Andy Cassler joined The Heritage Group (THG) in August 2023 in a newly created role, Workforce Planning and Talent Development Partner, to lead the company’s high school programming initiatives and strategy. “We’d hosted a few standalone high school experiences, but nothing programmatic, nothing strategic in that way,” Cassler says.
Since that summer, Cassler has helped grow THG’s early-in-career high school opportunities to include a four-week paid summer experience and a work study program during the school year. In the process, he has seen the value of engaging with students and how the time invested in early-in-career programming enriches both employees and students.
THG dipped its toe into the work-based learning environment with a partnership with Indianapolis-based Providence Cristo Rey High School, a Catholic, coeducational, college and career preparatory high school offering a transformational educational experience to students with economic need.
“Providence Cristo Rey High School has a corporate work study program where their students work one day a week at a company or nonprofit, wherever they’re partnered. We had done a semester of that corporate work study program in the spring of 2023 with one student, which set us up to grow to three students for the fall semester,” he says. Cassler introduced THG to students at the school’s job fair, as well as providing resources and support for the students and their managers.
However, THG did not offer any type of work-based learning programming for high school students outside of the school year. That changed last summer with a new program called Pillars of Potential.
The four-week program is a paid experience for participants who are drawn from THG’s non-profit partners, school relationships, THG employee children and Fehsenfeld family members. Participants receive many opportunities to grow as young professionals through the development of soft skills, learning about THG’s culture and family of companies, and hearing from company employees about different business problems that they encounter in the workplace. There’s also networking and team building built into these experiences, Cassler adds.
At the end of the four weeks, participants give a short presentation focused on their experience and growth in the program. In addition, students address a problem they learned about from a company employee and provide potential solutions to that problem.
Though the high school programming is young, Cassler says THG is in the process of determining its long-term strategy. “How do we improve upon the program that we currently have? How can we expand it and get more people involved in that process of mentoring a young person, managing a young person and showcasing the work they do so that students can see different career paths, specifically at THG, but even beyond that?” To date, the Pillars of Potential program has had 24 students participate, eight in 2024 and 16 this year.
Beyond the new summer program, THG invests in other internship programs, says Joe Ball, communications manager at THG.
THG’s Kids Science Camp is an opportunity for THG employees’ children to experience science related to THG businesses in a fun environment hosted at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. THG employees lead experiments to bring STEM learning to life in this day camp environment.
THG also provides a scholarship program for the college-aged children of THG employees and they have a partnership with the Orr Fellowship.
“At The Heritage Group, it’s kind of like this 15-year pipeline and even if a student doesn’t end up getting a career with us or one of our operating companies, it’s still a long-term investment and it’s a long-term investment in STEM-based education and that’s ultimately the legacy that we want to leave,” says Ball.
