Monday, July 28, 2008

A group of Washington area businesses that helps prepare about 150 D.C. public high school students for the professional world each year held a commencement ceremony Thursday morning at George Washington University.

The group is known as the Urban Alliance and has 80 area companies, including Bernstein, Atlantic Media, CapitalSource, Clark Construction and XM Satellite Radio. The Washington Post Co. is also involved. Each business pays $9,500 a year per student. Some goes to training workshops on the business world, and the rest goes to the student as pay for labor. Students work at the companies 15 hours a week during the school year and 40 hours a week during the summer.

More than 1,000 students have been involved in the program since it started 12 years ago. It has a 99 percent on-time high school graduation rate. The vast majority go on to college.

"We are trying to introduce these students to the professional world," said Nick Kilavos, director of corporate finance at CapitalSource, which has mentored four students in four years. "We are hoping to establish them with a skill set."

John Gass, 18, who just graduated from H.D. Woodson High School and interned at CapitalSource, will attend the University of Missouri, where he plans to study journalism. "The most important thing I learned was interacting in a business environment," he said.

Laurie Smith, a librarian at United BioSource, a Bethesda company, helps interns with their college applications and helps them get comfortable using computers.

Walter Woods, a program officer at the World Bank, helped mentor 33 interns this year, including a Cameroon native who is creating a documentary on the effect on African economies of money sent home by workers in the United States.

The Urban Alliance was founded by Jeffrey and Mary Zients and Andrew Plepler, president of the Bank of America Foundation. Jeffrey Zients directed the initial public offering of the Corporate Executive Board and the Advisory Board. He now runs an investment fund called PortfolioLogic.

"It's always been amazing to me how little time and money it actually takes to change the course of a young person's life," Urban Alliance Chairman Mary Zients said.

For every program dollar the students save, up to $1,000, the Urban Alliance puts aside $3 to help defray college expenses.

-- Thomas Heath

This item was first published on the WashBiz Blog, at washingtonpost.com/washbizblog.