Profile: James Rone and the Project Success Institute

James Rone joined the Project Success team in 2017 as the Project Success Institute Program Manager. As a performing artist, youth worker, and certified teacher, he brings a unique perspective and approach to fostering an environment of learning, growth, and community within the Institute.

Project Success launched the Institute last year thanks to funding from early commitments to the Project Success Dreams to Futures campaign. Now in its second year, the Project Success Institute is a multipurpose classroom space offering a series of 10-week certificate-earning programs in addition to single-day learning opportunities, week-long intensives and more.

Institute programming is available to Project Success high school students four nights per week, providing students the opportunity to earn certificates in Health and Wellness, Coding, the Arts, Finance, and Cooking.

James uses the metaphor of a restaurant to describe how the Institute’s offerings expand what is available to students. He remembers that when he was growing up in England, his town only had a couple of restaurants, so along with the food he had at home, that was all he knew. When he moved to the United States at age 11, he realized there were so many other things “on the menu” that he didn’t know about before. At the Institute, Project Success expands the “menu” of options students can explore, but this “menu” includes interests, career paths, and practical skills.

He says, “Because we live sometimes very narrow, segregated existences, we don’t have the opportunity to see what kinds of opportunities are available to us, whereas there are other folks who are taking full advantage of those opportunities, because perhaps they’re connected to people who live those lives … And so for me, a big part of the Project Success Institute is helping folks understand what else is on the menu, so if they want to, they could order it. And if they don’t, they don’t have to.”

James’ background is in theater — he is a performer — as well as education, curriculum design and arts administration. Prior to joining PS, James spent four years as a public school teacher.

As a young person, he “found his people” in a youth theater troupe. He also recalls a director he worked with as a young person who stood out because he treated James like a professional actor. These experiences inform James’ approach to working with young people today: “I try to treat them like whole people. ‘Kids first’ is not just a mantra here [at Project Success].”

This feature was originally written by Project Success alumna Claire Eisenberg and published in the June 2019 issue of the Project Success Alumni Newsletter.