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Birth of Website, Rebirth of Blog

Finally.

I haven’t been part of a birth of a child, but professionally speaking this might be in the neighborhood. Ever since I left News-2 in June of 2014, I’ve struggled with an effective way to convey the success and mission of Jobs for Tennessee Graduates (JTG). Truth is, I violated a basic rule of journalism; I buried the lead. The best way to sell JTG? The students’ success stories. So simple, yet I’ve been consumed with all the other things in running an upstart non-profit such as fundraising, fundraising, and did I mention fundraising?

I’m so proud of this redesigned, interactive website. I knew we needed to step up our website and social media game but hey, I’m not a millennial and stuck in my old ways. (I still mail in my mortgage payment). Through a serendipitous meeting (I’ll explain further in another post), I met college coach Lane Faulkner, who in turn, knows Rob Youngblood. You guessed it, they’re younger, hipper, smarter, and more tech savvy than this old goat. They worked their magic in designing and developing this website. JTG needed and deserved an engaging forum to better tell its story. Ta-Da!

Among the ways this website will interact is with this daily blog. Some 12-years ago, News-2 management approached me about adding a blog to my daily duties. Before blogging was cool, I answered to “Dwyerwire” for more than five years unless new station management wanted to go in another direction. Since I owned the domain, I continued to do it for awhile. It was therapy along with a way for viewers to better get to know me. A three-minute TV news broadcast (the commercial break before the sports ballooned to three and a-half minutes!) is hardly a forum to idle chatter. I enjoyed the creative outlet of the blog and also the unintended consequences. The comments section. I hadn’t planned on it but that interaction with viewers (customers) was enjoyable. Let’s crank it up again!

So welcome to the new JTG website. Please poke around and explore the different pages, especially the success stories. I wouldn’t stop you from going to the donate page either! Feel free to make JTG among the websites you check out in the morning. I hope to get into a groove of blogging each work day by 9:00am or so. Let’s restart the dialogue. Now back to, you guessed it.
Fundraising.

By John Dwyer|2017-02-08T02:07:54+00:00February 3rd, 2017|College, Finance, Fundraising|0 Comments

About the Author: John Dwyer

Call it John Dwyer 2.0 After 29 years as a TV Broadcaster, Dwyer is President & CEO of Jobs for Tennessee Graduates (JTG). JTG, an affiliate of Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG), is a non-profit organization dedicated to stewarding at-risk high school students toward graduation with follow through toward post-secondary education and/or job opportunities. Associated with JAG since 1981, JTG consistently obtains a graduation rate above 90-percent with a full-time job rate at nearly 70-percent. The most vulnerable, socioeconomically challenged young men and women, graduate with self-esteem with the realization and skill set to achieve success after high school. Does it get much better than that? Dwyer, is a resident of the Nashville area since 1996. He was sports director and/or a news anchor at TV stations in Nashville, Jacksonville, Florida; Ft. Myers, FL and his hometown of South Bend, Indiana. He is a 10-time Mid-South Region Emmy Award winner, along with winning numerous other awards. He is also a former Heisman Trophy voter. John is a 1985 graduate of Butler University, where he majored in Radio/TV while minoring in journalism. An avid running (or “plodder” as he likes to call himself), Dwyer runs in Nashville’s annual marathon. (Current tally: 7 Full, 10 Half). He accomplished a goal, once thought out of reach, be qualifying and running in the Boston Marathon in 2009. Married to Lynley, Dwyer resides in East Nashville with his wife and dog Lola. Dwyer served on the Make-A-Wish Middle Tennessee board from 2006-2012, and was board chairman for three years.