Jodi’s Journal: What workforce development looks like

May 16, 2025

If you want to watch the future Sioux Falls workforce being shaped, spend a little time in Mary Monahan’s JAG class at Jefferson High School.

JAG stands for Jobs for America, a national nonprofit designed to help connect high school students with career paths. It’s offered in several area schools, and I had the chance to stop in and talk with some of the students before their graduation this weekend.

The stories have stuck with me ever since.

First, there was Lena Do. She was born in Sioux Falls, and the first thing she told me was “Ever since I was little, I always wanted to help people and give back to the community.”

In high school, she became part of the Avera Academy, allowing her to explore different areas of the health system and solidify her plans for the future. She now works at Avera McKennan as a cafeteria attendant and hopes to work as a patient care technician while attending Southeast Technical College this fall to study nursing.

Avera became the sponsor of her full-ride Build Dakota Scholarship.

“It means a lot because I didn’t really come from a rich family. We didn’t really have much growing up, so it just means a lot to me now that I have someone that’s going to cover my tuition,” she said. “There’s no words for me to say.”

Of course, she said plenty.

Then, I met Jumah Dukuly, who grew up in Liberia and moved to Sioux Falls more than six years ago.

Through JAG, she met a military recruiter and now plans to serve while attending Dakota Wesleyan University with a goal of pursuing a career in law enforcement. The big vision is to become a supervisor, she told me.

“I like helping people. I enjoy spending time with people and helping out others because I feel like it’s a great way to help the community,” she said.

After that, I met Cory Thompson, who grew up on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and moved to Sioux Falls a few years ago.

His career dream is to become a lawyer or police officer, but it was clear he’s still trying to determine the next step after graduation day.

So is the next young man I met, who was memorable from the moment I asked his name.

“I’ll give you the rundown,” he began, before launching into it.

“Alfonso Amante Ray Johnson Taylor III,” he said. “That’s all on my birth certificate.”

He goes by “Tay” Johnson.

“When I turn 18, I plan on getting my whole name resituated,” he told me.

Sorting life out is what brought him to Sioux Falls from the Chicago area five years ago, when his mother moved here with the hope of improving her financial situation.

“It changed our lives around,” he told me. “South Dakota just changed my life. Our life.”

“How?” I asked him.

“The economy. The Sioux Falls economy,” he said. “The community and especially seeing other homeless people right in front of my eyes at Heritage Park.”

He told me about how, as a middle school student, he began to meet people experiencing homelessness who would congregate at the park off East Sixth Street near where he was living. He’d bring them extra food when he had it.

“It turns out most of them were college dropouts,” he told me. “There was a homeless dude that was a science major. I think it was orthopedics. It was cool. I learned a lot.”

They taught him how to play basketball and about Sioux Falls history, he said.

Johnson now lives down the street from Jefferson High School and told me how guest speakers at his JAG class inspired him to use his voice. Class trips to employers such as POET, Journey Group and Marv’s Body Shop opened his eyes to career opportunities. He especially was impressed by Showplace Wood Products.

“I did not know that cabinets are actually made in a factory,” he said. “So that’s a cool place. Oh, and one thing, they are self-owned, which means you get — I was really excited about this — you get more money if the business does good.”

It was a timely visit for me, weeks from when these students were graduating, because I got to see the result of a year’s worth of work by Monahan, our business community partners and the Sioux Falls Development Foundation. Denise Guzzetta, the Development Foundation’s vice president of talent and workforce, works closely with not just this classroom but also more than a dozen others to help provide the experiences that are introducing students to career opportunities.

“It’s been an invaluable partnership,” Monahan said. “Denise has been able to help us with all her career connections to get to places we would not be able to go, and it’s such a diverse representation of what’s available to students. They’ve been to places like Amazon and Daktronics, CNH Industrial.”

If your business is an investor in Forward Sioux Falls, you’re helping make this coordination possible. This is what it takes to move the needle, even slowly, when it comes to preparing our future workforce.

“I want employers to recognize that these are just very talented, very highly motivated kids, and they are the future,” Guzzetta said. “They’re going to gain kids that are equipped with skills, both those soft skills and those technical skills, that they need.”

They’re also coming to us in the workplace from incredibly varied backgrounds. I found myself almost overwhelmed by the vastly different life experiences they bring with them, blended with a consistent theme of wanting to find roles that will allow them to serve the community.

It’s imperative we individualize our approach and make the effort to work one-on-one to help them find a path toward a future that will support their own well-being and meet our workforce needs of the future.

The best part about the JAG program to me is that the support Monahan offers doesn’t stop once her students put on the cap and gown.

“For one year, I am reaching out to all my seniors,” she told me.

Sometimes, it’s checking in: Are they in the same job? Are they going to school? But she’s also “sometimes a lifeline if they need help with something,” she said. “I’ve met kids and gone over financial aid paperwork with them. I’ve visited with college admissions people. We’ve looked at apartments together, those kinds of things.”

I had no idea this level of one-on-one support existed. But think about it in the context of ensuring the investment we make as a community in these young adults is fostered as they go out on their own.

All her students from last year are either employed full time or going to school. Some had multiple job offers.

“It’s so fun to hear what they’re doing, and I think they also appreciate a familiar voice or a familiar text from me just reaching out,” Monahan said.

I’m sure they do. The major life transition from high school to whatever is next is a critical time in determining what direction a young adult goes in our community. I’m grateful programs like this exist and hope we’re able to scale them even more.

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