Staff Interview: Lukas McCoy
03/25/2024
Teaching Soft Skills and Life Lessons with Lukas McCoy!
It takes passion to be a solid Career Specialist at JOG. Passion to help young people, passion to teach, and passion to push people to go above and beyond. Lukas McCoy came to JOG after graduating from college with that exact passion. He has been a shining example of being able to execute on JOG’s mission to help grow the skills of today’s young people into tomorrow’s workforce.
Lukas came to JOG after graduating in 2021 from Youngstown State University. He was interested in pursuing a job in education and after talking to his friend and existing Career Specialist, Matt Turner, he decided to try to become a part of the JOG family. Initially, he applied to be a specialist in Medina County but after realizing that a position was opening up in Trumbull County, where Lukas is located, the JOG team decided it would be best to start Lukas off at home, so to speak. He has really been able to hit the ground running!
Lukas’ work at JOG has been quite the compound position. Three days a week, he is at Liberty High School working with around 10 students. While here, he is focusing primarily on soft skill training. Because this school is new to the JOG program, students normally come in during an “off period,” such as a study hall, with the goal to expand the program into its own class period. The other 2 days, he works with other students remotely from Warren G. Harding High School. He works with these students to make sure they are able to continue growing in the JOG program alongside attending classes and preparing to graduate.
One of Lukas’ missions in his time as a JOG Career Specialist is to help build students’ foundation for learning. He has worked with his new students to build up a base of soft skills first. By teaching things like communication skills, professionalism, timeliness and more, he can lay the groundwork for not only a student’s future career successes but also their ability to absorb more “hard skills” while in school. Because he is a teacher that most students trust the most to help them, Lukas is asked frequently for help in help with homework, which he is happy to do! Lukas explained it best saying, “Our name is two parts, Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates. We want to help students get those skills, but we also want to help them graduate too. My favorite part of this job is seeing these students succeed…so that’s my goal.”
Lukas is a shining example of what a good Career Specialist at JOG is like. He strives to be helpful while building lasting skills students will utilize throughout their life and career. We are blessed to have him as a part of the JOG family!