Just Say Yes to ‘Your Future’

By Elayne Carbajal

After two years of virtual get-togethers due to COVID-19, students and supporters of Your Future Is Our Business gathered in March to celebrate all the community partners and educators who dedicated time to providing work-based learning opportunities and helping students explore careers.

This year’s annual luncheon at Twin Lakes Church in Aptos was sold out, with 240+ community members in attendance.

Organizations like the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Whiting Foods, Bay Federal Credit Union and many more were all welcomed and hosted by Capitola councilwoman and former mayor Yvette Brooks, executive director of Your Future Is Our Business.

Cabrillo College culinary arts instructor Andrea Mollenauer and her class assisted in catering all of the lunches for the event.

We are so grateful to have been able to host this event in-person finally and at such a beautiful venue, a huge thank you goes out to Twin Lakes Church for their beautiful space.

Our keynote speaker, Whiting’s Food President Ken Whiting, shared with the audience the value of workplace experience and the principles of the concept to “just say yes,” when “opportunities present themselves.’’

Lastly, we awarded scholarships to students from local high schools such as The Diamond Technology Institute, Delta Charter High School, Santa Cruz City High and Soquel High. Students were encouraged to submit photos, videos or projects to showcase their Career Technical Education-based learning at the luncheon.

One of our FORGE Scholarship winners, Noemi Munoz-Negrete, specifically wanted to thank her teacher for creating a safe space for exploring career paths with her students. Other students in attendance shared that through their CTE classes, they had discovered new interests such as welding or culinary arts, which they never would have been able to practice in normal school electives.

We learned that students who take these classes now have a more positive outlook on their plans for their future and finding a job they truly enjoy.

Your Future Is Our Business was formed by members of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce education committee in 1993. Shortly after, YFIOB became a nonprofit and ever since, our mission has been to provide every Santa Cruz County student with opportunities to discover a fulfilling and successful career.

We bring schools and businesses together to support students in becoming Santa Cruz County’s next generation of workers. We implement work-based learning, the educational strategy providing students with real-life experiences and the opportunity to improve their academic and technical skills while developing their employability.

Our work includes building a countywide network of community leaders and businesses that see the talent and potential in our students. With this incredible support, we host monthly career panels and expos at schools ranging from K-12th grade. Students get practical advice on planning a career path.

We are fully staffed by post-secondary interns, supervised by an executive director, all coordinating together to successfully run a nonprofit organization.

Your Future Is Our Business would not be the organization it is today without the hard work, dedication, and support from all of our volunteers and donors. This program relies heavily on support from the community whether it be in the form of donations, outreach assistance, or even volunteering to assist with career panels at local high schools.

We are extremely proud to announce we have officially helped more than 2,500 students since the start of the 2021-22 school year! This is an incredible number of students who have been taught about career exploration and who will one day use that information to guide their future plans and become successful members of society.

We partner with many school districts all over Santa Cruz County including but not limited to Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz City, San Lorenzo Valley and the Santa Cruz County Office of Education.

This year, we will celebrate the end of the school year by offering fourteen $1,000 scholarships to students who apply to our Career Exploration Scholarship before April 22. This scholarship is for Santa Cruz County students in grades 10-12 interested in improving their academic and technical skills to discover a fulfilling and successful career.

This scholarship can be used in exploring different types of career options such as post-secondary or trade programs and/or to attend work-based learning opportunities such as after-school programs, summer camps, and other career programs.

Thank you to all of our sponsors! To help, see: https://yfiob.org/