Season 1 Episode 6: Brittany Holmes, Vice President of ElevateEdAZ

Todd Sanders:
00:00
Well, welcome to the podcast. Today we are 
honored to have 
Brittany Holmes, who's the Vice President of ElevateEd, which is 
a program within the Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation. 
Brittany, welcome.
Brittany Holmes:
00:13
Thank you. Happy to be here.
Todd Sanders:
00:14
It's a pleasure to have you. Obviously we can read about your 
bio and your background, but tell us something about yourself 
that we wouldn't find on your b
io.
Brittany Holmes:
00:23
Oh my! Well, I love poodles and I lov
e motorcycles.
Todd Sanders:
00:30
Together?
Brittany Holmes:
00:30
Yeah, I guess so.
Todd Sanders:
00:32
All right. Favorite motorcycle then?
Brittany Holmes:
00:35
My own. I would say Softtail Slim Harley Davidson.
Todd Sanders:
00:39
Awesome. Excellent. We're going to talk about ElevateEd in a 
minute, but tell us wha
t's your role at the Chamber. When we 
hear foundation versus chamber, what's the difference?
Brittany Holmes:
00:52
My role, I'm the vice president for ElevateEdAZ. I get the 
pleasure of overseeing our education initiative with the 
foundation. The way we kind of think about the foundation 
related to the chamber, a lot 
of our work is very well... It's all 
very well aligned. For the chamber side of things, we focus a lot 
on the business side. And then for the foundation, it's really 
kind of the giving arm of the chamber, so thinking about 
engaging employers for workforce 
development, education. We 
do some research, and then there's also a wellness initiative 
within the foundation. I would just kind of consider that it's the 
501(c)(3) side of the chamber.
Todd Sanders:
01:38
Well, that makes sense. When a lot of people are thinking about 
the chambers or our chamber particularly, they th
ink about, for 
instance, the work that we do at the Capitol or some economic 
development related work, probably aren't thinking about 
education in terms of the work that we're doing, boots on the 
ground. Why? Why are we doing this work?
Brittany Holmes:
02:01
When you whittle it down, what we know that businesses are 
really struggling for is within workforce. I know that we talk to 
businesses all the time that are struggling to find the talent that 
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they need, and it became apparent that we needed a solution 
for that. When the foundation started about six years ago, we 
realized that we needed to better connect the business 
community within education, and we started within workforce 
development looking a lot at the adult level, people who are 
over 18.
Brittany Holmes:
02:35
ElevateEdAZ came about just thinking about pulling that thread 
back a little bit, getting into the high schools
and getting the 
business community more engaged and invested within 
education in our community. There's a whole lot of deed within 
high schools and the education community overall to really align 
what's happening in classrooms with what the future workfor
ce 
needs. I think for us, it's really filling that critical gap that we 
know exists.
Todd Sanders:
03:05
That's a really good point and we're hearing about that, more 
jobs than people, and there isn't great alignment. When you 
talk about this and sort of the roots of it, I would agree that a lot 
of this is what's the 
business case for it. Has there been an 
impact that also when you think about this work relates to 
students, parents, schools?
Brittany Holmes:
03:26
Absolutely, yeah. I think for ElevateEd, we've been able to really 
be boots on the ground within schools, which has shown us so 
much. I think it's easy to look at the ed
ucation system from the 
outside and kind of think of some ways that you'd like to see it 
improve. We know that our educators are doing everything that 
they can. They're working really hard day in and day out. Being 
able to bring the business community in t
here and provide that 
kind of support and really information for students and parents 
around what kind of pathways are really going to lead students 
into impactful futures.
Brittany Holmes:
04:10
A lot of our work is focused on high wage, high demand 
occupations, so making sure students are aware of and have 
access to
getting into those types of pathways. I think there's a 
lot more that we can do that I'd like to see our program do on 
the parent end of things. I would say a lot of it's been focused 
on students, which is incredibly important, and having coaches 
on campu
ses has been really necessary for us to do that work. I 
would love to have a little bit more parent engagement and 
involvement.
Brittany Holmes:
04:46
But I think for students, being able to see that businesses want 
to work with them, businesses are excited and they realize and 
understand that that's their future work
force and are starting to 
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invest back in the schools, I think there's just a lot of power and 
opportunity that can come from that.
Todd Sanders:
05:05
Yeah, no, I 100% agree with that. I think it's interesting when 
you think about probably the number of kids that we're not able 
to touch yet and the opportunity that th
ey might not get, and 
then where we are. Some of these schools, the fact that we're 
able to really change people's lives in a way that's absolutely 
transformational and has a really positive effect on the 
economy.
Brittany Holmes:
05:32
Absolutely, yeah. Right now we're currently in 10 local high 
schools and thinking 
about broadly being able to impact so 
many more students, and more specifically, students who may 
not have that social capital already, may not have parents or 
family friends that are working in the kind of jobs that are going 
to pay a really quality wage 
for them when they're out of 
school. Being able to bring folks in where they can envision 
themselves in those types of roles, I think is so powerful. For us, 
it's really creating that infrastructure and being able to amplify 
that throughout the region.
Tod
d Sanders:
06:22
No, I agree. I mean, some of the stories that 
I've heard where a 
kid will say, "Well, I didn't think college was for me, or I didn't 
think I could be in this profession because that was for other 
people." Kind of heartbreaking, but also really inspiring because 
we're able to show them, "No, this is fo
r you too. You can do 
this." That's why I think your work is so important. Let's talk a 
little bit about the mechanics of this. We've talked about boots 
on the ground, People might be wondering, okay, what does 
that mean? Does the chamber have employees at
the schools? 
How does this work?
Brittany Holmes:
06:52
Yeah, 
good question. We have collage and career coaches that 
are embedded at our partner school campuses. They're on 
campus at least three days a week at high schools. They are 
working on getting more students into internships, into job 
shadow opportunities, bri
nging in speakers from the 
community. They'll work on career exploration and awareness. 
We'll also have some career fairs, so really getting students 
connected in with businesses. And then more at the district 
level, we're doing a lot of work around dual e
nrollment and 
getting more students earning early college credit.
Brittany Holmes:
07:33
We know that there's a strong link between students 
matriculating into college and attaining those credits while 
they're in high school. They're way more likely to go on to 
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college if they get that early college credit. At the 
district level, 
we're working with our partners on that. They have their own 
goals towards that, so that's a really strong partnership we have 
with our school districts. And then also looking at industry 
certifications. Making sure that students are earnin
g industry 
recognized credentials in the schools.
Brittany Holmes:
08:07
Coaches can support that at the school level, but we have 
directors that work with our school districts and they're having 
a lot of conversations with the school district folks on how do 
we get more students completing industry recognized 
credent
ials and making sure they're ones that are really valued 
by industry.
Todd Sanders:
08:26
That's a good point. Certainly we can't expect the education 
system to be fully current all the time on what credentials are 
needed. I think this is an excellent way to bridge the gap. The 
other thing, I think, prior to this work
, it seemed like businesses 
have always wanted to be engaged, but it was always sort of, 
"Come and speak to our class or sponsor this day or that day." 
But now we have a relationship with between our schools and 
our businesses that can create that importan
t bridge between 
the two entities. You mentioned 10 schools. Is that where we 
started?
Brittany Holmes:
09:01
No. We started about two and a half years ago with one school. 
Academies at South Mountain was our first partner school 
within Phoenix Union High School District. Last year, we were at 
four schools and kind of
almost five. We were starting our work 
with the fifth. This year, we are at 10 with plans to be at 13 in 
the next few months. We have expanded really quickly and are 
really excited about that growth. But yeah, have really grown 
and been building this out 
over the last few years.
Todd Sanders:
09:37
Now we know why yo
u don't sleep. 13, is that the static number 
that we're looking to get to, or are we looking to expand further 
at some point? What are the thoughts?
Brittany Holmes:
09:49
We have big goals around being able to expand. I think for us, 
we are right now focused on making sure we have the 
infrastructure to support the ki
nd of growth that we'd like to 
see and making sure we build a scalable, sustainable model. 
That's an area that we're laser focused on right now is, how do 
we build this out in a way that we can scale? We know that the 
need and the interest are both out the
re for our program. Want 
to make sure that if we or when we expand into further schools, 
that we have that business support in order to meet that need.
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Brittany Holmes:
10:28
We want to make sure that any school we expand into that 
bu
sinesses are on the ready to be engaged. I think there's a lot 
that we want to be able to offer that we need the business 
support in order to do well.
Todd Sanders:
10:43
Well, I think it's smart. I mean, clearly it's tempting to keep 
expanding very quickly. Not that we haven't, but the idea that 
we need to make sure 
that it's sustainable because we're not 
doing anybody any favors if we're not able to support and we 
don't have the businesses lined up to partner with our schools. 
You mentioned we have 13 or we're going to 13. Are we in one 
district?
Brittany Holmes:
11:06
Sorry. Yes. We are in Phoenix Union High School District. We
're 
now with Mesa Public Schools. We have six schools within 
Phoenix Union, three schools with Mesa Public Schools, and just 
recently expanded into Paradise Valley School District at 
Paradise Valley High School. That one we're in the midst of 
hiring a coll
age and career coach for. Folks at PV might not be 
fully aware of us yet, but will be on campus there regularly very 
soon. And then are looking at expanding into two charter 
schools, as well as an additional district this school year. Those 
are the three r
emaining that we're working on.
Todd Sanders:
11:46
If someone 
watching today might say, "Well, we're seeing 
Phoenix, East Valley, North Phoenix. It seems like there might 
be some needs that we need to address on the West side," is 
that something you're thinking about?
Brittany Holmes:
11:56
Yes. We're thinking about potentially West Valley. We've also 
had some businesses within 
the Chandler area that have been 
really interested. It's sort of an interesting question of what 
areas are there the greatest needs within the schools and the 
students, and then where are businesses most excited and 
willing to engage? They aren't always a 
perfect marriage. That's 
part of the challenge in deciding how and where do you expand 
and when. That's part of the work that we're trying to figure out 
right now.
Todd Sanders:
12:32
If there are a business or a number of businesses, for instance, 
in an area that we're not currently serving and they want to talk 
to 
us, I mean, is that something we would entertain?
Brittany Holmes:
12:43
Absolutely, yeah. Something we're already entertaining. We do 
have some large businesses too that they're engaged in one 
area, like in the East Valley, but they have locations in areas that 
we're not currently partnered with ElevateEd. There's in
terest 
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even for our current partners with, hey, when are you coming 
here, when are you going to this area, because those locations 
of our business also have this workforce need and are hungry 
for this type of thing.
Todd Sanders:
13:17
Well, that's great. A couple of things that I think sort of rang a 
bell when you we
re talking. One of those is this idea of dual 
enrollment. For the people who might not be familiar, what is 
dual enrollment versus, for instance, Advanced Placement?
Brittany Holmes:
13:29
Both are linked for students to attain early college credit. AP or 
Advanced Placement, that's a class that students can take when 
they're in high school taught by a high school teacher. And at 
the end of it, they take an exam. There's a score system. If they 
get at least a three out of five, then for the most part, three, 
four and five will allow that student to get credit once they 
get 
to a college or university. AP is typically looked at as a really 
great option for students, specifically if they're going out of 
state or to a university. Dual enrollment is where a high school 
teacher is certified to teach that class and the student 
can earn 
college credit, but it's taught at the high school.
Brittany Holmes:
14:18
Teachers have to be certified in order to teach dual enrollment. 
There are less incentives for teachers to teach dual enrollment, 
but the real benefit for students is that they know if they attain 
a C or higher within that class typical
ly, then they know it's 
guaranteed college credit, typically with the community 
colleges, but there's also models like within schools for students 
to attain dual enrollment credit for the universities too. That 
can work as well. What we typically see is du
al enrollment 
linked to the community colleges.
Brittany Holmes:
14:55
It's a really great way for students to start building up credits 
while they're in high school. That then when they go on to 
college, they've already got six months, a year under their belt. 
It could save a lot of money once they get into college. 
But 
there are some differences in how those are incentivized at a 
state level, and then for what teachers get as a result. There's 
differences in what's offered by school and by state.
Todd Sanders:
15:23
It sounds like that's something we could work on. You 
mentioned saving money. If I take dual enrollment, is it fre
e?
Brittany Holmes:
15:29
No. It really varies broadly across s
chools and districts. There 
are some grants. Maricopa Community College has some dollars 
available for a certain number of credits depending on the 
school. And then some school districts pay a portion of the cost, 
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but typically dual enrollment is like $85 
per credit hour. A lot of 
that falls on students and it does create kind of a disparity or an 
equity issue, where if a student either doesn't qualify or has 
already taken too many credits or doesn't understand the 
process, it's really hard to get students 
actually through that.
Brittany Holmes:
16:09
That's a project 
we're working on closely with our schools and 
the community colleges on helping better articulate and kind of 
align that. It's something that all three of those parties are 
super invested in. There's a lot of really good work being done 
in order to address
some of these issues.
Todd Sanders:
16:29
My son or daughter i
s in one of these schools and we have a 
college and career coach. Can they help navigate this dual 
enrollment process because it seems a little complicated?
Brittany Holmes:
16:37
It is, yes. The coaches would be well aware of what the process 
is. There's also some schools that have liaisons from the 
community college
that are on campuses. They've been 
enormously helpful for students in figuring out what that path 
is, both getting enrolled in the college and then also enrolled in 
the actual class, because there's some steps students need to 
take. There is support at mo
st schools, and there's also a lot of 
information on Maricopa's website about dual enrollment.
Todd Sanders:
17:14
More to come on that. It sounds like though, if you're 
interested, there could be some money out there to help, which 
would defray costs once your child graduates, gets into the 
community college system 
could defray some significant costs.
Brittany Holmes:
17:28
Ye
s. I will say, it's a need based funding. A lot of it is linked to 
students receiving free and reduced lunch to qualify for the 
grants through Maricopa. Really kind of have to be able to 
navigate those systems, but there is some funding available, at 
least
for the schools that we're connected with.
Todd Sanders:
17:49
You mentioned credentialing. I think a lot of the times when 
people think credentials, they sort of think career technical 
education, which they think back to their days in high school 
when they were in shop class. I'm assuming it's not the same as 
it was
. Is that correct?
Brittany Holmes:
18:02
Yeah. I mean, there'
s definitely programs that are like shop. 
There's like construction technologies programs where students 
are earning credentials like OSHA 10, things that they can utilize 
within the workforce. But even thinking more broadly, one of 
our school partners is 
Phoenix Coding Academy. There's 
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credentials that those students are earning, whether they're in 
a software development pathway or a networking pathway, 
where they're actually industry certifications that those 
students are earning, so that when they gradua
te, they could 
put that on their resume and have an employer look at them.
Brittany Holmes:
18:39
It's not specifically just some of the shop type classes, but we're 
talking a broad range of industries where there's credentials 
now that students can attain in high school. Yes, it's primarily 
linked to the career and 
technical education programs.
Todd Sanders:
18:57
One thing I 
heard, I'd ask you to validate this, I heard that kids 
who go into career and technical education type courses, that 
could be healthcare, it could be engineering, it could be 
construction, tend to graduate at a higher rate and go to college 
at a higher rat
e. Is that true?
Brittany Holmes:
19:12
That is correct, yes. 
I think part of that too is that historically a 
lot of students actually don't take career and technical 
education until they're in their junior and senior year. When a 
lot of students leave and don't return to high school, a lot of 
that happens in early h
igh school years. There's a little bit of a 
nuance to the data, I will say. But overall, career and technical 
education is an amazing way to get students to see the 
relevance of what they're learning in the classroom and be able 
to actually see a path for 
themselves.
Brittany Holmes:
19:49
I think it makes a lot of s
ense why that would be the case, why 
students who really see the connection of school to what 
they're going to do afterwards want to stay and finish. I think 
there's a lot of power to students completing those pathways.
Todd Sanders:
20:05
I think this idea of applied learning is so interesting. I think when 
we talke
d about the legislature last year about see time and 
how we can look at different ways for kids to learn that might 
not necessarily be sitting in a chair, but doing things outside of 
the classroom. One of the things that I remember, we were 
doing a tour I 
think in South Mountain and kids were having 
trouble with geometry. It was too abstract, and then they ended 
up blending them with kids who were in a construction related 
class. And all of a sudden, geometry made a complete sense. 
Thinking about education 
differently I think can really yield 
some interesting results.
Brittany Holmes:
20:41
Absolutely. I think South Mountain and just like an academy 
model overall is really an interesting way, because those 
students are in classes like their English class where they could 
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be doing their writing assignment that's somethi
ng that's 
focused on something that they're learning within their 
cybersecurity program or that type of thing. Being able to 
actually see how that relates to something they would do after 
high school.
Brittany Holmes:
21:09
If we think back to our own high school experiences and you 
think about sitting in a classroom
and when am I ever going to 
use that, there's a lot right now that's being done at schools to 
answer that question. I think that's one of the most exciting 
things for career and technical education is that applied 
learning.
Todd Sanders:
21:26
Absolutely. Conversely, I really wanted to go to healthcar
e. 
Good. Al l of a sudden, you start taking some healthcare classes 
and you're like, "No, that's just not for me." That got a big 
mistake getting to college and that's a big amount of time 
wasted, but you could have learned that in high school.
Brittany Ho
lmes:
21:42
Yeah, absolutely. That's another great example. Yo
u could get 
your feet wet doing some kind of program and you realize, 
that's not what I want to do. I think for a lot of us who've 
changed their majors multiple times in college, if we could do 
some of that on the front end in high school, we could probabl
y 
save ourselves, our parents, our loans. We could save a lot of 
money if we figure that out a little bit earlier.
Todd Sanders:
22:09
I'd love to tell you I was on the four year plan, so yes, that 
would've been good. We're hearing obviously a lot of great 
success. What are some of the challenges?
Brittany Holmes:
22:19
I think anytime you're trying to mold business and educati
on 
together, you're going to have some challenges. I mean, some 
of it is logistical even, just figuring out when can students do 
internships, right? Making sure that there's flexibility for 
students to be able to get out and have some of these really 
impac
tful experiences is a challenge. More broadly, having 
enough offerings of things like internships and job shadows for 
students to be able to partake in. Students are really hungry for 
this.
Brittany Holmes:
22:56
They're really excited to get out there. I think for us, it's making 
sure that as we're building out our p
rogram and this model, that 
we have the ability to connect enough students into the 
business community. I'd say that's one of the biggest challenges.
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Todd Sanders:
23:17
It's interesting you should mention that, and I know we've had 
challenges because the minute you go to a business and say, 
"Hey, we want you to brin
g on high school interns," they 
immediately go to no. I know that's been a big challenge. Why 
should a business bring on high school intern and what value 
can they bring?
Brittany Holmes:
23:37
Yeah, great question. For businesses, these students are 
amazing. If you think about what these students are learning 
within
these career and technical education programs, they're 
actually coming to an internship within their senior year with a 
lot of skills already. There's actually work that they would be 
able to do to support that business. It's not just your typical high 
sc
hool experience for what we're promoting with internships. 
These are students that have gotten some skills and are working 
on certifications. There's that side of it. For businesses, it's an 
opportunity to test drive that talent before you're really making
that hiring decision.
Brittany Holmes:
24:23
We do really pro
mote paid internships as much as possible. We 
know not all employers can do it, but the majority actually that 
we're partnered with are offering paid opportunities for 
students. I will say what's been amazing is last year was our first 
year offering intern
ships, and nine out of 10 of those companies 
came back and wanted more interns, or at least wanted interns 
again, and then over half of them increased the number of 
interns. I think it speaks to the value that they saw from their 
interns the first year, an
d we're starting to build some 
momentum behind that.
Brittany Holmes:
25:04
I mean, there's so much opportunity to grow this and expand it, 
and it's really a business giving it a shot with, "I'll try one intern 
this year and see if I'm convinced." I think it's a way to try it out.
Todd Sanders:
25:20
So true. I think some of it is a leap of faith. I know we had a lot 
of discuss
ions with SRP, for instance. And given how regulated 
they are, there was concern. But at the top, they decided, 
"We're going to do this. It's the right thing to do." I think that's 
going to be a success. You mentioned Coding Academy. I'm 
assuming some of t
hose kids could make an impact at any one 
of these companies. You don't have to go work for a tech firm. 
Everyone has to deal with cyber today. Speak to that.
Brittany Holmes:
25:46
Thinking about one of our other employer partners, they had 
two interns last year, have wanted to have 10 interns this year 
and are real
ly building it into their model. Part of their business 
plan includes having these interns to do some of the work that 





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