While the Kansas affiliate organization of the national Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) offers 114 programs in 86 Kansas school districts, the 6,200 students served by the academic and postsecondary preparedness program are anything but numbers. 

“You learn a lot about yourself in this program,” said Lilliona Martinez, a student at Junction City Middle School, Geary County USD 475. “Before JAG, I was very insecure and (kept) to myself,” she said. “I’ve learned that you can be more than what people tell you. This program just gives you so many beautiful opportunities to grow as a person and grow as a student.” 

Bev Mortimer, senior vice president of programming for JAG-Kansas (JAG-K), recently brought Martinez and several other Geary County USD 475 students and JAG-K career specialists to the Kansas State Board of Education’s December meeting. She told board members although JAG-K is based off a national model, the Kansas program has “total control” over what it offers. 

“Bottom line, we are here to partner with all your school districts to prepare students for successful futures, competency-based curriculum, workforce development and career exploration,” Mortimer said. “These are our competencies.” 

While serving as superintendent of Concordia USD 333, Mortimer said her district was one of the first in Kansas to offer JAG-K programming. She said one of the selling points was the year-round schedule that allows staff to stay in touch with the students over the summer to work on credit recovery, job skills and community service. The second was the follow-up services provided to the students for at least 12 months after they receive their diplomas.  

“We stay with them in the year after high school,” she said. “That may be the military, that may be the workplace or postsecondary. We’re there.” 

Graduation isn’t the only goal for students moving through JAG-K, Mortimer told board members. She said the program is committed to making sure students have the skills to be successful as they pursue their chosen path after high school.  

“We try to fill that toolbox as best we can,” she told board members. 

Noah Maldonado is a student at Junction City High School and vice president of JAG-K’s state career association. He said JAG-K provides endless opportunities for stability and growth for someone like him who grew up in a military family that moved around the country several times.  

He told board members he’s been asked most of his life what is his “testimony.” 

“Coming through this program, I’ve learned that in order to have a testimony, you must be tested,” he said. “And wholeheartedly, this is what this program has done for me. Being able to grow into the person I am today, I’m more than grateful for this opportunity.” 

Maldonado placed third in the project-based learning showcase category at the JAG’s 2024 National Career Development Conference competition for leading a partnership with the Junction City Police Department to raise funds for buying coats for elementary school students. 

Laila Horton (pictured above, left) is a Junction City High School graduate who is now attending Washburn University, in Topeka, and is part of the JAG-K 12-month post-graduation program. She said she discovered JAG-K after getting hurt as a volleyball player when she was a junior in high school and decided she would focus on becoming a student leader in the JAG-K organization. A trip to Washington, D.C., to speak to elected officials about JAG-K also sparked Horton’s passion to pursue politics as a career.  

“I walked the halls of the Capitol and people told me it looked like I belonged there,” she said. “I stood in those rooms with confidence, spoke my story and got my opportunities to speak.” 

Bethany Wells (pictured above, right), a student at H.D. Karns Innovations Opportunity Center, Geary County USD 475’s alternative school, said when she started participating in JAG-K as a sophomore, she thought it was “just another class” but then quickly found out it was much more.  

“I knew this would motivate me to go to school every day,” she said. “This is a reason to get up in the morning and get there. I love it. From helping people in my community to helping people in my classroom. It’s just a feeling you can’t get in a lot of places.” 

As a JAG-K student, Wells said she has been more involved in the Junction City community and “so many more doors have opened up” for her, she said. She also credits her JAG-K career specialist for helping her place seventh in the career preparation category at the JAG’s 2024 National Career Development Conference competition. 

Career specialists are an important component of the JAG program. They are not teachers but are mentors and coaches and offer support to their students by helping them develop relationships in the community for jobs, service projects and making other connections.  

Raheem Melton, a JAG-K career specialist at Junction City Middle School, said he was a talented athlete when he was younger but lacked direction.  

“But I always knew when I grew up and became an adult I wanted to make an impact on kids,” he said, saying he later went into coaching “to give back.”  

“I always knew that making an impact and a change, you had to change yourself,” he said, adding that he has helped start a mentoring program at the Geary County USD 475 elementary schools and was later named a JAG-K “Rising Star.”  

“JAG-K has impacted my life, and I know it’s impacted my students’ lives,” he said. 

Mortimer said JAG-K is working on expanding current programs, including those at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex (KJCC) in Topeka, increasing more services to youth in transition and foster care, and is in the planning stages of a program that would offer micro-credentials to high school students where they can demonstrate scalable skills.  

The funding for the JAG-K program, Mortimer said, comes from grants and appropriations from the past three Kansas governors and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) dollars. She said the program receives no funding from the Kansas State Department of Education but is on the agency’s list of approved evidence-based at-risk programs. 

For more information about the JAG-K program, go to www.jagkansas.org.