Today we’d like to introduce you to Shanise Johnson.
Hi Shanise, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
A driving influence in my life has always been helping youth tap into their innate abilities, passions, and tenacity to actualize their full potential. As a student at Soldan International Studies High School nearly three decades ago, I learned about an opportunity to join an organization dedicated to positive youth development. This experience ignited a still-burning need in me to provide hope, inspiration and support to underserved youth in our community.
As a volunteer in my church and the Executive Director for St. Louis Internship Program (SLIP), a local youth development agency focused on career and workforce readiness, I have the opportunity to impact young people’s lives by providing unique professional development opportunities to students from economically challenged backgrounds. In both capacities, I am responsible for program planning, fund development, and overall management of services. I consider myself a servant leader with the goal of ensuring that every student I touch understands the value of education, graduates high school, pursues postsecondary education or training, and ultimately secures a career and sows a seed back into our community. For this reason, I am committed to enhancing my community, network, and leadership capacity to better serve my community.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
A core philosophy of the St. Louis Internship Program (SLIP) is continuous quality improvement. Since 1992, we have refined and enhanced our program services and programmatic offerings to better meet the needs of our students and employers.
In our soon to be 34 year history, we have experienced all of the ebbs and flow of a community organization or product life cycle. However, we are proud of our 98% success rate of over 5,000 interns graduating high school and going on to pursue their post-secondary goals. In 1992, the program placed 52 students in internships throughout the legal community. We expanded the offerings a couple of years later. In 1995, we served and placed 350 interns in paid summer paid internships through metropolitan St. Louis. We grew to serve both city and county schools during that period. After the 9/11 tragedy and subsequent economic downturn, we recalibrated and focused our services on St. Louis Public Schools. Eventually, we branched out to all city schools.
In September of 2020, we fully merged with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis (BGCSTL). This allowed our footprint to serve all schools in the metropolitan area including private, parochial, charter, and public schools along with homeschooled students. This was at the height of the pandemic; therefore, we were serving less students than our normal average. Nevertheless, we continued our year-round program and did not have to lay off a single team member.
We are excited that we are currently able to serve and place more students, as well as offer a wide array of career and workforce programs, while still maintaining our 98% success rate. While there have government cutbacks and other issues that directly impact our funding and ability to secure corporate partners, we are grateful to all of our funders and employers who ensure that we can continue to provide this positive community impact program to St. Louis youth. Our fidelity is paramount as we continually strive for quality and excellence.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about St. Louis Internship Program (SLIP), a program of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis?
The St. Louis Internship Program (SLIP) has provided stable and consistent opportunities for high school students in financial need in the City of St. Louis for the past 33 years. SLIP was founded in 1992 by St. Louis attorney Thomas C. Hullverson who was moved by the desperation he saw in the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King trial. Since that time, SLIP has had a consistent success rate of 98% of 5,000 interns graduating high school and pursuing their post-secondary goals.
A national model for community-based internships, SLIP has been replicated in 38 cities nationwide. A long history of recognition includes a 2001 Partnering for Workforce Excellence award co-sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and recent awards from the City of St. Louis Community Development Administration, the TRIO program for first generation college students, Focus St. Louis, and the St. Louis American.
SLIP internships are much more than just summer jobs. SLIP provides eight-week paid summer internships in professional settings, preceded by a guided application process and intensive employability training and followed by year-round college and career planning and peer and professional networking. Students can earn transferable college credit for two classes conducted by St. Louis Community College during employability training. We provide a number of industry recognized credentials for select career pathways. Career development programming provides ongoing opportunities to keep students engaged after they master basic employability training in an initial internship.
SLIP has implemented best practices of youth employment for underserved youth since 1992. We consistently see our program reflected in standards for youth employment. Internships are well recognized as effective ways for youth to learn about careers, develop networks, and experience the workplace, as in a 2013 international review of internships as a “win-win” proposition for youth and employers by the International Youth Foundation. A 2010 research review identified ten best practices for youth employment programs, all of which SLIP implements.
Current research and guidelines continue to reaffirm these principles, such as the 15 best practices identified for college internships by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). SLIP follows all the guidelines with the exception of providing housing and relocation assistance which does not apply to high school students. Employment skills guidelines, such as the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employability Skills Framework, stress effective relationships through interpersonal skills and personal qualities, workplace skills through analytical and organizational skills, as well as applied academic and technical skills.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
People may not know that I will celebrate 30 years of service to the students and community through the St. Louis Internship Program in 2027. SLIP is a major and pivotal part of my life, setting the foundation for my career at the early age of 16 through my summer internship. I was able to remain active with my employer through SLIP, ultimately securing a part-time position in the office in August 1997. The rest is history! I have served in every capacity of the organization since graduating from high school. This allows me to offer a unique perspective to the students and employer partners that I serve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bgcstl.org/slip
- Instagram: @bgcstl
- Facebook: Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boys-&-girls-clubs-of-greater-st-louis/
