“Remember Goldilocks—not too fast, not too slow, just right. You ready?” That’s Dr. Bob Voigt, a Materials Science and Engineering professor at Penn State University, coaching me on my first casting experience.

I’m wearing a reflective silver suit from head to toe, high-temperature gloves, and a face shield. Minutes before, I’d been scooping sand...

Imagine life choices as a maze of doors. Your path relies on which doors you open, and one door leads to another. If you fail to open one door, you miss out on an entire set of possibilities. When you think of it that way, our job becomes simple: make sure the doors of opportunity open for everyone.

Take Victor Haynes II, nicknamed “Deuce.” He’s 13...