In July of 2022, Fox Rochester interviewed PeerForward CEO Gary Linnen to highlight the organization’s partnership with Nazareth College. As the new home base for PeerForward’s annual summer workshops, the college is playing a key role in training a new generation of Peer Leaders from around the country. These influential students go on to help their classmates prepare for postsecondary education and careers. Linnen explained the importance of holding these workshops on a college campus:
“It’s about getting them to understand the potential, that they can actually sit on that campus. A lot of times they’ve probably walked by the campus and never stepped foot on it.”
For many students, PeerForward workshops are their first on-campus experience, and they leave with the conviction that they belong in a college environment. As they go through workshops, Linnen explained, they also get a sense of a wide array of career options through interactions with PeerForward’s corporate partners, such as Deloitte and Geller & Company.
Linnen also emphasized the importance of cultivating partnerships that are mission-aligned: “The reason why we wanted to partner with [Nazareth] is because they believe in our mission. It’s about going from self to service. Nazareth is really big about service, and these individuals are going into being able to help their communities through service.”
Check out the full interview to learn more about how PeerForward is making an impact at Nazareth College and beyond.
