In our Changemakers We Admire series, we highlight partners planting seeds of transformation in their communities. Each month, we ask the same three questions to a community member to explore what drives their work, what might surprise us, and the future they’re helping cultivate. This month, we’re spotlighting Jordan D Renken, a former educator, workforce development advocate, and champion for structural community solutions. Through his work launching the Metro Alliance of Career Readiness Organizations (MACRO) Jordan is dedicated to bridging the gap between education and practical economic opportunity. By focusing on system-level changes rather than temporary fixes, he is helping build a more equitable future for students and non-profit workforces alike.
What drives your work in this community?
My desire to stop putting bandage solutions on problems that require real structural change. I began my career as a high school educator teaching math and physics at Title 1 schools. I routinely worked with students who were facing extreme societal instability – students who didn’t know where they were getting dinner at, or even where they might be sleeping that night. Students who worked full-time 40 hours a week jobs in order to support their family. I was asked to essentially perform miracles by magically getting these students to care enough about learning how to do such pointless and abstract things like polynomial long division as required by state standards for Algebra II when the reality was that an unacceptable number of students were fully focused on just finding a way to meet their basic needs and survive.
Through my work launching the Metro Alliance of Career Readiness Organizations (MACRO), I get to advocate for practical solutions to support education and workforce development. Solutions like “Instead of just letting social media have free reign to manipulate ourselves and our children, what if we actually educated around digital wellbeing?” or “Maybe if healthcare wasn’t directly tied to employment, then we would see success in people being willing to explore new careers or jobs?”.
What’s one surprising thing people might not know about you or your work?
I quite literally named my organization “MACRO” because it was the big picture solution I needed in order to be as effective a workforce development professional as I know I can be. I truly believe that anyone is capable of learning if they have their basic needs met. I also don’t have enough years left in my prime to pretend that silver bullets like apprenticeship or career technical education (CTE) alone will solve systematic issues truly holding back the development of a robust workforce like a lack of healthcare, housing, or livable wages.
If you could plant one seed for the future, what would it be?
Digital Literacy & Wellbeing is the most critical educational pillar which we need to focus on in the short term if we want to see far reaching changes in society. Misinformation has been allowed to run unobstructed for over a decade at this point and it has directly led to a majority of the current turmoil in the world both politically and societally. I’ve personally lost the loving parents I once knew to the cesspools of misinformation and propaganda that are Facebook, Fox News, and X. The promise of a brighter future begins with calling out the poison of the present.
If you are interested in supporting the continuing work of MACRO they currently have a Sponsorship Request: for their August All-Partner Meeting or reach out to Jordan directly: jordan@macro-change.org