This summer, thanks to a grant from Bank of America, Preston Taylor Ministries was able to partner with 5 different companies to provide valuable work experience for 8 students – 7 of them rising sophomores and juniors in high school and 1 a sophomore in college. The companies that we worked with included Nashville Sporting Goods, Christie Cookie Company, Pioneer Coach, Lumberman’s Wholesale Warehouse, and Panache Catering. We also had the joy of employing 2 students at PTM. Each student worked somewhere between 20 and 27 hours per week for 5 weeks. Before they began work on June 15 ^th , we had a week of job training where we focused on discussing and developing valuable skills and where they gained hands on experience through working to help plan and lead our “Summer JAM” program for junior high students. During training week, we also had the privilege of having Frenetta Green and Courtney Keenan from Bank of America join us for one of our meetings to provide us with a brief class on personal finances in anticipation of some of our students receiving their first paychecks. Throughout the students’ 5 weeks of employment, we met together every Thursday evening to check in on how work was proceeding and to delve deeper into topics such as job skills, interview skills, “work from a business owner’s perspective”, money and finances, and more. After checking in weekly with the students’ supervisors, we had them submit a brief survey regarding their student employee’s overall performance. We were so proud to receive consistently positive feedback from supervisors.

“She (Nia Caldwell, 11 ^th grade) is doing great… they love working with her and actually asked if she could be there more… nothing but praise!!” –Ken Wilson, Christie Cookie Company

“Thank you for sending such a delightful young lady (NaShauna Ellison, college sophomore). She has been a pleasure to work with, mentee, and it’s been awesome watching her grow. Although she’s only spending a short amount of time here, we’ve tried to teach her as much as possible about the catering business and more importantly about how a small business operates.” –Kim, Panache Catering