How One Leader Brought a “Scale Mentality” to Sector-Specific Job Training: An Interview with Jonathan Pride

The Economic Mobility Catalog’s Strategy Guide on sector-specific job training provides guidance on how to design, implement, and evaluate initiatives that create pathways to high-quality jobs. One example of such an approach is NPower, a program that provides free technology training and certifications to military-connected individuals and young people from economically disadvantaged communities, along with wraparound supports to help participants navigate barriers to participation.

NPower is a national network that has sites in 16 cities, including Dallas. In 2021, NPower Dallas embarked on an ambitious expansion to other markets in Texas under the leadership of Jonathan Pride. The expansion has enabled NPower to reach more people in more communities and put more military-connected individuals and young people on pathways to upward mobility.

In this edited Q&A, Jonathan shares insights into how he helped NPower expand its footprint in Texas, why human connection and confidence are important markers of success, and how multifaceted supports can disrupt cycles of generational poverty.

How would you describe your professional background and involvement with NPower?

I joined NPower in March 2021. I came from the corporate world and brought a “scale mentality:” how can we grow the program? How can we do more? How can we reach more? When I joined, we were only NPower Dallas proper, and the program was only veteran- and veteran spouse-serving. Other NPower organizations in the country had larger class sizes and also included young adults from marginalized communities. I saw an opportunity to expand our reach to more than just veterans. As a New York City guy born and raised, I knew that there are a lot of young adults out there who are struggling.

So I did a listening tour in the community to understand, what are the barriers the students face? I identified social support services that can hold our students up while they’re in our program, such as transportation, housing, and food security. We worked with veteran organizations to provide wraparound support. Whether our veterans needed the support immediately or not, they were plugged in preemptively to the social services in Dallas. Then we started the conversation with Fort Worth, and with different entities.

NPower eventually expanded to Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. How did you build relationships in these regions to make the expansion possible?

When we started thinking about going from just Dallas to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and the surrounding counties, again we leaned into the community and tried to find as many partners who would sponsor as possible. It actually wasn't that difficult, because the need is there. There was a tremendous amount of support for it. We received funding from organizations like the Rainwater Charitable Trust and United Way Tarrant County. Tarrant County College provided in-kind office space. So beginning in 2022, we opened our program in North Texas to the full NPower demographic, including young adults, veterans and their spouses.

I leveraged connections in San Antonio through USAA [the veteran-serving financial services company] to explore launching a full program there. They essentially fully funded our expansion into San Antonio based on the strength of our North Texas partnerships. At the same time, we pursued government funding and secured a $1.8 million American Rescue Plan Act grant from Harris County. The launch in Houston was an instant success. We ran news clips and did interviews with newspapers, and within the first five days of launching the program, we received over 700 applications for 50 slots.

All of this turned us from serving 85 students a year in 2021 to about 560 by the end of 2024. We tripled our staff and quadrupled our budget. In terms of the economic impact, we estimated that NPower generated more than $10 million of return on investment in Texas last year through job placements and reduced reliance on public assistance.

What is an example of a time you tried something that didn’t work? What did you learn from it?

When we were expanding to serve different populations, we did something super "crazy" at the time: we went to the school district. NPower hadn't done this historically. In 2022-2023, we piloted a dual enrollment program with Uplift Preparatory Academy, a public charter school network in Texas where 84% of students qualified for free and reduced lunch. Graduating seniors in their spring semester would enroll in our tech fundamentals program, earn industry-recognized credentials, and be supported by Dallas College. We enrolled a pilot class of about 35 seniors.

Ultimately this was an area where we "failed." We had the right intentions, but the kids were coming out of Covid era virtual learning, and we were not prepared to offer our program in person. 94% of the students went to college because Uplift encourages college enrollment, but only two or three out of the 35 students in the pilot class tested and were certified for the industry-recognized credential. So it depends who you ask: some in our organization saw it as a success because of college placement, while others viewed it as a failure due to certification rates.

But there’s a story coming out of that experience that is really special. There was one student named Jaden who would sleep through the four hour class. When our social support manager asked him why he was sleeping, he said, “Miss, you don’t understand. I’m the oldest in the family. My mom’s a single mom. I work after school, get off at 10 PM. By the time I get home and do homework, I gotta get up for sports at 6AM. This is the only time I have to sleep. So I’m listening, I’m here, but you don’t understand what it takes for me to even be here.”

That was a gut punch for us. Jaden’s graduation was an in-person event at Bank of America’s office headquarters in Plano. He lived in Southern Dallas and took a bus to the top of the line, took an Uber as far as he could afford, and then he ran the rest of the way in a suit, in the rain. He arrived drenched, but he was there. I was a speaker at the graduation and was able to share Jaden's story and his commitment to excellence. So when some folks say the Uplift program wasn’t a success because of the low certification rates, I say, look at Jaden. He ran miles to the graduation in the rain because it meant something to him.

How do you think about measuring success at NPower?

Quantitatively, job placement is most important for me. In Texas, we specifically focused on the quality of the jobs our students obtained. We also measure starting wages, and we informally track the starting salaries for second placements. The initial job might be an internship or apprenticeship that provides immediate income, but the second placement often indicates true upward mobility. We also consider the real income that we pour back into the community. It’s hard to quantify and measure, so we don’t have formal quantitative reporting to back it up, but we do our best to track it.

Qualitatively, we look at the career pathway for each individual. We ask if alumni feel like they can apply for roles they wouldn't have considered before NPower. We gather this data through our alumni engagement managers, who conduct follow-up check-ins at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, and then at 2 and 3 years post-program. Many alumni also voluntarily share their progress due to the strong connections we form with them.

When you look at the paradigm that exists today of generational poverty, sometimes it's passed down even without knowing. It's this idea that my parents have done this, and I do this, and my kids will do this. When you break that paradigm, you're changing so much more than we can measure. I saw the confidence that someone receives when they feel seen. They just operate differently. One of the things we offer through our program and our social support managers is professional attire. We have partners who give vouchers, like Men's Wearhouse in Dallas. When we see our students after they bought a $250 suit at a speed networking event in person, their back is straighter, their chin is up, they're shaking your hand. You can't measure that confidence. They feel seen, they feel good, they feel like they deserve to be in those rooms. For the students we serve, we’re changing generations, not even just changing lives. That's something you can't measure or put in a report, but those confidence thresholds are how I measure my success.

What are you most proud of?

There's no shortage of need or hurt in the community, and whatever we do helps somebody. When you operate under that guidance and are bold, even if you fall short like we did with Uplift, lives still change, people still move upward, and communities are still impacted. I am proud that I helped others see what was possible in Texas. I was hired as the atypical executive director because I had a corporate background in sales. They saw that I talked about growth, growth, growth. From day one it was always, "How do we scale this thing and help more people?"

I'm most proud that people like Maricza, Mindy, and Diana made this all possible. Without their belief, I couldn't have done any of it. Maricza [an NPower alum and staff member] leaned in, saying, "Okay, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know how you're going to do it, because we've never done it before, but I believe in what you're trying to do, and I know as an alumnus what this program did for me. So if you tell me that these efforts will help more people like me, then I'm in." That's all I needed, because with that, Maricza sometimes worked 60-hour weeks. People worked long hours. They traveled. They were away from their families. But we built something that will stand the test of time in Texas.

What would you say are your keys to success?

We have to operate in the world of the possible. I lead through the lens of possibilities in my five regions today. "Can you do it? Why should you do it? And then how do we do it?" When you lead through those lenses, it kind of unlocks people. If we fail, we learn. If we win, we succeed, and we do it again, bigger and grander.

The first key to success I tell my executive directors now is, "No idea is a bad idea. If it can be conceived, you can achieve it." It's going to take a heck of a lot of work, and it's going to take buy-in from your team. I will work on the buy-in above me, but you've got to get the buy-in below you, because if your staff don't believe you, then it's not going to work. If they can believe you and they can see your vision, then you can do it.

The second thing I'd say goes back to Jaden and the human elements. It really only takes one. Our alumni are our largest referral source. They are our megaphones. They are our brand ambassadors. The fact that alumni refer their families to us because it's changed their lives is why I'm still here and doing what I do, because it really only takes one positive experience for someone else to tell someone else. And then that two becomes four, it becomes eight, becomes sixteen. It's exponential. The power of the human connection is the most contagious force on this planet. If we change one community, we can change two and four, and so on.