Home » Where Opportunity Knox to graduate first 2018 cohort from Senior Leaders Corporate Fellowship Program on May 2

Where Opportunity Knox to graduate first 2018 cohort from Senior Leaders Corporate Fellowship Program on May 2

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (April 30, 2018)—Where Opportunity Knox, a regional initiative to connect transitioning veterans and/or military spouses to jobs and careers, announced today that its first 2018 cohort and fifth cohort overall of an 8-week Senior Leaders Corporate Fellowship Program will graduate from the program on Wednesday, May 2, 2018. The graduation ceremony will be held at 10:00am ET at Palma Hall at Fort Knox.

Where Opportunity Knox, in partnership with Fort Knox Education Services, launched the new eight-week Senior Leaders Corporate Fellowship Program in February 2017. In this program, senior military leaders, in the beginning stages of their transition to a civilian career, have the opportunity to spend four days a week working in a regional business where they work on projects, shadow business leaders and experience the civilian workplace. Each Fellow also receives weekly classroom training on Mondays at Fort Knox to learn about resume writing, interview skills, using social media in a job search, etc.

The thirteen Fellows who will graduate from the program as part of this cohort include Sergeant First Class Anthony Torres who participated at Jim Beam Suntory; Sergeant First Class Yvette Poole who participated at Flex Films; Sergeant First Class Donald Jenkins at Brown-Forman; Master Sergeant Russ Watts at the Kentucky Commission on Military Affairs; Sergeant First Class Jason Kirk at Family Scholar House; Sergeant First Class Donald Anderson, Sergeant First Class Marie Cantu, Master Sergeant Frank Lett and Colonel John Clement at GE Appliances; and Master Sergeant Robert Kubash, Lieutenant Colonel Stephanie Bowers, Sergeant First Class Jerry Bryant and Sergeant First Class Stephen Rogers at Trilogy Heath Services.

Following this May graduation ceremony, thirty-three Fellows will have graduated from the program in the first five cohorts. A record 90 percent of the Fellows who participated in the 2017 quarterly cohorts have already taken new jobs in the Greater Louisville region. Three additional quarterly cohorts are planned for 2018 and Where Opportunity Knox is actively recruiting other companies to participate. If your company is interested in joining the Corporate Fellowship Program, please contact Whitney Allen at [email protected].

Where Opportunity Knox, which launched in September 2014, is a regional initiative to connect transitioning veterans and military spouses to jobs and careers in the Greater Louisville region, now through focused efforts to bring veteran talent to the employer’s doorstep through fellowships and showcases. By connecting veteran talent to employers in our region through impactful workplace experiences including the Senior Leaders Corporate Fellowship Program, an eight-week placement with local employers, as well as partial-day employer showcases, transitioning military personnel get a firsthand understanding of what it’s like to work at some of our region’s great companies. These events provide Where Opportunity Knox clients the opportunity to explore available job opportunities in a hands-on way, engage with those who are doing the jobs today and hear from company leadership about careers. And Participating Employers have the opportunity to showcase their companies to some outstanding Veteran talent. A win-win!

Where Opportunity Knox represents our region’s commitment to those who have served our country and to our employers who so clearly need the talent that these veterans represent. While numerous employers throughout the country have made the commitment to hire veterans, there is no geographic region that has taken on this challenge. Approximately 100,000 Soldiers transition from active duty service annually through the Army Transition Assistance Program (SFL-TAP) which is headquartered at the U.S. Army Human Resources Command located at Fort Knox, Ky. With a significant number of those transitioning Soldiers stationed at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, Greater Louisville’s 26-county region has a unique economic development opportunity to tap into this highly skilled Veteran talent like nowhere else in the nation. The organization’s proximity to Fort Knox makes the Greater Louisville region uniquely suited to become a veteran talent magnet to meet the workforce needs of regional employers, while leveraging this proximity as a distinct competitive advantage for business retention, expansion and attraction.

Where Opportunity Knox is not a job placement service. There are many organizations, job boards, etc. to fill that need. This initiative is about developing a pipeline of transitioning veterans who are looking for a post-military place to live and work – a place that values veterans, offers a high-level quality of life and has a diverse and robust economy with available jobs and careers. The Greater Louisville Region is that place and Where Opportunity Knox is making those connections.