can mentor them in this atmosphere where it is safe.
(02:56):
We give them breakfast and lunch, We know their families.
They can come and have a good time for a
few hours with us on a Saturday.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And there's no cost, no cost to this student. We
take care of everything, and then you fundraised in order
to pay for that. And that's what we've got coming
up with the dream Makers. You got a mentor, and
how did your mentor affect you and change your thought
process of who you are and what you wanted to
do and change your trajectory.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
So a fun fact, I wanted to be a corner
when I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
It's probably a very weird thing to say a corner.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Corner.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Doctor Odell Owens Guy restiss So was one of the
mentors that I was allowed to have, and he was phenomenal.
But he told me like you're a little too bubbly,
do want to be a corner? No one's going to
talk to you. And he's great, and so I would
say our past cross again in another job that he had.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
But I was able to get this mentor from Ge.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
So back then GE adopted schools and so I was
in a science and engineering program.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
It was the first time I'd.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Ever met a woman engineer, and I was like, this
is awesome for you fifteen and I was like, oh
my god, this is amazing, Like women can be engineer.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I had never seen it before.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
And she actually got me connected with a science program
at Xavier and so I still work in a science
lab as a teenager, which is kind of how I
connected with doctor O'Dell owens, and he's like, you're brilliant
in science.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I just don't think you want to be a doctor. Sure,
but at corner.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
But then as life, I grew up and I went
to Miami of Ohio, and so CYC helped me get
into college. I moved to China, and I came back
and decided I want to be a college president, which
doctor odell Owens.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Was a college I don't so our past crossed again,
but I think too.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Just seeing people have these multiple careers, multiple things that
they're good at, right it was not one thing they
were good at, multiple things really helped me see as
a young person growing up in this city, I can
be anything I truly want to be, and I can
go explore the world and to see what comes and
so that's what I've been able to do, so I'm
trying to.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Give that back to the young people today.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
The program starts at what ages and work in students
in Cincinnati Public Access.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
So we're in Cincinnati public schools, and we do start
in elementary, so we have some elementary school programs, but
we're going for that fifth seventh grade, and we're really
trying to get them in high school because that's where
we find that.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
The most young people don't actually have hope.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
So it's actually one of our key pillars now in
CYC is to instill hope back into our young people
that they can achieve whatever dream they set forth. And
so we don't define success for them. We asked them
what success looks like, and then we make sure they
have the trusted adult they need to be able to
get there.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
You have any interesting stories of youth that you've helped
out that kind of come to mind?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It like one in particular. Yeah, I was just like,
oh my gosh, this is such a great story.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
So funny enough the mentor that I had, it's kind
of like when you mentor, you mentor an entire family.
You don't always realize that you're going to mentor an
entire family.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
But I had a young lady in middle school.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
She was at AGM because I wanted to go back
to the same high school that I came from. She
was also interested in the medical field, and so I
was like, Okay, I didn't actually take the medical route,
but I can totally help you get there, and just
watching her grow and bloom and understanding that as we
get deeper into it's similar to what doctor O'Dell wanen's
there for me.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
As I saw her creativity thrive, I was like.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
I don't think you want the metal I think the
metal feel sounds like a lucrative job. I don't think
it's going to be something you're going to love, are
you okay if I expose you to other options? And
her entire family was like, absolutely right. They were behind her.
But she was like, she's more of a creative person,
Like she can do anything with her hands. She can knitch,
she can sew, she can do hair, like she's just
very creative. And I said, those ways can be those
(06:18):
passions can turn into careers for you. And so she
ended up kind of giving up the science route because
she was like, I don't love. I can do it,
but I don't love it.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
You don't want to go into science if you don't love,
you don't want to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
If you don't love, student loans till you're old.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Yeah, and so she kind of took her bline and
went into the hair industry, and funny enough, her sister
is now my mentee.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Oh yeah, almost fifteen years later her sister.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
The hair industry is amazing because everybody has to get
their hair done. And so that's a great that's a
great career to be involved in, and it can be
very lucrative, especially if you're in a high end salon
if you just joined us. I'm speaking with Ashley Duboan.
She is with Skanska USA. It is a construction firm. Yeah,
(07:03):
and tell me how your role from your high school
through the collaborative got you to this construction firm And
how is now your company supporting the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
So, growing up in Cincinnati Public, I went to Miami
of Ohio. I actually went over to China to go
teach English. I took a very small pit stop in
Katar because I thought I would stay there. And this
is while they were building the FIFA stadium that is
there now. So this is many years ago.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I came back, went to New York, got a master's
and then went to Texas for years, and as the
pandemic shut down, it brought me back home. And so
I've always been a person to I can talk to anybody,
like my dad would always say a rock could be
her best friend, Like I will talk to anyone.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I just love it.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
But when I got back here after the pandemic, I
realized that if we don't start making true impact, we're
going to lose a lot of the young people. Right,
we didn't have a pandemic to go through, we had
other life crisis, but the pandemic is really going to
be hard on them. And so I started working in
education again but from a very different lens for the
Kentucky Department of Education, and I got tapped to go
work at the Chamber, and then after that I got
tapped to come working construction.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
It was essentially, we need you in.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
This field because we know that you will help us
make the difference in the impact. And so when I
came over to work in construction, I said, I've been
heavily involved in CYC and it's really near and did
in my heart will you all continue to support me
in this?
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And they said one.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So they decided to back the organization because you personally
advocated yep for them to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
And that's a part of their work model.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
That's our culture yep. So in our company, if you
care about it, we care about it. And so they
will say, if you put in your time, talent and treasure,
then we will try to match that. And so they've
been able to sponsor this event now for the last
few years because I've been involved in the organization.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And didn't you say before that they just built the
Butler Aviation Place out there.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
In Butler Tech.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah. Yeah, Butler Tech.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Has a brand new, humongous, it's beautiful hanger and classrooms for.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
High school students.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It was just amazing start now in their sophomore year
to get into the aviation industry, anything from flying to maintenance,
to know other side portions of the of the career field.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
They can learn about that.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And your company actually built that, built it up.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
It was awesome, such a beautiful party. I would encourage
everyone to go see it. But it is absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
So if you got a kid it's in Butler County
that wants to get involved in aviation. You can contact
Butler Tech if you are in Cincinnati Public school system.
And also Mount.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Moult Healthy, North College, him Nor College Chill.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
So those two schools as well are involved in the
Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. So let's talk about your crown back
in the day when you won the dream Makers.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
It's called the Outstanding Student Award.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Tell me about that this is coming up in April
and you and your co chair Claire are putting this
together this year. And tell me about what's going to
happen there, who's invited, yes, and where is it?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And tell us why it's important.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Okay, April twenty third, that is a Thursday five point
thirty is when the doors open in thirties when we're
going to actually hit back that valet line and go
back home. But this dream Maker's Gala is our biggest
fundraiser of the years, the one we really put our
emphasis on. Because we highlight our students, we also highlight
two people who get into what we call the Hall
of Fame. And so this year's doctor Blaylock, who is
the superintendent of North College CEO and Chuck Ackerman, who
(10:18):
has raised over seven hundred thousand dollars for us in
our golf outing, so he's been involved with us for years,
and so we're inducting these amazing people.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But we really wanted to change it just a little bit.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
If you know Claire, she is student focused at all times,
and because I was a student, we were talking and
I said, what if we make it more student focus,
more student led. Typically all of the adults get up
and we host the formal gala. Well, we've decided we
want to move away from that model. If we're talking
about young people, we want to empower them to be
the best that they can be. So they're actually going
to help us lead this entire gala. So you will
(10:49):
see them during that auction. You will see them through
what we call the garden pool. They'll be walking around
taking you to your table. You're going to see all
of our amazing young people and their various talents because
this is a about them. We're also going to honor
for outstanding students this year, and so we're going to
give them their scholarship so they can go to school
and not have to worry about something whatever. That scholarship
money can take care of, but our biggest thing is
(11:09):
making sure that we highlight those students because without them,
the organization wouldn't exist. And they really are amazing, like
they are doing some phenomenal things.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And overcoming some phenomenal problems.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yes, absolutely that you can.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Actually show them the light at the end of the
tunnel and they say, hey, we can get around that,
we can figure that out.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
We can help you.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So if if you have a business, you want to
be a part of this, you want to be a sponsor,
I'm sure you'll take some stop.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
We would love that. So we have If you want
to buy a table, you can buy a table. If
you just want to come have what we call the girls'
night out right, you can come and bring a couple
of your girlfriends and find out well them where it's
going to be because it's at the American Sign Museum,
which we did it there last year and it was phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
It's like so picturesque. You can take all these different
pictures and.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
It's bigger now than it was even a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
And it's if you like history, you kind of walk
around and go, oh, I didn't know that I didn't
know that and so that was me. But it is
a beautiful way, like the way we set it up
is also really beautiful and amazing. We have the photographer,
there's food, there's music, and again students are at the center.
So if you are interested, we would love to have
you join us Thursday, April twenty third. That will we
have five thirty doors open. We will have vla so
(12:18):
you just pull up and hand the keys off and
then come on in and hang out with us.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yes, it is a great time.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Do you have students, it's gonna be the valet drivers.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Now those tesla's there, you got I gotta get into
this century.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
How do we get your website?
Speaker 4 (12:36):
CYC youth dot org is where all the information will be.
If you go over to the events tab, you will
see dream Makers and that is already live and you
can buy tickets or you can buy tables and if
you would like to sponsor, Don Yelle's information is online.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
So that's CYC youth dot org, Cincinnati Youth Collaborative.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Ashley, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
For being here, and are you going to be wearing
like the crown from the outstanding Student?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I think I think you should wear a crap.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I think you should have a clear talking me into it.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Now Claire, if you're listening right now, I want you
to get her a nice little crown and put her
little year on it. Please and uh and then that
way everybody can know that you're another one of the.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Great success stories from Cincinnati is Collaborator.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
It's going to be amazing. Please join us, Please join us.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
That wraps iHeart Cincy for this week.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
If you've got a comment, suggestion, or question, just shoot
me an email to iHeart Cincy with an I at
iHeartMedia dot com. We'll see you back here next week.
I'm Sandy Collins. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
iHeart Cincy is a production of iHeartMedia Cincinnati.
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