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By the Book

Boston-area teens get a crash course in business and life skills at Jodi Rosenbaum Tillinger's student-run bookshop

By Karen B. Manahan and Ting Yu (N.Y. '03)

"Dear Team, I apologize for not showing up or calling into work on Thursday, December 15, 2005. I have thought about working at More Than Words… [I]t is an opportunity of a lifetime that I shouldn't give up for being irresponsible… I would feel very grateful to have a second chance."

So began a letter from 17-year-old Nicole McRee. Failing a class, skipping school, and on the verge of dropping out of high school, McRee might not have seemed like a star employee in the making. But she found the capacity to succeed - along with the second chance she asked for - at a youth-run bookstore in the Boston suburb of Waltham, Mass.

Jodi Rosenbaum Tillinger (Houston '97), founder of the More Than Words bookshop, sees many kids like Nicole. The store employs about 35 teens from the Boston area each year; all are either homeless, in foster care, out of school or otherwise at risk. Most are referred to Tillinger by case workers, probation officers, or school counselors. And most, like Nicole, thrive when given a chance.

When she first came to More Than Words, "Nicole just didn't get it - what it meant to have a job," says Tillinger, who gave McRee her walking papers. "She stewed over it, but then wrote that letter, came through, and was a firecracker for us." McRee worked at the bookstore for more than a year, and with Tillinger's support, she earned her GED. Now a sophomore at Pine Manor College near Boston, she's mulling a career in law or social work.

In the last five years, more than 100 young people have worked at More Than Words. The teens spend up to 30 hours a week running all aspects of the business, from building shelves to running book drives to hosting open-mic nights at the café added last year. Tillinger says 82 percent of the store's alumni and current staff have earned their GED or high school diploma - an impressive number in a state with a 50 percent dropout rate for minority youth and where less than 35 percent of foster youth get their GED or diploma by age 18.

More Than Words is the culmination of Tillinger's own education in youth advocacy. As an undergrad at Emory University, Tillinger studied public policy with a focus on juvenile justice. She spent her junior and senior years working with child advocate attorneys in Atlanta. "I saw that one day they're placed in a foster home and then a week later we're talking to them for a vandalism charge," says Tillinger, who became convinced of the need for "a different type of program" - one that worked with kids already in the juvenile justice system.

After teaching first grade in Houston and earning her master's in education from Harvard, Tillinger set about exploring possible social ventures. She spent the next year researching youth-run enterprises and the bookselling industry. In 2004, she wrote a proposal and shopped it around to potential investors and partners. "The business model struck a bell with me," says Frank Galligan, an area director at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. He liked the idea of empowering youth by putting them "into a position of decision-making rather than telling them all the things they're doing wrong." He helped Tillinger write letters of affiliation for grants and referred kids to her.

A few months later, using grants and her own money, Tillinger rented a 150-square-foot office to pilot an online bookstore. Her staff consisted of four young men referred to her from a local group home. "I basically said, 'Show up every day, show up on time, and you can leave your crap at the door and be a professional,' "Tillinger says.

Little by little, with the support of several sponsors, the business took off. By the end of its first year, it had brought in $25,000. By August 2005, Tillinger signed a lease on a storefront, giving the online bookseller a brick-andmortar flagship. This year, the bookstore is angling to make more than $250,000 in revenue. Tillinger hopes to open another store in the next two years. "The kids have benchmarks and do financial forecasting," she says. "We know we need that money, so we work hard."

The benefits, in turn, go back to the kids. Thanks to the bookstore's financial success, Tillinger is now able to employ two transition mentors who help the teens write resumes, set up college visits, and look for housing. "It's not traditional case management, so they deal with bank accounts, housing, GEDs, you name it," she says. After six to 12 months, the kids typically enter college or transition into new jobs.

When Rolgems Alphonse was first referred to Tillinger, he had dropped out of high school and was about to become a father. After working at More Than Words for 15 months, during which he studied with a tutor and earned his GED, Alphonse, now 19, is ready to enroll at Bentley University, where he'll earn his certificate to be a security guard. He plans to go to college and become a probation officer.

"Jodi is very positive, very highenergy," Alphonse says. "She knows what a person needs to get on track, and she'll stay on your tail to get it done." But her job is getting easier. "At first, you think people are putting the pressure on you," he says, "but then you realize that you're the one setting goals for yourself."