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Clinton Offers Academy Students High-Tech Hope PRESIDENT CLINTON, ENDING A FOUR-DAY TOUR of poverty pockets from Appalachia to Watts, on Thursday called for investment in the "human capital" living in impoverished areas. "They deserve a chance to be whatever they're willing to work hard to be," Clinton said. "Unless we're prepared to do that, even our best efforts to bring new investment to these distressed communities will be less than fully successful." Clinton made the remarks at the annual conference of the National Academy Foundation, an organization launched in 1982 by Citigroup chief Sanford Weill to help prepare disadvantaged high-school youths for careers in finance, tourism and other fields. Local Academy officials from the Los Angeles Educational Partnership's Academy of Finance and Academy of Travel and Tourism were in attendance. Weill, Lucent Technologies and other companies announced an $8 million initiative Thursday to create "Information Technology Academies" to begin training some of the same boys and girls for careers in the high-technology industry. An estimated 4 million people ages 16 to 24 are out of school and lack a high school diploma. Clinton argued that the best way to ensure continued economic growth was to invest in them and the areas where they live. "Government cannot do this alone, but business cannot be expected to go it alone," he said. "We can build one America where nobody is left behind when we cross that bridge into a new century — and when we do, we'll all be better off." Earlier in the day, Clinton toured the transportation technology program at Alain Leroy Locke High School, named for the first black Rhodes scholar. He watched as Michael Delery, 17, and Jermaine Smith, 18, used computers to show how aerodynamics affects the performance of a car. Stephen Ramirez, 18, a June graduate, said he wants his year and a half in the tech program to lead to a career in transportation technology — after a stint in the Army. "This program really gave me an opportunity to expand my horizons. Before, I had no idea what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be," he said. Since 1994, 1,800 students have participated in the academy, and 90 percent who graduate go on to college.