GTCC Career and College Promise student helping to open line of communication with his fellow high schoolers

“We want to make you feel like you belong to the world.”

Jeremiah Jett hopes to earn a bachelor’s degree in communications. The 17-year-old Guilford Technical Community College student is off to a solid start.

Jett is part of the Career and College Promise program at GTCC and hopes to transfer to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jett will graduate from The Point Leadership Academy in the spring at about the same time he will receive an associate degree from GTCC.

The Career and College Promise offers North Carolina high school students the chance to earn college credits at a community college campus and is tuition-free for high school juniors and seniors. Students can earn college credit transferable to all University of North Carolina System institutions and many of North Carolina’s independent colleges and universities.

Jett, a Greensboro native, began a podcast earlier this year aimed at helping young people become better communicators. And while that podcast, Youthful Conversations, hasn’t reached viral proportions yet, it did reach 40,000 views in its first season.

“The reason I started a podcast was because I have been a communicator for a long time. I started public speaking and mentoring in the sixth grade,” said Jett. “I have spoken to over 3,000 students and have mentored over 200 students.

“I wanted to have a bigger influence. I had seen that young people could not capture their dreams and goals because of a lack of communication skills.”

Youthful Conversations was founded on a basic premise: gather young people together, give them a subject, and let them explore and talk about the topic. It turned out to be a simple but powerfully effective concept.

“From the feedback I have received, we have helped people put their goals on paper. I’m a heavy believer that the first step to seeing success is to put it on paper,” said Jett. “We have provided a platform where young people can feel a sense of belonging.”

Each of the 15 episodes, which was broadcast live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, was centered around a chosen topic that was impactful among high school students. A panel of three young people, including Jett, and one adult spent 90 minutes discussing the issue and sharing ideas and experiences.

The premiere episode was about mental health issues, which provided the perfect springboard for the rest of the season. The topics for following shows included relationships, entrepreneurship, sports, community, and the power of music, among others.

“People say the platform gives them a sense of belonging, and they are able to communicate what they have felt inside for a long time,” said Jett, noting by season’s end the podcast had archived more than 40,000 views from around the world. “We want to make you feel like you belong to the world.”

The 15^th and final episode of the season was held in front of a live audience on the campus of North Carolina A&T University. Ten previous guests were invited to participate in the 90-minute show with topics including mental health and politics.

“That day was very successful. It was an amazing turnout, almost maximum capacity for the space we were given,” said Jett, who estimated between 150 and 200 people present.

Jett is now in the planning stages for the second season of Youthful Conversations. There are probably changes coming, with more live events and perhaps going on the road for a show or two.