Meet Larry Kaiser, Ph.D., Career Coach Coordinator, Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.

What Is Your Role at FCWS?

I provide programmatic guidance to 22 Career Coaches (in 28 physical schools throughout the county) who are charged with implementing career-related services for 26,000 FCPS students as part of the education reform statute, Blueprint for Maryland's Future.

What Do You Enjoy Most About Your Work?

How all of the policy-like "puzzle" pieces all come together to concretely affect students—as Blueprint intended. A "close second", however, would be working with my FCWS colleagues—an authentically collaborative environment!

What Does “Workforce Development” Mean to You Personally?

I've mentioned this before—I am "new" to workforce development. My background is in education and in (federal) government. I taught for 20 years at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. As part of the former experience, my dual-hatted role at that institution was to serve as one of my school's two college counselors. In that capacity I invariably needed to find ways to help maybe 4-5 students in each grade class that didn't necessarily want to pursue a direct path to college after graduation. They wanted to explore work-related interests and talents. The lack of well-developed pathways for this route always bothered me. At that time, non-college pathways were not as developed as they are now with the help of Blueprint for Maryland's Future. In a sense, I'm now able to "help" (albeit vicariously) those 4-5 students from those classes in this position. Alot of fun!

Share One Accomplishment, Project, or Moment That Makes You Proud of the Work You Do.

The upward arc of the data. It sounds boring, but it reflects an increasing pace of engagement with students to help them become aware of what they'd prefer to pursue after high school: maybe college, but also maybe an apprenticeship, or maybe navigating an industry-recognized credential to start their own business. Blueprint is gaining traction in Frederick County!

What Is One Thing People Might Be Surprised to Learn About Your Role?

The number of meetings.

What Is Your Top Career or Workforce Tip?

It's always about "the person". Whatever program or service you're involved in delivering, the reason for it is that person in front of you.