Peoria mayor's youth program empowers local high schoolers

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — A program dedicated to setting students up for success is embarking on another year.
Peoria Public Schools students are participating in the annual Mayor's Youth Program For High School Students, a summer initiative that involves beautifying the city over the next eight weeks.
Nick McMillion, communications specialist for the Peoria Public Works, explained what kind of benefit the students get from participating in the program.
'They recognize the value of the hard work and impact that they will be putting into the community throughout the summer,' said McMillion. 'I think they really respect that, and because of that, this program is very well-respected.'
Peoria City Council agrees to fund remaining PeoriaCorps term
Students who are between 16 and 18 years old are paid for summer beautification work including planting, mulching and removing litter throughout the city, where they often work alongside participants in PeoriaCorps.
The program also involves career exploration activities on Fridays, like college and trade school visits, tours of healthcare and manufacturing facilities, and listening to guest speakers.
'We're really geared up to make this summer as successful as possible for the students, for the city, and everyone involved. It's such a great program, and we're really excited to be able to do it another year.'
The program originally had 100 students when it first started, and they were put into groups of 10. Now, it's gotten smaller and adapted to make the workflow better.
Now, 24 students are selected for the program out of over 100 applicants from Peoria High School, Manual and Richwoods.
This year's speaker at the kickoff event was PPS Superintendent Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat, who spoke about how the kids in the program can find what career they want to go into and how to be successful.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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