Welcome, East Lake Foundation Student Leaders

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EAST LAKE — The Bank of America Charitable Foundation today announced that five metro Atlanta area high school students have been selected to participate in the 2013 Student Leaders program, which awards a total of 225 community-minded high school juniors and seniors nationwide with paid eight-week summer internships at local nonprofit organizations.

Five of those students from metro Atlanta are schools, will be interns at the East Lake Foundation this summer:

• Morgan Foreman, of Atlanta, graduated from Woodward Academy and will attend Georgia Tech.
• Divya Achtani, a Marietta resident, graduated from Joseph Wheeler High School and will attend Georgia Tech this fall.
  
• Freedom Denise Wright, an Ellenwood resident, graduated from Holy Innocents' Episcopal School and will attend Syracuse University.
• Hannah Rull, a Hiram resident, is a rising senior at Hiram High School.
• Catherine Michelle Vogt, a Lawrenceville resident, graduated from the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology and will attend the University of Dayton.

The bank also gave $100,000 to Mayor Kasim Reed for the city's Workforce Development Agency to fund 50 jobs for at-risk teens over the summer. This is the second year of the Summer Youth Employment Initiative grant to the city. In addition, the bank will employ another 12 teens as summer interns in its banking centers.

Despite gains in the overall job market, teens still have the highest unemployment rate: one out of every seven young people is not in school or working. Georgia has the third-worst employment market for teens, with a teen jobless rate of 30.6 percent, according to recent Employment Policies Institute numbers.

Research indicates that teens who are gainfully employed have lower drop-out rates, are more likely to continue their education to pursue long-term career goals, and ultimately show an increase in lifetime earning potential.

That’s why Bank of America started the Student Leaders program and funds the Summer Youth Employment Initiative. These are part of the company’s ongoing commitment to provide individuals with access and exposure to critical resources that will bolster their work and life skills while also benefiting the community.

“Teens are once again facing a tough time finding summer jobs,” said Geri Thomas, Bank of America's Georgia president. “Our Student Leaders program provides them the opportunity to earn and learn, while increasing the capacity of nonprofits to serve critical community needs.”

In addition to the paid internships, the Student Leaders will attend a weeklong Bank of America Student Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., in July. Summit activities include a service learning project and a series of interactive workshops, including Capitol Hill briefings and sessions on financial education and leadership development skills. The students gain a deeper understanding of how service creates positive change and how corporate, nonprofit and government collaboration revitalize communities.

— Bank of America Foundation