Introducing RVA Builds: Helping Students Graduate With Options

I was in 10th grade when I was called to the principal's office. It was early in the school year, but there was no reason I should have been called.

 I walked in and was greeted by my 7th-grade English teacher, Mrs. Barbara Toney, and next to her, a man I'd never seen before, Dr. Eddie Chernault. Mrs. Toney, a native of South Carolina, always called me “Mr. Cuppa.” Dr. Chernault was friendly and quickly explained that I’d be a compelling candidate for the Pre-Engineering Academy at Southside Virginia Community College, a dual enrollment program designed to put high school students on a real career path while they were still in school.

I told them it sounded like a good opportunity and that I loved all things electrical, but it didn’t seem like a good fit for me because “I don’t want to be an engineer when I grow up. I love people, and engineers don’t get to work with them enough.”

Dr. Chernault wore a wide smile and said, “Young man, you can be anything you want to be. This program will prepare you for the world. You will need to take math and science no matter what you do next. At least come visit.” He had a response to every excuse I offered. Even though we had just met, it felt like he genuinely cared and wanted to do something different in the region. I joined the inaugural class of the Pre-Engineering Academy, and by the time I graduated from high school, I had a Pre-Engineering Certificate, an Associate’s Degree, job offers, and college acceptances.

At 18, I had options.

That is not a typical story, but why can’t it become one?

Metro Richmond ranks among the bottom five cities in America for economic mobility. One of the country's most historically significant cities, with almost 240,000 people, consistently fails to give its residents a credible shot at a better life. The largest employers of recent Richmond Public Schools graduates? Fast-food chains.

We keep telling young people the same thing: go to college, and everything will work out. For decades, it has been presented as the only pathway, a claim that was always disingenuous. And then we wonder why kids aren’t excited about school. A four-year degree costs more than ever, and millions of college graduates are learning the hard way that a degree isn't the only path.

The rest of the world figured this out a long time ago. Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and Australia: countries with thriving middle classes built on apprenticeship systems that treat skilled trades as a legitimate pathway to economic mobility. In America, we've treated the trades as a consolation prize rather than a viable pathway.

RVA Builds is Richmond's commitment to doing this differently. It's a citywide apprenticeship pathway that connects Richmond students to skilled trades careers, particularly in construction, while they are still in school. It offers paid work-based learning opportunities, credentials, and pathways to build social capital. It is a partnership among RPS, the City of Richmond, labor unions, and employers. 

It's essentially the Pre-Engineering Academy that changed my life, reimagined for 2025 and designed to scale. The goal is for 500 Richmond students to complete paid work-based learning experiences in skilled trades by the end of the 2028-29 school year.

What made the difference for me wasn't luck. It was someone in a position of influence who saw a kid and decided to open a door that multiplied my opportunities, and I’m still reaping the benefits.

RVA Builds is asking all of us to do now, at scale, what Dr. Chernault and Mrs. Toney did for me 23 years ago: guarantee that kids have access to opportunities like these.

If you're an employer, open a slot. Become a host site. Give a Richmond student the same opportunity I had: a real job that teaches real skills and opens real doors.

If you fund and champion work in this city, this is where your investment compounds. Make a bet on the systemic change that Richmond desperately needs.

And if you know a Richmond student who has no idea what comes next, tell them there's a path. A real one.

Someone did that for me in a principal's office in 10th grade. I haven't stopped thinking about it since.