Nonprofit Opportunity 180 hopes to bring more educational opportunities to the Las Vegas Valley, particularly for low-income students. The brainchild of Allison Serafin — whose background includes being the former Nevada State Board of Education vice president and executive director of Teach For America Las Vegas Valley — the group wants to see high-quality charter schools enter the valley to educate those students who are underserved due to their economic status.
While staring out at what is essentially a diving platform 855 feet above concrete and imagining the plummet, it might have been a little hard to focus on the statistics, facts and science that Michael Mann, director of ride engineering for the Stratosphere, was explaining, but a group of 17 students from Goodwill’s ELITE program listened with rapt attention. The program is for those ages 17 to 24 with a documented disability who are looking for assistance achieving their goals in education, employment or both.
