Year Up Seeks To Help Youth Bridge 'Opportunity Divide'

24:00

July 24, 2012

Gerald Chertavian, center, appears with Paul Reville, left, and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, right, at Monument High School in south Boston in 2008. (AP)

Gerald Chertavian grew up in Lowell, the son of an Armenian dentist. He worked hard, went to Bowdoin College, and then turned into what he calls an "emergent capitalist in the freewheeling 80s."

He was living the American Dream, but he wondered why so many others were not living that dream — especially urban youth. They had talent, but were consistently left outside the economic mainstream.

Chertavian decided that the problem wasn't an "achievement gap," but rather an "opportunity divide." To bridge that divide, he stepped back from banking and investments, and instead founded Year Up — an intensive, year-long job training and professionalism bootcamp that began in Boston in 2000.

Guests:

Gerald Chertavian, founder and CEO of Year UP and the author of "A Year Up: How a Pioneering Program Teaches Young Adults Real Skills for Real Jobs with Real Success"
Marie Saint-Jean, 2010 graduate of the Year Up program and senior fund accountant at State Street

This segment aired on July 24, 2012.