Bridging Education and Industry: The Tomorrow’s Talent Revolution

The traditional school-to-career pipeline is broken—but Tomorrow’s Talent is changing that in Southern California. Today, Erin sits down with Tomorrow's Talent Founder and Visionary, Dr. Dale Marsden and Ginger Ontiveros, CEO of Tomorrow’s Talent, to explore how they’re reshaping the future of workforce development.

Under Dr. Marsden’s leadership, SBCUSD achieved a historic transformation—boosting graduation rates to 90% and creating 53 career pathways. Now, through Tomorrow’s Talent, he and Ginger are forging game-changing connections between students and the industries of the future, from high-tech manufacturing to cybersecurity and beyond.

Don’t miss this conversation about revolutionizing education, closing the skills gap, and empowering students for success in the workforce of tomorrow!

Send us comments and thoughts.

Episode Transcript

Erin Brinker (00:00):
Erin, welcome to the making hope happen radio

(00:08):
show. I'm Erin Brinker, todaywe're talking about some
incredible things happening inyouth workforce development with
two guests from tomorrow'stalent, Dr Dale Marsden and
ginger Ontiveros, how we work ischanging faster than at any time
in history and tomorrow's talentis connecting education with
employers and providing a directbridge for young people entering

(00:30):
the job market. Before we getstarted, I wanted to say what
I'm grateful for, for those ofyou listening on podcasts, you
may not know that this show airson two radio stations in inland,
Southern California, X, 95.7 FMand kql H, 92.5 FM at nine and
10am respectively on Sundays. Inthe uplifting spirit of an easy

(00:53):
Sunday morning, I want to talkabout gratitude, and I do this
almost every week. Today, I'mgrateful for independent media
and local news. Both of thestations I mentioned are non
profit and independent. X 95.7carries local news and features
all local talent. In the age ofcorporate media empires,
independent news providers arecritically important for

(01:15):
community cohesion and reportingbeyond gossip on social media
and y'all know what I'm talkingabout on all of the platforms.
So support that local media buythings from their sponsors and
from their advertisers,depending if they're for profit
or nonprofit, and share readthose newspapers, those weekly
newspapers, especially, read,you know, everything that you

(01:37):
can from local news providers,because we need them in our
community. We need them in ourcountry to ensure that we're
getting well, we're hearingpeople's real voices. So with
that, onto our guest, well, I amabsolutely thrilled to welcome
back to the show two people whohave been on before and have
made such a dramatic impact inour region. Dr Dale Marsden is
the founder and visionary fortomorrow's talent. Ginger

(02:00):
Ontiveros is the CEO ofTomorrow's Talent and the former
CEO of the Making Hope HappenFoundation. Both of them are
making a tremendous impact onthe workforce landscape in our
region, the entire region. DaleMarston and ginger on taveros,
welcome to the show. Thank you.
So tell us about kind of whattomorrow's talent is, how you

(02:21):
got started and and what theleading up to this point where
you've been and Dale Marsden,I'm going to kick this

Dr. Dale Marsden (02:30):
to you sure, you bet so. I think much of our
foundation was built on thesuccess of a wonderful team, you
know, school board, cabinet andboard one and superintendent,
when you can work together inharmony, you can get some real
things done and built well. Andwe took one of California's
lowest performing large urbansystems and transformed it in

(02:50):
one of the state's largest oneof the state's largest and most
successful school districts, ourgraduate grew from 66.8% to 93.6
that's incredible, passingstate, national county averages.
So you know, growing thatgraduation rate, but then also
preparing kids. I sat on theCounty Workforce Board for about
a decade and looking at highgrowth, high demand, high wage

(03:14):
industry sector careers, and sowe we really worked hard to
build what we call wall to wallpathways from K 12 and grew
those pathways from five to 55,pathways ultimately, kind of
accumulating, ultimatelyculminating on an event called

(03:34):
Generation go, where we hadstudents and job alike paid
internships with the County ofSan Bernardino as an employer.
So, for example, students whowere in cohones medical pathway
would would go to a paidinternship with Arrowhead
Regional Medical Center. Andthen students who were, say, in
Pacific High Schools dieselprogram, which is second to

(03:57):
none, by the way, in the state,they would, they would then go
into the county's fleet vehicleservice center and have these
build these wonderfulrelationships with folks that
are in our community with greatpaying jobs. You know, 90% of
these county employees willdrive in and drive out every
day. And our goal is to reallytry to find ways to help

(04:17):
students stay and help help thatlocal, talent state. So as I
left the superintendency in 2020founded tomorrow's talent with
kind of the same idea and goaland foundation. Foundational to
that was the 2020 US Chamber ofCommerce report on the future of
talent finance. It said, look,the future is employers and
education system leaders need towork together, and we highly

(04:41):
recommend you working withintermediaries who can help
bridge that gap. And that's whattomorrow's talent is. We are
this intermediary. We servemultiple counties in Southern
California and just continuingto grow in our impact and
helping young adults find andidentify their passion. And
connect them to real worldexperiences with employers,

(05:05):
ranging from micro internshipsthat are short experiences, to
tomorrow, for example, going ona pathfinder day where hundreds
of students will get to see whatdozens of employers do and and
get a behind the scenes look inreal world activities, all the
way to internships andapprenticeships, registered
competency based apprenticeshipsand anything from water
operations to cyber security,we're agnostic to kind of the

(05:27):
career space. So that's whattomorrow's talent does. That was
kind of the short version of howwe were we were designed.

Erin Brinker (05:34):
So this was, I remember, a meeting that we
gathering of excellence, I thinkis what it's called. And you had
people who had been connectedwith the Swiss model. And this
is actually a model that you seethroughout Europe where students
actually start theirapprenticeships at 16. So they
go to school, they finish at 16,and then they have a structured
apprenticeship program. And thatwas kind of the model. So my

(05:58):
host brother in Austria allthose years ago was a
Goldsmith's apprentice when Iwas staying with his family, and
today he's a master goldsmith.
And that was, you know, allkinds of different pathways. Now
we don't do that in the US forlots of different reasons, but
the model is very interesting toget to get young people
connected with careers whenthey're kind of making a
decision about who they are. Canyou talk about that a little
bit? Yeah,

Unknown (06:19):
you're right. Erin, I mean, most of the developed
world has students engaged insome way in the real world by
age 16, whether it'sprofessional trades or
professional fields, you know,doctors, lawyers, you name it.
We don't do that so well inAmerica. You're right. I mean,
the last look atapprenticeships. And you know,

(06:39):
our governor has a big goal of500,000 apprenticeships by 2029
but the last look, there weremaybe, maybe a dozen students
that were under the age of 18involved in

Erin Brinker (06:49):
apprenticeships.
Oh, wow, throughout the entirestate. That's crazy,

Dr. Dale Marsden (06:52):
right? So the youth apprenticeship really has
a lot of work to do to get ouryoung people engaged in these
experiences. And so yeah, that'swhat we're trying to build, is
this mindset around youth,talent pipeline development, and
really, at the end of the day,it's a it's a return on
investment and a cost benefiteffort for employers to pay

(07:17):
attention to these kinds ofspaces. So yeah, that's that's
working on. So

Erin Brinker (07:22):
I understand that the reason why we kind of moved
out of the vocational ed thatused to be really common in the
60s and 70s and even the 80s,you had wood shop and auto shop
and all the different, you know,vocational programs in high
schools. But there were peoplewere tracked into those, into
those roles. Oh, you'll never becollege material here go be a
whatever, a woodworker or acarpenter rather, or whatever,

(07:45):
and and that that,unfortunately, was often based
on socio economic, socioeconomics or or racial lines
that people were tracked. Andthis is, this is very different
from the model that you're thatyou are envisioning, and that
you are working hard to put intoplace kind of talk about that
difference.

Unknown (08:03):
Yeah, right on Erin, you're right. So, so in the, you
know, some of the Europeanmodels, you are tracked, and you
would be on a maybe a tradestrack or a college track, the
Switzerland model, which waswhat was nice and attractive
about that model. And that's whywe, we showcase that with former
US ambassador to Switzerland,Susan Levine, came and spoke to
our community some time ago. Andyou know, the reason we like

(08:26):
that is it's permeable. So youcan, you can start out on a
trade track and then end up in acollege kind of space, or vice
versa. So having thosepermanent, permeable
opportunities are reallyimportant. And you brought up
another important point, istrades used to be. And what
we're hearing a lot fromemployers is, you know, Boy, I
wish they'd bring trades back,and I, I'm here to tell you
trades are alive and well in ourstate and in our high schools,

(08:50):
what we see now is not just, youknow, CNC machinery, but
advanced manufacturing at thehighest levels of
sophistication. Some of theshops that we've seen in on high
school campuses are second tonone, and sometimes even better
than what's available in theindustry standards,
transportation, electrification.
I mean, any person involved inautomotive work should take a

(09:12):
walk into Pacific High School,and you're going to see state of
the art types of experiencesthat students are getting
engaged in and leaving highschool with the highest levels
of certification to get startedand step right into the
workforce. I know ginger willspend some time talking about
this. You know, a lot of theemployers now are, you know,
really hungry for competent,entry level talent, and yet a

(09:36):
number of those jobs are goingaway, and that's something that
that we need to give giveattention to. So

Erin Brinker (09:44):
thank you for that perfect transition and ginger.
I'm, I'm curious about what iscalled entry level talent. What
does that look like? Because,you know, there's so many things
that are being replaced. Youknow, instead of flipping
burgers, they have machines whocan do it, for example, and
everybody. How many people?
Their first job was McDonald'sor something like that, and
there seems to be fewer of thoseworkers. It seems to be that

(10:04):
everybody who has what used tobe an entry level job wants
experience. Well, how do you getexperience if you can't get that
entry level job? So I know yousee this every day. Ginger, talk
about that issue.

Ginger Ontiveros (10:16):
Yeah. Erin, thanks. It's it really is a big
challenge, the gap betweenschool and employment or work is
getting bigger, not smaller,because a lot of the traditional
places where young people wereable to practice or learn how to
be employed are going away. So,you know, they don't have there

(10:37):
are no paper routes for youngpeople anymore. You don't you
place your order at a kiosk atMcDonald's instead of to a
person behind the counter mostoften. So a lot of these, these
experiences that students usedto be able to have as entry
level jobs, where they couldlearn the skills of being
employed, and that's differentthan the technical skills

(10:57):
they're learning in school, aredisappearing from society. In
fact, about 35% of entry leveljobs today require three years
of experience. So how does thatwork? Yeah, I know right. How do
you how do you get experience inan entry level job, if there, if
it requires experience to get itright? So, so what's happening,

(11:19):
though, is employers are sayingthe entry level to my company
requires three years ofexperience, which essentially
means they're cannibalizing theworkforce in their own
industries, which drives upwages and further then,
increases the expectation ofwhat that entry level employee
would be able to do, wideningthe gap between where young

(11:39):
People are coming out of reallyhigh quality education programs,
and what that entry level roleor expectation is. I was talking
with Dale some time ago. I said,kids today have to be Evil
Knievel to get from school inorder and land safely in a
workplace, right?

Erin Brinker (11:56):
Yes, and Evil Knievel didn't always land
safely. Go. There you go. Yes.

Ginger Ontiveros (12:01):
So, so we, you know, we really believe that
these work based learningexperiences, well structured
ones, internships,apprenticeships, are the answer
to this. Today, a lot of entrylevel jobs also are being
replaced with technology, as wetalked about, or AI, for
example. So they're changing,like the skills that that young

(12:24):
people need when they go intothe workplace are different in
some cases, than they werebefore. So entry level now might
be reviewing AI content asopposed to writing and
researching it yourself, right?

Erin Brinker (12:38):
So as an example, yeah, and I, and I've seen how
many people with bachelor's ormaster's degrees find themselves
working in the service industry,if they are at Starbucks, or
they're, you know, working atand retail or another kind of
position, so that the people whoare who don't go to college for
whatever reason, are findingthem finding themselves facing
people who have gone to Collegeas their competition. And

(13:01):
there's this assumption that ifyou've gone to a four year
university, that you'reautomatically better, and that
is not always the case. Youknow, kind of what are you
seeing from your students onthat front?

Ginger Ontiveros (13:12):
Well, we find that about national statistics.
I don't have to say just what Ifind or what we find, right? But
the 35% of students who aregraduating with bachelor's
degrees are under and unemployedtoday. So and worse than that,
they're coming out with a youknow, often coming out of those
experiences with debt. So youknow, they're they're going to

(13:32):
college, they're getting theirdegree, they're doing what
everybody said was the rightthing to do. And yet, when they
graduate, those opportunitiesare just not available to them.
And yet they're saddled with thedebt that they have to pay, that
they have to repay. So it is areal crisis for the for the
workforce and the future of ourcountry, quite frankly. So yeah,

(13:55):
it's a huge challenge. So

Erin Brinker (13:57):
talk to me about the difference between an
internship and anapprenticeship. And I think that
people often with an internshipthink you're getting my coffee,
you're answering my phone,you're doing but that's not at
all what an internship is, or atleast it shouldn't be, and it
but an apprentice.
Apprenticeships are structured,so kind of talk about the
difference between the two. So

Ginger Ontiveros (14:17):
an internship is a short term, finite
experience, where there is notnecessarily an expectation that
employment would come on theother side of it, it's a it's a
way for an employer to maybeaudition, you might say that an
employee and it's A way for astudent to really just get

(14:42):
immersed in an environment to toreaffirm their desire for that
kind of career. So it's a testrun, if you will, an internship
is what I find. Is not so muchthat employers are asking, well,
they do this. Are asking. Getcoffee, or, you know, take out
the trash or what have you,which are not in and of

(15:05):
themselves, bad things, so, butwhat I find is that the
employers are creatingartificial experiences in the
name of internships. So, youknow, they they want to, they
feel like they have to entertainthe intern instead of providing
them with real work to do. Wereally believe that the schools

(15:28):
are doing a phenomenal job rightnow of creating mock
environments where students areable to practice being employed
in a artificial space. We don'tencourage employers to further
that by creating more artificialexperience for them, we'd
rather, from an internshipstandpoint, that they got to
actually practice beingemployed. So anything that you

(15:50):
would ask an entry levelemployee to do that is within
their skill set is the kind ofthing that an intern should be
doing while they're interning.
An apprenticeship, however, is astructured Erin and learn model
where a student who is enrolledin a training program in a
registered a registered trainingprogram, would take on a job

(16:13):
that allowed them to apply thecompetencies that they learned
in their training program andprove that they can do that
competency in a workplace. Thenfrom there, there may be a wage
progression after they do theirnext competent set of
competencies, to the point wherethey can become a full fledged

(16:35):
employee. The idea withapprenticeships, really is that
that you're hiring your nextemployee you're doing on the job
training in concert with theeducation or training
institution that's helping themto master the technical skills
that you want them to have asthey come into your workplace.
So that's like a studentteacher, but they get paid.
Well, yes, you can absolutelysay that it's exactly the kind

(16:57):
of thing that it is.

Erin Brinker (17:00):
So how long are apprenticeships? Do they and
forgive me if you said that andI missed it, but how long is
your average apprenticeship? Ordoes it do they vary

Ginger Ontiveros (17:08):
very anything from six months to four years,
depending upon the program. Butone of the things that Dale
talks about a lot, so I knowhe'll want to share that is
about churn that employers arestruggling with. You know, they
have a lot of turnover in entrylevel positions or in any of

(17:31):
their positions, and the theidea of an apprenticeship also
does help to increase theloyalty of that of that
employee. So if you see a lot ofentry level roles turning over
an apprenticeship might be areally good way for you to bring
in somebody who who's going tobe there with you for a while,
because they have to go throughtheir education program, and

(17:51):
then they have, generallyspeaking, more loyalty to you
because you invested in theirgrowth. So it's a great model
for addressing churn while alsodeveloping the future of the
workforce. Well,

Erin Brinker (18:03):
I have to imagine, and this is a question for Dr
Marsden, that there's areticence from employers to pour
so much energy into somebody youthink is going to be gone in a
heartbeat, you know, and thatyou think that they're that
they're, you know, because ittakes effort right to you have
to create, you have to to buildthe infrastructure to be able to
manage this person so they canlearn, although in an

(18:25):
apprenticeship, because they'rein there, in a school of sorts,
they're getting that, but ininternships, they're not. And so
kind of talk about that dynamic,

Dr. Dale Marsden (18:35):
yeah, I mean, I would say that first. Let me
just say that as ginger wasmentioned before the and this
really leads to the return oninvestment with employers. One
of the one of the strategicchallenges that I think we face
in this space is the engagementof employers. As ginger
mentioned, you know, your mostemployers want competent,

(18:55):
experienced, entry level talent,and then they're not finding
that competent entry leveltalent, and when they do, they
might be leaving, as you justdescribed Erin and that that's a
cost to the employer. And andGallup and Aspen Institute have
both done some deep dives onthis, and the cost to employers
general estimates are like, oneand a half to two times of their

(19:18):
annual salary leaves. And I so Iwas talking with one local
manufacturing employer recently.
They had 30 positions open intheir company in a year, and
they cycled through 300 people.
Oh my gosh, you think about thecosts to the employer. Now,
you're just you're just amachine. You know, you're hiring

(19:40):
people, you're training people,you're onboarding them, and then
all of a sudden they leave. Thatcost is is insurmountable for
for employers, if you're if yousit with a you know, have about
100 employees, you're looking atabout a million dollars in loss
of revenue. If you're not payingattention to this, in terms of
the cost. Costs of, you know,losing employees. And so, you

(20:04):
know, there's, there's lots ofreasons, in addition to hiring
talent young that can help anemployer. You know, culture,
obviously, is important. Peopledon't quit their their jobs.
They quit their bosses. Soculture is a big part of that.
But I would say probably one ofthe, you know, easy lifts for
employers is pay attention toyour talent pipeline

(20:26):
development. So by investing inthese early internships with
students, you're building yourtalent pipeline. You won't have
to worry about having a skilledworkforce coming in, and, by the
way, coming into your yourindustry, with the skills and
competencies that you need. Youknow, if you're an employer,
reaching back into the educationsystems, whether that's the
university, the communitycollege, or the K 12 level,

(20:48):
you're able to invest in, hey,here's the competencies I need
for students to leave with to besuccessful in my space. And one
of the challenges that that bothemployers and education systems
leaders are up against today iswith the advent, and the advent
of AI has accelerated thisexponentially. Is that the time,

(21:08):
the cycle time from newideation, you know, these are
new ideas, to getting them tomarket, is very short if you're
going to be successful. Thechallenge is, when we're taking
new ideas and trying to get themin front of our students, it
takes a minimum of two years forthese ideas to go through and

(21:31):
into curriculum development andget that curriculum approved by
community colleges, for example,or even the K 12 environment or
university environment takes athere's a long lag time to get
this information in front of ourstudents, and we're changing at
such a rapidly pace that botheducators and employers have to
pay attention to this space thatwe're in, because it's it's

(21:55):
accelerating and we're not ifwe're not watching it, we'll
quickly lose our position as theworld economic leader, and our
students will become more andmore disengaged, because they're
becoming smarter and seeingthrough the advent of AI that
they have tools now that can bethought partners with them, that

(22:17):
could help them take theirknowledge instantly to Another
level. So those are the kinds ofthings that both education
systems, leaders and employersare up against.

Erin Brinker (22:26):
So wouldn't this?
And this is, I can see thishappening on the nonprofit
sector, for example, because wedon't generally pay on this side
of things as well as the forprofit sector does. They will.
Kids will come in. I say youthwill come in, and they'll,
they'll work for us, and they'llwork really hard, and they'll
develop great skills, and theybounce because they can get paid
better somewhere else. And we soI've seen that that kind of

(22:49):
churn and and the impact on theorganization is it is high, I
mean, because you have to findthe next person, and you have to
train them up, and you have todevelop them, and, you know, and
so it is, it is difficult. AndI, I see it happening in real
time. I'm wondering, you know,if this because with the push
for everybody to go to a collegeor a university, students were

(23:11):
thinking about, you know, goingto the right schools by
somebody's definition, and anddoing the work, doing whatever
they thought they were supposedto be doing. But I I don't know
that they were being trueconsumers of education, being
able to weigh programs, oneagainst the other. I imagine
that this will change that,because it the more that they
learn how applicable theirskills will be when they're

(23:34):
done. You know, the more thatthey have information to be able
to make educated choices aboutwhere they go and what they do.
I think universities andcolleges are going to have to
adapt, because they're not goingto have the bodies there,
because people will find otheroptions.

Dr. Dale Marsden (23:48):
Yeah. Erin, you're right on I mean, there's
a big question mark over thevalue of a college degree.
Students 53 as ginger alluded toearlier, 53% of students leaving
college with a bachelor'sdegree, are under or unemployed,
and so I still believe, youknow, when Jeffrey Canada was

(24:08):
asked by a parent in hiscommunity you know, should,
should every kid go to college?
He said, If in doubt, do it richpeople's kids, do they all go to
college? And he's got a point,every kid you know should go to
college. But the question is, doyou go college to career or
career to college, and I'll giveyou a great example. David Rojas
comes from a fairly blue collarfamily out of COVID High School
auto. He's in the auto AutoProgram, and he saw himself as

(24:32):
going into the same space asmany of his family members did.
And we introduced him to wateroperations at a local East
Valley Water District, one ofour local water agencies, and he
just took off. He loved it tookthe certifications while he's in
high school at the communitycollege to go into water
operations one year out of highschool. He gets a priority

(24:53):
interview, because that's ouragreement with the employer, if
you work with us and we bringyou this high quality talent.
And prepare them. You give me,you know, give them a priority
interview. He gets the interviewlots of people in line, 100,
100, plus people in line forthis job. He gets the job one
year out of high school. He'spaid 57,600 him just several
months after that, he said, Youknow, I'm going to be earning

(25:17):
75,000 this year with overtime.
And he gets full benefits. Andhis employer, by the way, will
pay a portion of his college forwhen he's ready to promote to
other spaces. And David has thisin mind. I just talked to his
employer yesterday, and he'sstill continuing to accelerate
and do very well. He's a modelfor, you know what that looks so

(25:38):
you think about that as anemployer if you can invest now
in that young talent and andshare with that that person,
okay, maybe. And here's theadvantage to employer, right?
You're you're paying less thanentry level wages when they're
coming in as an intern orapprentice, and then once you
get them into your system,you're paying them more that
you're putting them on aprogressive, progressive wage

(25:59):
scale so they can, you know,earn a earn a living wage over
time. And so, you know, this isthe kind of art and science to
the work that we do. We help theemployer build their capacity
to, you know, take this work on,and we do the air traffic
control. We manage thoserelationships. We speak the
language of both the educationsystem and and the employee

(26:22):
employment system. And so we, wetry to bridge that, you know,
great divide that Gallup sharedwith us years ago. They when
they surveyed all you know, ourchief academic officer said, how
well you how well you do topreparing kids for the world of
work? And 96% of US educationleaders said, we're doing a
great job. And then they askedthe employers, how well or do?
How well are we doing? And theanswer was 11% so the device

(26:45):
there's got to be a conversationbetween both entities, and the
focus of the topics needs to beour young adult. And I'll just
put a footnote to this that manyagencies, US and abroad, central
CIA, et cetera. Use youthunemployment data as a predictor

(27:07):
for future pockets of socialunrest. So we think about this
if we're trying to build healthycommunities. So we talk a lot
about social emotional learningand supports in our schools. One
of the greatest social benefitsand emotional benefits we can
have is to make sure we havegainful living wage employment
for young adults as they'releaving our education systems,

(27:30):
and that hard wiring has to bedone with thought, with care, so
that it can occur in a way thatmakes sense in our country. I
think our country is capable ofit, but it's going to take a lot
of work. It

Erin Brinker (27:43):
requires a paradigm shift in the mind, the
minds of young people well andthe adults around them. And I, I
think the best thing that cameout of the the gentleman that
that went from high school tothe Advanced Manufacturing had
gone through your program, andforgive me, I don't recall his
name, but the best thing thathappened is that he now sees
that he's in control of hisfuture, right? So if you're in a

(28:04):
job where you can't see thatforward motion, you can't see
that upward trajectory, then youfeel hopeless, and it's just a
job, and you don't want to behere anymore. And I think I'm
out of here, but, but he's givena role where he clearly feels
like he has a strong impact onwhere his life goes, and he's
being compensated for his hardwork, compensated beyond money,
but compensated through upwardmobility and increased

(28:27):
responsibility, etc, etc. And Ithink that our kids are missing
that if you go to college,because your parents think you
should then, then you're not,not necessarily going to connect
the dots with how that really isimportant to

Dr. Dale Marsden (28:39):
you. Yeah, Erin, Erin, you're, you're right
on and you bring up a thoughtwhere, I remember walking
through commercial aviation inthe high desert. You know, it's
a, it's a shop that that owns,excuse me, they, they lease
aircraft airline companies.
Because most of your airlinesdon't own aircraft, they lease
them. So they lease, they storeand they maintain aircraft. It's

(29:01):
a very large corporation upthere on the old base. And I was
walking the shop, making a videoto share with other students and
folks about, you know what theydo there? And we had a few
students with us, a feweducators, and Craig Garrick,
the CEO at that time, he said tome, he said, Dale, the next time
you come and bring students tosee what we're doing, bring

(29:24):
their parents with them. And youknow, the point in that which I
think is very important for us,is parents need to understand
that, yes, college is important.
And every every kid, as I said,should go to college. The
question is, do they go tocollege and then career? Or do
they go to career first and thencollege? And because you want to

(29:48):
launch them, because the wholeaim of all of this at the end of
the day, the aim of college is acareer, right? Getting your feet
wet, getting experience, makingsure you love this. Before you
launch off is so important. Sothat's, that's what I think. You
know, parents have a huge rolein this. They're very

(30:08):
influential on their child'sfuture. And so by, by really
taking a pause moment andexamining the pathway the
students on. And I always askkids when they're going off to
college, I said, Well, what isit you want to do? And and they
say, I want to do, I want to bea lawyer turn or whatever. I
say, Well, have you internedwith a law office? Generally,
the answer is no. Said you needto call you need to get

(30:30):
interned. And I think that's,that's the space that we've got
to start moving in, because

Erin Brinker (30:34):
really, otherwise, you're swinging from a trapeze
in the dark. You're makingdecisions based on an idea that
may or may not have anygrounding in reality. So I think
that that's that is criticallyimportant. So let's talk about
kind of who is going into theseinternships and apprenticeships.
I know that there's especiallyin the trades where you use your
hands more, the construction andthat sort of trades you don't

(30:57):
see a lot of women. You know, isthere a desire to make make
these trades and make theseapprenticeships more diverse.
What are you seeing has is thelandscape changing? And I'm
going to ask this one of ginger,

Ginger Ontiveros (31:08):
so yes, I think there is a concerted
effort on the part of schools,especially, to really get more
women into non traditionalroles. But also, I will say, to
branch out into apprenticeshipmodels in non traditional
fields. So So we're definitelyseeing both of those things

(31:29):
happen where there are more andsome of those might be more
female based. So the directionis the other way. So we do see
that there's an interest in intrying to create more diversity
in the employment pool, and notjust gender diversity, but other
types as well. So you know,there definitely is that schools

(31:52):
are monitoring that and activelytrying to recruit different, you
know, groups of students toconsider careers. Because, let's
face it, most students,especially many students,
especially if they come fromdisenfranchised backgrounds,
don't have social capital to beaware of the variety of job
opportunities and the futuresthat they might provide for

(32:14):
them. I remember once havinghiring a young man who had
graduated, went to college, hegot a degree in business, and
graduated from with his businessdegree from Cal State, San
Bernardino and and he we wereadvertising for a job. He I had
to reach out to ask him, becauseI knew him, if he would apply
for the job. And when heapplied, I said, What are you

(32:37):
doing today with your degree?
And he said that he'd taken ajob in a warehouse that didn't
require a degree, one of those53% who were under underemployed
at the time. And I said, Why areyou doing that? If you have a if
you have a bachelor's degree?
And he said, because there areno other jobs. And it dawned on
me at that moment that youngpeople don't see what's not

(32:59):
around them, right? They don'tnecessarily see the
opportunities that aren'tplaying out in the lives of
people they know. So the careerexploration and the acts, the
experiences that we provide notonly open doors to their future,
but maybe open eyes to whattheir future might

Erin Brinker (33:17):
hold. So take me through the experience of a
young person, and maybe they'rea junior in high school, they
maybe they see a presentation,or see you all at an event, and
they want to go through thetomorrow's talent process. What
does that look like for him orher?

Ginger Ontiveros (33:33):
So I'll say that we should probably start
earlier than that. So wedefinitely believe that young
people need to have moreexposure to careers in the
younger grades Middle School,especially so we use a or
facilitate an experience througha program called you science. It

(33:54):
is a career assessment basicallythat matches your interests and
your aptitudes, developed by theowners or the developers of
WebMD, so it helps students toto find out what they're good at
and what they like and what theintersection of those are, so
they can start looking forcareers that match in those two

(34:15):
areas. Just provides them withsome additional information and
making a decision. But we wantthem to have that kind of
experience and exposure to avariety of careers before they
miss the opportunity to do thisfree and incredibly powerful
skills training that isavailable in the pathways at our
schools. You know, a lot ofemployers think that the schools

(34:39):
took all the shop classes out,and as Dale said, they're back
on steroids. I mean, our schoolsare doing some amazing things,
and our students are masteringskills and getting
certifications in high schoolthat are really preparing them
for the future. The last thingwe want them to do is career
exploration in college, becausethen they're paying for that
experience. So, so we help them,we help them to identify what

(35:04):
you know, where their passionrests, and get plugged into a
pathway. Then we come alongsidethe school, and we provide work
readiness training for studentsso that they understand the
difference between the cultureof school and the culture of
work. And they are two verydifferent environments that as
great a job as our schools aredoing to prepare those technical

(35:27):
skills, it's very hard for themto be able to also then teach
the soft skills and havestudents master those things
they need to hear it from anoutside voice sometimes. And so
we we equip and prepare thosestudents for experiences, and
then we start putting them infront of employers. There's a
number of different experiencesthat we we organize for

(35:49):
students, whether it is a masterclass where an employer comes
into the school and works with agroup of students, to a
collaborative learning project,to a micro internship where they
spend a half a day out in theworkplace, just meeting an
employer and doing somethinghands on to show that they know
what they're doing to theinternship and apprenticeship
that we talked about. In fact, Iknow we have another story about

(36:13):
a student who started in a microinternship and is now finishing
up an apprenticeship, workingtoward a full time job at a with
an employer. So pretty excitedabout what that process looks
like. And we do have a goodmulti step process for helping a

(36:33):
student get from, I don't know,have any idea what I want to do
to discovering their passion, tolanding in a career.

Erin Brinker (36:40):
You know, it strikes me that kids who grow up
with a lot of trauma or loss orchallenges, and if you're in a
low income community, there's alot of kids like that. They
think that they may know, likeeven thinking about being a
doctor or a chemist or, youknow, something that's higher
and more difficult, morechallenging. They think, I could

(37:00):
never do that. I'm not goodenough for that. That's not for
me. That's other people, even ifthey see doctors in their world,
because they go to the doctor,or, you know, people with high
levels of education, they thinkthat they're not they're not up
for that. Does? Does? Do youhelp? Do you? I'm sure you see
this with working with youryouth, and how do you overcome

(37:20):
that challenge?

Ginger Ontiveros (37:22):
We do a number of workshops as well that help
students with you know,resiliency and understanding
what their you know, what theirpassions are. It's really about
tapping into their passion,because if you're passionate
about it, you figure out. Youreally apply yourself and figure
that out, even with studentswho, you know, young people who
don't necessarily have that intheir background, we find that

(37:46):
that once we've given them, youknow, the Youth Science piece
really does help build thatconfidence, because it does test
their aptitude, too. So itreally does help with that. It's
an initial piece, but once theydo have that passion, and you
plug them into the right placeto start exploring that passion.
It kind of builds on its own.
These smaller experience, yeah,these smaller experiences then

(38:08):
also help to reinforce theirconfidence. So, yeah, it's a,
it's a combination of passionand confidence

Erin Brinker (38:17):
that is a that's very exciting. Now I know that
there's the typical school dayis pretty rigid in how you know
how it flows in a comprehensivehigh school, for example,
there's a lot of flexibility inthe continuation high school
space and the in San BernardinoCity, unified, which is the one
that I'm most familiar with.
There's a lot of innovativethings going on there. Are you

(38:38):
finding that partnering with themore innovative schools, whether
it's continuation high school,or maybe like entrepreneur High
School, which is a charterschool, etc, does that provide
some interesting opportunities,not to take away from the case,
the comprehensive high schoolsat all. But this is, you know, a
slightly different space.

Ginger Ontiveros (38:58):
Flexibility helps, you know, the flexibility
in the schedule helps, the thethe flexibility and the training
helps. But I can tell you thatthere hasn't been a school
leader that we've talked to thatdoesn't want to make internships
work. And so we're seeing somereally, really creative things
happen, not only in the charterspace, but also in the

(39:19):
traditional K 12 space. Youknow, yes, there are, you know,
some structural barriers thatcan get in the way, but people
are pretty motivated to workthrough those barriers and
figure out, how can we make timeavailable for young people to
participate in internships? Sohow can we get employers plugged
more into our school day. Wejust, we just did a phenomenal

(39:42):
project in Fontana called Futureshapers. And, you know, Hilary
wolf over there, her vision forthat was amazing. So, you know,
instead of trying to find timeoutside of school for students
to participate in internships,let's create a real light, a
real world problem. Problem thata group of students could engage
with a group of employers overthe course of several months to

(40:07):
produce an outcome that waspowerful. And in this particular
case, the city of Fontanainvited those students to
redesign their downtown and howcool. It was very cool and
multiple we brought in multipleemployers to do master classes
with them about the process ofdevelopment and about designing,
you know, facilities and how youwork together in a master plan.

(40:29):
And this group of students cameup with some amazing plans and a
really cohesive vision for whatthe downtown should be. The city
wanted the young people to doit, particularly because they
were looking for, what does thedowntown of the future need to
look like? You're the future.
Help us design it, and they'reactually building some of it
now. So we're pretty darnexcited about how that project
worked out. And I think all ofthose students were offered jobs

(40:52):
at the end of that experience.
So it's it's been a really thatwas a really powerful, non
traditional way to go about thework,

Erin Brinker (41:01):
and how likely are those kids to be when they get
to the point of buying a housethat they're going to want to
buy it in Fontana, because theyhad a stake in building it.

Ginger Ontiveros (41:08):
I think Fontana was onto something
there.

Erin Brinker (41:10):
I think they were.
So let's talk about, you know,the COVID learning loss. We're
now just past the five year orno, the 13th will be the five
year mark from the fateful daywhen everything shut down in
2020 and a lot of hay was made.
And for good reason aboutlearning, loss and education
took a took a dip during thistime, just because it was just

(41:33):
such a difficult time. Are youseeing the the impact of that
still in your students? Do youthink that that's that they've
overcome some of thosechallenges? How is that playing
out? Or is it at all? This oneis for Dale,

Dr. Dale Marsden (41:45):
yeah, you know, I think this was will
remain in history, because oneof the greatest disruptions of
public ed in America. And Ithink my hope coming out of that
was that we would really payattention to transforming our
system away from its grade andtime and place bound model. You

(42:07):
know, we students are hungry fora kind of experience in school
that's kind of any, any path,any, any pace, any any time, any
place and students in schools. Iwas hopeful that the hybrid
learning environment wouldreally take off, and I think now
that students, and especiallythis generation that lived

(42:27):
through COVID, have tasted itthat, hey, I can do school at
different times of the day, whenI'm awake and ready, and I can,
I can learn at my own pace. Andyou know, there's, there's a lot
of advantage that I think welost. There's lost opportunity,
you know, there's what do theycall it in I think there's a
Chinese character for forcrisis, which is a mix of danger

(42:50):
and opportunity. As a dangerousopportunity is what we had. And
I think we missed it. We had anopportunity to redesign the
system in a way that reallyengaged students. And so there's
going to be some lag time, andwe can't wait. I mean, we've got
to do this. You know, as gingermentioned, visionary leadership,
like superintendent Mickey inbody and superintendents from

(43:14):
Palm Springs, Riverside, OrangeCounty, San Bernardino County
and other counties that arebeginning to see, hey, there's,
there's got to be a focus on ourstudents life after school.
That's critical. Life after highschool. What's their plan and
is, do they have a credible,solid plan that when I'm shaking
their hand on graduation day,they're walking into something

(43:37):
concrete next, which is whetherit's a Career College, military,
whatever. So you know, and I'llunderscore Erin that you know,
schools, students, parents,communities, schools and
employers can't do this workalone, and that's really where a
team like ours comes in. We'relike the SEAL team, six of

(43:58):
intermediaries. We cometogether, we help bridge, we
help build, we help brighten,you know, this path so that
students have a real shot atopportunity for them. And so,
you know, we're super excitedand grateful, grateful for the
leadership of our county of SanBernardino, Leonard, Luther

(44:18):
Snoke, who's the new the CEO ofthe of the county and our county
supervisors vision for thesuccess of young adults,
specifically foster youth, andour County, the county asked us
to survey all 50 of theirdepartments for readiness for
internships and apprenticeships,and how do we work with foster
youth? And so what's excitingabout that is here you have a

(44:40):
public sector employer, where,you know, 90% of their employer,
employer employees drive intothe community and drive out
every day, and most of ourfamilies, students don't know
that these jobs exist. Sothere's real opportunity. And I
think the answer to what we'velived, you know, out of. COVID

(45:00):
Five years ago is, you know,double downing on engagement.
You know, what can we do toengage our students where
there's local opportunities, tohelp them stay in their local
communities and brighten thefuture of this entire community
and lift it up? That's what thisis about. So we're super
excited. We think this is thereally, the the smart economic

(45:22):
development strategy for cities,counties, municipalities, to pay
attention to. We're hopeful thatwe can impress legislators in
thinking about ways toincentivize the governor's
vision and dream, and that, youknow, employers get some serious
capital to invest in youngtalent that will help lift the

(45:42):
environment for everybody. So Ithink it's a win, win. It's a,
it's a, it's a great investmentopportunity, and I think there's
much hope ahead.

Erin Brinker (45:51):
So I have to think that there are some barriers for
the students to participate inthe internships and
apprenticeships. Maybe it'stransportation, maybe they don't
have money for, you know, theproper clothing, maybe their
parenting. Maybe they have kidsand they have childcare issues.
What are some of the barriers?
Or maybe they're undocumented.

(46:11):
What are some of the barriers,barriers that you all see, and
what kind of support can eitheryour program, or do you know
that other programs can canoffer to help students be
successful.

Dr. Dale Marsden (46:23):
You know, it was interesting as we lived
through this kind of socialexperiment with generation. Go
with the County of SanBernardino and I asked this
question, because transportationis a barrier. You know, housing,
food, scarcity, all the thingsyou named your barriers. But
I'll tell you what happened whenkids and their families knew
they had a ripe opportunity.
They got there, they found away, found a way to get there.

(46:44):
Now there's always going to bethe outliers. There's going to
be a percentage of kids thatthey're going to need CPR, but
not every kid needs CPR, and Iwould say the vast majority of
our students, when given anengaging opportunity, they and
their families and theircommunity will move heaven and
earth to get them there. That'sbeen my lived experience, and I

(47:06):
am certain, as we really developrobust opportunities for
students and the families, theparents, the communities, their
communities, see that they'regoing to get behind them and get
them there. They're going tomake it happen. Schools even
will begin to alter theirschedules and make make ways to
carve out the right kind of timethat's needed to make these

(47:27):
barriers. You know, becauseschool leaders are creative,
they're they're incrediblepeople able to do some things
that given the opportunity thatmight get happen. That's my
belief.
Yeah, I find that our familiesare very resourceful. They
absolutely can find solutions.
It's helpful to them when wealso provide them. But I do know
that, you know, they are capableof finding ways to get there.

(47:51):
When we're talking abouttransportation, I will tell you
an interesting barrier thatwe've come up against. All of
them are interesting but, butthis one is completely
correctable. So and we find thatmost young people today are not
getting driver's licenses,young, and that is meaning they
have no government ID. So whenit comes time for them to get a

(48:15):
job that actually pays them,they don't have a driver's
license to prove identity or ora state issued ID card and and
that first job that becomes abarrier to them. So it's one of
the things that we definitelycoach our young people to do is
is introduce them to the DMV andmake sure they know that they

(48:36):
need to go there to get at leasta government ID, rather than,
you know, just try to rely onthe school ID, or just not be
aware they need one. So,

Erin Brinker (48:46):
so I would have thought about that. That would
not have ever occurred to me,because, yeah, but you're right,
driver's

Ginger Ontiveros (48:52):
ed out of the schools, right? Like, when you
and I were young? I mean, I'massuming, Erin, when you and I
were young, we had driver's edin the school, so it was a rite
of passage. And we went thereand getting a driver's license
was a just something you did,right? It is not something
normal for kids to just doanymore. There are so many
alternative transportationoptions that you know, kids who

(49:15):
are in their early 20s are not,don't have driver's licenses,
which you know, if you'd havetold me at 15 and a half that
there would be a peer of minewho was 23 and didn't have a
driver's license yet. I would beshocked. What's

Erin Brinker (49:29):
wrong with them, right? But the difference is
that we didn't have social mediato keep in touch with our
friends, right? We had to go soeither talk on the phone and
your family was like, get offthe phone, or you had to go to
wherever they were

Ginger Ontiveros (49:41):
your social network was how many people can
fit in my car

Erin Brinker (49:46):
or meet at the mall? That's

Ginger Ontiveros (49:47):
right, that's right. So it's definitely there
definitely are barriers. But asDale said, our families are very
resourceful, and our schools arevery creative. They absolutely
want to open these doors fortheir students. And you know,
the the barrier sometimes isjust the employer's willingness

(50:08):
to try this. The and attention,you know, their business moves
fast, and employers have to payattention to their bottom lines.
And we get that right. They donot have time to become
education experts for thepurpose of creating an
internship. And so that's one ofthe things we do, is we carry
their water so that they canalso benefit more quickly from

(50:32):
these kinds of experiences. Andreally, you know, it's all about
making sure that the economy ofthe future has the workforce
that it needs, and that theyoung people in our schools have
the opportunity that they needas well. So

Erin Brinker (50:46):
we haven't talked about one particular area that I
know is really big, especiallyin San Bernardino County, and
that is a focus onentrepreneurship. So if a
student goes through takes theYouth Science aptitude test,
finds out that they would be agreat entrepreneur. What would
you do with that student?

Dr. Dale Marsden (51:06):
Yeah, you bring up a great, great
question. So, you know, and Ilove, I love what a couple
colleagues of mine have talkedabout on this and seen and done,
you know, not just in our in ournation, but worldwide. And
that's Jim Clifton, CEO ofGallup. They've done some work

(51:27):
at Gallup where they have anassessment, what they call they
look that they look for buildersin third world countries. These
are entrepreneurs who have canhave great ideas, and then they
surround that entrepreneur toget that idea to market with a
strong marketing person and astrong finance person. Those
two, that court of three, is noteasily broken in these in these

(51:49):
third world countries, and theytake that idea then to market
and help to bring and build, youknow, economic health within
some very challengedcommunities. And he tells a
story of one such young lady inMexico who had a was a great
candy maker, and she used localkinds of things from the the

(52:11):
ground that grew to make thesecandies. And they were very
tasty. And so they took thatidea to market, and turns out
they're making money now,creating jobs, and in the middle
of nowhere, that's fantastic.
And you know, Ernesto soroli hasa wonderful TED talk, and I've
talked with Ernesto personally,and you know, he talked about
the hippos and the tomatoes andhis TED Talk and and what you

(52:31):
see is, you know, going intocommunities and not just doing
things to them, but reallylistening and looking for Who
are these people that have ideasand the capability to bring them
to market? And so we have ourown set of structures and skills
and ways to do that withintomorrow's talent is we're

(52:52):
working with students, and soit's taking that idea then to
market, surrounding them withthe resources they need to be
successful. And you know for us,we're so blessed to be in the
community where you have theInland Empire Center for
Entrepreneurship in ourbackyard, and so we're super
grateful for that body to beable to provide the kind of

(53:14):
resources that are necessary tohelp students. I was just on the
on a zoom a couple weeks agowith a young lady who has a
great entrepreneurship mind andideas to take to market, we just
spent a good hour talking aboutwhat are the types of things you
need to pay attention to to besuccessful in the real world
when you're doing this work. Andso, yeah, building that

(53:34):
entrepreneurship muscle is veryimportant. When you survey our
students, many of them want tobe entrepreneurs and take their
ideas to market and be their ownboss. And I often tell the young
people, you know, you got tostart with having a strong set
of fundamental skills. Very fewentrepreneurs start out of
nothing. They always, generallystart on a foundation of some

(53:57):
basic experiences, skills orloves, than they build from
there. And so that those are thekinds of things that we have to
build, that entrepreneurial mindmindset in our community, that
that's going to help us become,you know, we create job
creators, you become a much morehealthy community.

Erin Brinker (54:15):
Indeed, it's kind of like being a jazz musician.
In order to play jazz, whichseems completely random. You
really have to understand musictheory and how it works. You
have to understand the peoplewho are playing with you,
because if you just get outthere and make noise, it'll just
be noise, but jazz, it all comestogether and sounds beautiful.
And so, you know, you have to bean expert in the thing to be
able to break the rules. Andthat's, you know, entrepreneurs

(54:37):
are, are doing it their own way,but they gotta learn how to do
it first. That's right. That'sright. So how to do because
we're just about out of time,how do people get more
information, either for theirstudents or their their
children, or as an employer,about tomorrow's talent?

Ginger Ontiveros (54:56):
Visit our website, at tomorrow's
talent.org, that's i. A oneplace that you can find
information. We're also veryactive on social media,
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,so you can connect with us in
all of those places, or, forthat matter, if you, if you just
happen to bump into one of us,we'd be happy to talk with you
about what we do and how we doit. So, so, yeah, it's, you

(55:20):
know, those are the places Ithink that we could direct
people to to find informationabout us and how we how we can
help them.

Erin Brinker (55:28):
Well, I am so thrilled that you spent this
both of you spent this time withme today. It sounds like you
were doing incredibly importantwork. And I hope that that that
this is scalable, and I knowthat you're building it so it is
so that it exists in everycommunity to be able to connect
the youth with what's needed inthe workforce in that particular
community. So thank you so muchfor joining me today. Dr Dale

(55:49):
Marsden and ginger Ontiverosfrom tomorrow's talent.

Unknown (55:53):
Thank you, Erin. Been a pleasure.

Erin Brinker (55:59):
Well, that is about all we have time for
today. I'm Erin Brinker andyou've been listening to the
making hope happen radio show.
For more information about themaking hope happen Foundation,
please visit www.makinghope.orgThat's www.makinghope.org Thank
you so much for listening, andwe'll talk to you next week. You

Noraly Sainz (57:00):
Hi, my name is Nora Lee signs, and I am Program
Coordinator at uplift SanBernardino, a collective impact
initiative at the making hopehappen Foundation. And this is
my story. In November of 2017 myhusband, our four young sons and
I moved away from our familiesto San Bernardino with the hope
of reaching our goal of homeownership in 2018 as our oldest

(57:22):
son started kindergarten, Iconnected with the school
district and learned aboutmaking hope happens Kids program
with my oldest in kindergartenand my twins act preschool, I
had the opportunity to tote myyoungest to the kids parenting
classes. In January of 2020, myhusband and our family's
breadwinner unexpectedly passedaway. I found myself in a

(57:42):
pandemic with my sons in anuncertain future. It was then
that that oasis that I found atkids turned into my support
system, as the staff and friendsrallied around me while my sons
and I struggled to find our newnormal. In October of 2020 after
seven years as a homemaker, Ijoined the making hope happen
foundation as a programcoordinator for uplift San

(58:04):
Bernardino. This careeropportunity reignited my
family's dream of home ownershipin November of 2022 through the
mutual support of the uplift SanBernardino Housing Network, my
family was able to buy our firsthome in my role as program
coordinator and as I connectwith other families in our
community, I can wholeheartedlyattest to the opportunities that

(58:26):
the foundation is bringing toour community and truly making
hope happen. For more

Erin Brinker (58:31):
information about the making hope happen
foundation and to make adonation, please visit www dot
Making hope.org. That'swww.makinghope.org your
donations make our workpossible. Aloha, get ready to
embark on an unforgettablejourney to the islands of the
making hope happen. Foundation's2025 Gala, a tropical escape.

(58:55):
Join us on Thursday May 8, at6pm at the breathtaking hilltop
banquet hall where the spirit ofohana meets the power of
education and communitytransformation. This year's gala
will be an enchanting eveningfilled with live music, vibrant
Island themed entertainment,festive tropical cocktails,
mouth watering cuisine, aninspiring student art auction

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and the prestigious hope andcarne awards. Your presence will
directly impact the future ofSan Bernardino students, let's
give back celebrate and createbrighter futures together. For
more information, visit www. DotMaking hope.org/events. That's
www, dot Making Hope. Dot O, R,G, slash events sponsorships are

(59:41):
now available again. For moreinformation, go to
www.makinghope.org