The day after Linn Groft finished overseeing an intensive summer program for 140-plus middle school students in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, she started packing for McCourt and D.C. Groft, who has a B.S. in community health and development from University of Alabama, is executive director of Breakthrough Birmingham, which works with high potential, underserved middle school students. At McCourt, Groft hopes to expand on what she’s learned at nonprofits, then work at a policy institution or city agency, eventually returning home with new skills and knowledge. “The deeper I dive,” she says, “the more I see that nonprofits can only do so much. Metro governments, though, can do a lot to solve inequality and access.”
