President / CEO: Yvette D. Clayton, MBA
My passion around helping students began in 2002 while I was working on my Master of Business Administration degree.
I realized students needed to obtain skills around obtaining internships and jobs. I also knew they needed to have the skills to not only obtain the job, but to also excel professionally.
That is when Building Toward the Future Career Readiness Program began. The company I worked for at that time sponsored the program consecutively for four years. During that time, I had the pleasure of working with very talented inner city youth.
Through the years, I have remained passionate about helping students. In 2015, I turned the program into an LLC now known as the Building Toward the Future Student Program.
I obtained my undergraduate degree from Wright State University in Interpersonal and Organizational Communications and Master of Business Administration from David N. Meyers University. I have a total of 26 years of Human Resources and management experience in various industries.
Further exploring my passion for preparing students to excel in the professional world, I transitioned to academia in 2011. While instructing at Bryant & Stratton, a 2-year college, I taught Internship Prep Seminar classes. I then went on to a position as the Business Experiences Manager at Kent State University assisting business undergraduate and graduate students with finding internships and full time positions. After two years in that role, I took on two other simultaneous positions – Career Adviser and Instructor. As an instructor, I taught several Business Professional Practices classes and a Freshman Exploring Business class. As a Career Adviser, I enjoyed assisting students with career-related topics such as interviewing techniques, networking skills, resume and cover letter writing. After relocating to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I was an Adjunct Instructor at Baton Rouge Community College and taught Business Communication.
I also enjoy publicly speaking to various classes, groups, and audiences.
I am currently a member of the National Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Additional professional accolades include:
– Applaud an Adjunct Program Nominee
– Teaching Award Nominee
– Who’s Who in Black Cleveland – First Edition
I look forward to working with you so that we can help you build toward the future.
Please complete a contact information form on our Contact Us page so you can obtain the professional tools needed to succeed.
6 thoughts on “About Us”
I was recommended this blog by my cousin. You’re amazing!
Thanks!
Thank you for visiting my website and for the comment. I’m not sure who your cousin is, but I’m glad he recommended you visit my site. If you have any questions around career advice, this is the site for you! Please feel free to read through articles and watch videos that you may feel are helpful to you. I wish you the best in your career endeavors.
What a fabulous background in education you possess. You are doing wonderful things for high school, pre-college, and college students, in particular inner city students, to prepare them for real readiness and success in real-world jobs when they get out of school.
Your extensive experience and knowledge for over 26 years is helping these students make a name for themselves. This is truly special work that you are doing with your organization BTF Yvette.
Not only do I applaud you, I give you a standing ovation.
Kaju
Kaju, thank you for visiting my site and for the very kind words. It has been such a passion of mine to help students be the best they can be for a long time now and I get such a great feeling when working with them. It’s a truly wonderful feeling when people, such as yourself, give me accolades for my work. It confirms I’m in the right place at the right time. Thank you, once again, for visiting.
Thank you, Mrs. Clayton, for organizing this comprehensive portal teaching student the necessary skills and mindset for professional development. The valuable information provided here is much needed in today’s world. It will certainly prove beneficial and advantageous to those who take action and implement your suggestions.
In my humble opinion, this type of career readiness training is under-served in secondary and post-secondary academia. Professional Development, Personal Development, and Health and Wellness should be offered at the very least as electives. It seems as though topics like these are not readily available.
I could not agree with you more in the value of a good mentor. If it were not for a mentor earlier in my career, I would not be where I am today. At this time, I have a fantastic, motivating online mentor by the name of Alonzo Brown. Alonzo’s mentor is the world famous, Les Brown.
I will include a link to Alonzo’s site below for anyone interested. He recommends a company called National Wealth Center. The company’s Chief Operating Officer is a young man by the name of Marcus Taylor. Taylor is a fiery life coach who is very passionate and inspirational. I watched three of his videos as I pedaled on the stationary bike at Planet Fitness tonight and I seemed to increase speed the longer he spoke!
But I digress…Thanks again for your contribution to our future generation!
By the way, my daughter just got accepted into the Xavier School of Pharmacy in New Orleans. I will send her here for information as she progresses through the program.
Nathan, thank you very much for stopping by, for the kind words and comments. As you have read in my bio, when I saw a gap with high school students and the skill set needed to obtain job opportunities, I knew I needed to get involved. I loved teaching in higher education to help students along their career paths. I still receive messages from past students updating me on jobs they’ve gotten and thanking me for teaching them the skills needed to obtain those jobs. It warms my heart to hear these great success stories.
That’s awesome you have a mentor. I have a mentor as well and she is amazing. I am very familiar with Les Brown and his awesome motivational spirit. It is great to have the motivation of others to really keep up headed in the right direction. There is no doubt about that.
Congratulations to your daughter on her acceptance into Xavier School of Pharmacy. That is such a tremendous honor and I wish her well in all her career endeavors.
Please tell her to stop by my site any time. Thank you, once again, for stopping by and for the comments. I look forward to you visiting again, soon.