Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has taken a position in his home state of Chicago helping high school dropouts between the ages of 17-24 get back on track by securing career paths.

As managing partner at the Emerson Collective, Duncan will "be looking for ways to help 'disconnected youth,' ages 17 to 24, who aren’t in school and don’t have jobs. Many have criminal records and haven’t graduated from high school,” said The Los Angeles Times.

Duncan is seeking to make a difference preventing violence, crime, and wayward lifestyles for youths living in high-risk metropolitan areas.

Duncan is joining a friend at The Emerson Collective- the managing director for education is Russlyn Ali, former head of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights during Duncan’s time as education secretary.

According to the LA Times, Duncan will be experimenting with how education focused on socio-emotional issues can support children who have experienced significant trauma.

Though Duncan retired from his position of Secretary of Education after a long tenure, he said he planned on continuing to work in education for a while.

During Duncan's announcement, he described his resignation as saddening but admitted the struggle of commuting back and forth from D.C. to Chicago to be with his wife and children was getting to be too much. He said at the time his future would continue to "involve the work of expanding opportunity for children, but I have no idea what that will look like yet."

It didn't take him long to find out. 

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor