Innovation and collaboration between departments are key to any organization's long-term success. At ECS, many such projects are part of the department of professional development and program innovation.
Not too many teens read the regulations for northeast corridor railroad transit in their spare time, but Romell is not your average teen. The recent high school graduate and six-year participant in the ECS Teens Takin’ Over workshops is a man on a mission.
“I was five years old when my mom lifted me up on her shoulders to watch the trains cross the 40th Street bridge,” Romell said. “From then on I had an undying passion for the railroad. That’s why I want to be a locomotive engineer."
For Romell, the controls of a train offer a window to a world beyond Philadelphia and an opportunity to see new places and meet new people. Participating in ECS programming has helped him stay on track with his plans.
“We all come here for the same thing, just to get away from the environment we’re growing up in. We’re urban teens, endangered youth. We’re surrounded by drugs, violence and that stuff, and in school a lot of kids bring that negativity with them,” Romell said. “In this program, you leave all that baggage in the street. Everybody that comes here comes wants to do something to better their lives and have something to look forward to.”
Train conductors must be age 21 or older so at 19, Romell has a few years to wait until he can start on his dream. In the meantime, he isn’t wasting time. He will be starting at community college in the spring to study engineering and is trying to land a part time job in retail electronics.
“This program has helped a lot of teens such as myself develop long-term goals and have a positive outlook on higher education,” Romell said. “It’s always 'yes you can' here.”