Ask a Sarasota County high school junior what they want to do after graduation and you’ll get all kinds of answers: a confident plan, a shrug, or an answer that changes completely by spring.

Some of that is simply what being seventeen looks like. But some of it comes down to something we can influence: how much exposure a student has had to different careers and industries. The more opportunities students have to meet people doing real work, the better they can figure out what interests them and what doesn’t. Knowing what you don’t want can be just as useful as knowing what you do.

That’s part of what our Career-Connected Mentoring program offers. Sarasota County high school students are paired with adult mentors who help them connect their interests and strengths to real possibilities, from exploring careers to building professional and life skills and figuring out what comes next.

For a student who would be the first in their family to pursue a degree or credential, a mentor can become something more: proof that someone like them can do it. We’re far from the only organization in Sarasota doing this work, and we’re glad of that. The more students who have adults in their corner, the better.

The research backs this up. A 30-year study of Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring found that young people who were mentored were 10 percentage points more likely to attend college than those who were not. More recent analysis also found meaningful gains in early-adult earnings. MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership has found that 76% of at-risk young adults who had a mentor aspired to enroll in and graduate from college, compared with 56% of those without a mentor.

Those numbers matter, but so does what happens in between them: a trusted adult showing up, asking questions, sharing what they’ve learned and helping a young person see options they might not have considered.

PLANit Sarasota, the college and career access network we lead here at the Education Foundation, is one way we create those opportunities. For example, we brought a group of Future-Ready Scholars to Raymond James Stadium, where our friends at Fawley Bryant Architecture gave them a tour that went well beyond the field and locker rooms. Students learned about careers in architecture, engineering, operations, hospitality, broadcast and event management.

A student who thought a career in sports meant becoming a player or coach left with a much bigger picture. FPL, Coke Florida and PGT have opened similar doors through career conversations and site visits. We’re grateful every time a partner says yes. It’s not a small ask, and it can make a real difference.

This work matters beyond any one student. Sarasota County is working to increase the share of students who continue their education or training after high school from 62.6% to 70% by 2030. We won’t get there through the work of any single school, business or nonprofit.

If you’ve built a career here, you have something worth sharing with a student standing at the beginning of theirs. Consider becoming a Career-Connected Mentor, connecting with Big Brothers Big Sisters, or talking with your employer about hosting a career conversation or site visit.

You don’t need all the answers. You just need to show up, share how your own path unfolded and help a student see what might be possible.

Sarasota’s next nurses, engineers, tradespeople, artists and entrepreneurs are sitting in classrooms right now, still figuring out who they want to become. They could use a few more of us in their corner.

Jennifer Vigne is President and CEO of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County and host of the podcast Education Conversations. 

PhotoPictured: Mentee Hallela Hall and mentor Pamela Olin share a passion for art. As a professional artist, Olin is opening pathways for her mentee. Provided photo.

For those of us who loved to read as kids, it can be difficult to grasp how not everyone felt the joy that we did when they cracked open a new book. But for many children, reading is often frustrating and isolating—a reminder that they are falling behind their peers. And when those children don’t receive the support they need, the effects reach far beyond the classroom and last well into adulthood.

That’s why National Literacy Month, taking place this September, must be more than just a celebration of books. It presents us with an opportunity to look more deeply at what it takes to help every child become a capable, confident reader, which is vital for so much learning that comes afterward.

At the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, one of our most significant investments in literacy is connected to Patricia and Ira Strauss.

Patricia struggled with reading and writing well into adulthood before being diagnosed with dyslexia. That experience became a deeply personal calling. Through a $23 million endowed legacy gift, the Strausses established the Ira and Patricia Strauss Fund for Children’s Literacy to help children receive the support that Patricia did not have early in her life.

Their story reflects philanthropy at its best: personal experience transformed into lasting public impact. The Strausses did not simply fund a program. They entrusted our Community Foundation to steward their vision across generations, to follow research and work alongside educators, families and experts to strengthen literacy throughout our region at a systemic level that ensures long-term investments in our local schools while also immediately benefiting students today.

The results from the 2025–2026 school year demonstrate what that commitment can make possible.

In Sarasota County, all first-grade teachers received intensive professional learning that strengthened phonics-based literacy instruction for approximately 2,300 students across 25 elementary schools. Reading proficiency increased from 25 percent at the beginning of the year to 64 percent by year-end, meaning approximately 1,175 additional first-graders reached grade-level proficiency.

Those numbers represent children who can more confidently understand a story, follow directions, solve a word problem and begin to see themselves as capable learners.

Universal dyslexia screening also reached 3,600 Sarasota County students in kindergarten through third grade, identifying 527 children who needed targeted interventions. (That rate, about 15 percent, is in line with nationwide estimates that dyslexia affects roughly one in five students.) The sooner we understand why a child is struggling, the sooner educators and families can provide the right support.

In Manatee County, investments in teachers, coaches, paraprofessionals and administrators helped improve reading proficiency from kindergarten through third grade, with 56 percent of third-graders meeting expectations—the highest level in the district’s history.

In DeSoto County, kindergarten readiness began at just 16 percent in the 2025-2026 school year, the second lowest readiness rate in the state. But by the end of the year, kindergarten reading proficiency reached 58 percent, nearly matching the statewide average. Every kindergarten through second-grade student also took home more than 30 books, helping families make reading a part of their life beyond the classroom.

Meaningful change rarely comes from one grant, one program or one school year. It happens when we identify challenges early, give families the support they need, and remain committed for the long term.

There is a role for all of us. Read with a child. Give books. Volunteer as a tutor. But also support the people who help children learn to read. When we do that, we do more than help students get better grades. We expand what that child can learn, imagine and make possible, for themselves and for our community.

Jessica Muroff  is the President and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. 

Just for a moment, think about any significant life change you made and how you felt about it during that time. You may remember that it was both exciting and stressful. It likely evoked similar emotions in those who care about you: friends, colleagues, and parents.

A new group of teens has started moving through the final years of high school in our region. Talk about a time of change! For parents and caregivers, it can be glorious and challenging all at once. The idea of preparing for graduation, embracing the newness of a college journey, moving away from home, or taking different steps toward independence can be a lot to handle.

Students are more likely to thrive when the adults who support them are also doing well. Yet parents and caregivers are often the last people to ask for help because their attention remains focused on their children, even as they move on.

We observe this every year at the Selby Foundation. As part of our scholarship selection process, we read essays and conduct interviews with young people who often share what is concerning to their families during this transition period.

Who will care for younger siblings in the home? How can they afford college without creating burdens for the family? What happens when financial aid does not fully cover tuition, books, food, and other expenses?

Resources are available to students through youth-serving nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and school programs. But what support is available to adults in their lives?

The Selby Foundation, Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, and Resilient Retreat came together to explore that question. This year, a creative series of support programs will focus specifically on the needs of parents and caregivers of teenagers and young adults. Informed in part by what we have learned from our Selby Scholars, the free, online sessions will be offered in the evenings. Participants can join the programs from the privacy and comfort of home, attending all sessions or just one or two.

Resilient Retreat has designed each one through a parent and caregiver lens, drawing on the experiences of facilitators who were first-generation college students or are parents of young adults. They will share strategies to help participants:

• Manage and regulate their responses during stressful times
• Communicate and connect with their children during periods of transition
• Build greater resilience
• Care for their own needs while continuing to support their children and families

The sessions are September 17; October 1, 15, and 29; and November 12, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Zoom.

Now in its eighth year of operation, Resilient Retreat has become a respected nonprofit resource for individuals, organizations, students, helping professionals, and first responders. Its evidence-based programs—offered online and on its beautiful 84-acre campus—help people build resilience and thrive. All of the organization’s work is trauma-informed, meaning its programs recognize how difficult experiences can affect people and are designed to help every participant feel safe, respected, and supported. It also offers a free, confidential Kind Line, a trauma-informed warm line that provides compassionate support, resource referrals, and a listening ear to individuals navigating life's challenges.

Nonprofits throughout our region address critical family needs through preventive and responsive programs focu

sed on food insecurity, housing, employment, and other challenges. Building resilience is also essential, particularly when the inevitable changes of life bring stress or temporary hardship.

We hope parents and caregivers will join us and care for themselves.

It's simple to register: shorturl.at/oV8yW.

Susie Bowie is the President and CEO of The William G. and Marie Selby Foundation. 

Pictured: Caption: Selby Scholars experiencing Resilient Retreat earlier this year. Provided photo.

To register click here

Labor Day is upon us, and if you’re anything like me, you already feel the summer starting to loosen its grip. The days aren’t cooler yet. But something shifts this time of year. Fewer out-of-state plates. Shorter waits at the restaurants I like. And a kind of quiet that settles over this place before it all picks back up again.

Every year around this time, I catch myself doing the thing so many locals do: waiting. Waiting for season to start, for the calendars to fill up, for the “real” reason to go see something. But this is the time to check out music, art, dance, theater – from experiences and performances to exhibitions or even take a class. A place to see the work from our friends and neighbors at The Players, Venice Theatre, Art Center Sarasota, Venice Art Center, and Fogartyville, to name a few. And let’s not forget larger stages are coming alive as ensembles like the Sarasota Orchestra are tuning up again.

Don’t wait.

September might seem like the slowest month of the year, but it’s not a slow month for the arts. That’s the part people miss. The spotlights still turn on and the galleries keep installing art. Florida’s Culture Coast doesn’t go quiet because the traffic does. If anything, this the best-kept secret of the year, our own community, wide open, easy to get into, with none of the crowds we’ll be talking about again come February.

So, this month, I’d love for you to be a tourist in your own town.

I mean that literally. Do the thing you’d do if you were visiting Sarasota for the first time. Look up what’s playing. Walk into a gallery you’ve driven past a hundred times but never actually entered. Catch a set with the Jazz Club of Sarasota on a Monday night. Treat this place the way someone from Ohio would treat it in February: on purpose, without occasion.

Because that’s the truth about living here that’s easy to forget when you’re in it every day. The things that make people pack up and fly a thousand miles to visit us are still here in September. They don’t go anywhere. We stop noticing them, the way you stop noticing your own view.

This is also, selfishly, the moment when a little bit of attention goes the furthest. Arts organizations count on a strong close to summer to carry them into the bigger months ahead. A ticket bought in September isn’t just a ticket. It’s a vote of confidence, right when it’s needed. It tells an organization, a musician, a curator; you don’t have to wait for the crowds to matter. We already think you matter.

Sarasota earned the name of Florida’s Culture Coast, but a name like that isn’t something you claim once and move on from. It’s something you have to keep choosing to live inside of month after month, including the quiet ones. Especially the quiet ones. That’s when you find out whether it was ever really true.

So, consider this your nudge. Before the calendars fill up, before the season conversation starts all over again, take an evening this month and go be curious about your own town. See what just opened. You might be surprised what you find waiting for you, quietly, in the place you already call home.

Visit sarasotaarts.org to explore all the ways you can engage with Sarasota’s vibrant cultural scene this September.

Brian Hersh is the CEO of the Arts and Culture Alliance of Sarasota County.

Photo courtesy of Arts and Cultura Alliance of Sarasota County.