Building the new workforces of tomorrow through community-focused Learning

We talk a lot about getting young people ready to lead, but rarely do we create the conditions for them to actually do it. Experiential learning, especially when students are given the chance to lead their own projects, is one of the most powerful ways to build the confidence leadership demands. It is one thing to study community issues. It is another to design a solution and see the impact of your efforts up close. In our experience, when students are trusted with that kind of responsibility, they begin to see their place in the world differently.

That belief is what led us to create the Bullard Community Champions, which provides funding to high school students to launch civic-minded projects rooted in their hometowns. This is where ideas become impact. Students are not only reflecting on what leadership means. They are seeing the results of their projects in real time.

If we want stronger communities and a more resilient workforce, we need to start by rethinking how we engage young people.

Ethan Yang from Cumming, Georgia and Riley Kennard from Acworth, Georgia are part of the most recent group of Bullard Community Champions. Both students come from families shaped by immigration. Ethan’s grandmother fled North Korea as a refugee, and Riley’s mother immigrated from the Philippines. That shared background sparked a desire to support immigrant students who often face cultural isolation in America. Through their project, which they called the Manito Initiative, they partnered with Mentor Me North Georgia to launch a peer connection program focused on building relationships across cultural lines.

Ethan and Riley understood that for many immigrant students, the hardest part of adjusting to a new school or country is not the academics. It is the loneliness. Their program created space for these students to connect with peers through team-building activities that encourage collaboration and communication. One of their first sessions involved a simple challenge: build the tallest structure possible using marshmallows and spaghetti sticks. What seemed like a fun icebreaker quickly became a meaningful moment of connection. Students who had never spoken to each other began working together, laughing, and building trust.

This kind of work does more than build résumés. It strengthens the social fabric of towns and cities. It gives young people the chance to learn from older generations while also offering their own perspective. And it creates ripple effects that extend far beyond the program. Students who lead these efforts will likely go on to pursue careers in public service, business, education, and other fields, not because someone told them to, but because they have already seen what it means to make an impact. And it all starts by trusting young people to lead right where they are.

The Bullard Community Champions initiative was born from a broader effort to prepare Georgia’s youth for leadership. That effort began with Youth LEAD Georgia, a statewide program created by The Same House, in which we partnered with Chick-fil-A and the University of Georgia’s J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development to make the initiative come to life. Now in its second cohort, Youth LEAD Georgia brings together high school students from across the state of Georgia to participate in a series of weekend retreats, visit rural and urban communities, and take part in a statewide bus tour that introduces them to leaders in business, government, and the nonprofit sector. Along the way, they explore topics such as food insecurity, economic mobility, mental health, and educational access. These experiences are designed to broaden their understanding of community needs and prepare them to lead with integrity. Youth LEAD Georgia graduates are then invited to apply to be part of the Bullard Community Champions, where they can take what they have learned and put it into action.

If we want stronger communities and a more resilient workforce, we need to start by rethinking how we engage young people. That begins with trust. Trust that they are ready to contribute. Trust that their ideas matter. And trust that the lessons they learn through experience will shape not only their future but ours as well. When we invest in programs that invite young people to lead with purpose, we are not just preparing them for jobs. We are preparing them to carry forward a sense of responsibility to the people around them. That is how communities grow. That is how leaders are made.

__

Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest innovation news and more sent to your inbox.