Job One for America: Put Young People to Work

By Hillary Rodham Clinton

A few weeks ago, I met an impressive young man named Oscar during a visit to the Intertech Plastics manufacturing factory in Denver in the run-up to this week’s Clinton Global Initiative’s annual CGI America conference.

Oscar grew up in the old South Lincoln Homes, a Denver housing project where unemployment was sky high. Nine out of 10 kids there dropped out of school. His single mom did all she could to make sure that wouldn’t happen to him, but the odds were stacked against Oscar from the start.

That’s where the Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation came in. The foundation’s team and one of its co-founders, Intertech CEO Noel Ginsburg, began mentoring Oscar when he was just 8 years old. Oscar started accompanying Noel to Intertech’s factory. Eventually, he began a formal internship there and then went on to serve our country in the Navy and earn a college degree. He came home to a good job in the same factory. Today, he is the father of three boys and oversees manufacturing operations at a Denver printing company.

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