Inside a gymnasium located at the Ewing Marion Kauffman High School on Paseo Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri, there are 620 enthusiastic and eager teenagers. They are the interns hired in March of this year at a hiring fair sponsored by ProX, a nonprofit funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Its focus is on providing real-life work opportunities for teens in high schools in the Kansas City area.
The students are sent to rooms scattered throughout the building for coaching and guidelines on how to get an internship — how to interview, how to write about yourself, what to wear — and how it works once you’ve landed one.
18-year-old Chiagozie Chukwu wants to join the medical profession. He was at the ProX hiring fair and was awarded an internship shadowing medical staff at Children's Mercy Hospital, along with 11 other kids.
“I'm most excited about just helping people out. I mean, that's number one,” Chukwu said. "It brings me joy. It brings me peace.”
ProX, which started in 2021, began as a community movement and later funded by the Kauffman Foundation to provide a bridge between area companies and institutions, and high-schoolers interested in getting experience in prospective career fields. The nonprofit more aggressively reaches out and recruits in underserved school districts because hiring networks are harder to access there than they are in more affluent communities. The program provides resources that pair students with professionals with the hope that there will be a job for that student in the future. At the same time, companies get the benefit of extra hands.
The interns are with employers for five weeks, working a total of 125 hours. Upon completion, students are rewarded with a $1,250 stipend, and an elective credit.
For Chukwu, it’s more than the money. Being a high school football player, it always pained him to see a teammate injured on the field and not being able to help out. This is one of the reasons he’s interested in health care. Another is the tradition in his family.
“My mom's an RN, and my older sisters are (too), and my uncle is a nurse practitioner,” said Chukwu. “I'm willing to check it out and try and perform it myself”
Though the program is only four years old, it has placed a large number of interns with a growing number of employers, according to ProX Executive Director Solissa Franco-McKay.
“To date, we've been able to provide over 1,500 internships. So after this summer, it will be over 2,000,” said Franco-McKay. "ProX has been able to work with over 150 different employers throughout the years as well.”
The program is open to any current 9th-12th grade student living in the greater Kansas City region and has become one of the largest teen intern programs in the city.
Franco-McKay said by focusing on under-resourced communities and districts, ProX provides students access to career education and business contacts they wouldn’t otherwise have. The program, she said, hopes to create an education-to-career pipeline.
“So we do prioritize schools that have a high free and reduced lunch population, students that need a little bit extra support in being guided through the application process,” she said.
Growth with hiccups
In its short, four-year lifespan, ProX is beginning to see success. More students and employers are expressing interest. Employers are beginning to hire their best interns.
In 2025, 672 students received a ProX internship opportunity, while 24% of them are returning to the program. 95 employers have signed on this year, 54% of them have taken ProX interns over the past several years.
Children's Mercy Hospital has been taking interns for three years.
Talent Acquisition Program Director Angie Richardson said there have consistently been a lot of inquiries at ProX hiring fairs.
“Tables will have people 15 or 20 students deep,” Richardson said. “And that's difficult because, you know, by the time they get to the front of the line, there is a chance that spot might be gone, and they wasted some valuable time.”
With so many hospitals in the Kansas City metro, Richardson said she would like more healthcare professionals to step up and offer internship opportunities to these dedicated teens.
“I would love to see some other hospitals participating so we could provide some more health care experiences,” she said.
Franco-McKay said the lack of diverse career opportunities is the result of companies who withdraw from the program. Many of their former employers have had staffing shortages, which means not enough trainers or coaches available to guide the young people.
“You may come across some organizations that believe in our mission and vision and they want to participate,” Franco-McKay said. “But they can't because although we take care of a lot of administrative things, we also are asking them to invest their time for five weeks.”
Another challenge is simply finding companies or organizations that accommodate the wide array of interests from their growing student population.
“I had one young lady at the hiring fair say ‘You don't have any law firms!’ And I was like, you know what, we don't, I think you're right, that's something that we should have,” said Franko-McKay.
Nadia Green, who joined Chukwu on orientation day, had dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. But when she wasn’t selected by KC Pet Project’s Feline Care at the hiring fair, she accepted an internship with Aspen Contracting, a local roofing company. Though it's a different career path than what she’d hoped for, she’s game, and is embracing it as a learning opportunity.
“I'm excited to interact with customers, but at the same time I'm nervous I’m going to mess up,” said Green.
Moving forward
Franco-McKay says ProX improves each year and seeks feedback from its students and employers. During the summer, when teens are out doing their jobs, ProX staffers are hard at work tracking down future employers.
In the main building of Children’s Mercy Hospital, the first week of Chiagozie Chukwu’s internship is winding down, and he’s getting a hands-on lesson in how a dialysis machine works. During his second week, he’ll be learning about the hospital's ambulances and sophisticated trauma rooms.
Chukwu realizes how lucky he is to have the opportunity to get trained on trauma floors and with phlebotomists. It’s affirmed his chosen path. He'll study to become a nurse practitioner,
“I got thick skin, but we're all human,” he said. “Like, you're going to see some things like, dang, that really had an impact on me. Like, I'm not so tough after all, but it's really good to build that.”
His experience with ProX has helped him realize something he wants to share with his friends and peers.
“I strongly recommend you to take your summer for learning while you're young,” he advises. “You want to do vacations, nothing against that. But I'd rather for you to go to an educational experience, get an internship to build your knowledge, because no knowledge is a waste.”
