SWAMPSCOTT — When Linda Saris first came to Swampscott in 1981, it wasn’t for a job. It was for the water.
“We wanted a boat. We wanted to sail. So we wanted to find a town that was on the coast,” she said. “We were looking for a town where we could moor a boat that had a good school system, small town; it was nice.”
More than four decades later, Saris is still in Swampscott, but her impact has stretched far beyond the shoreline.
As the longtime executive director of LEAP for Education, a Salem-based nonprofit focused on youth development, Saris has spent the last two decades building programs that connect students to careers, mentors, and opportunities they might not otherwise have.
LEAP serves Salem and Lynn students in middle and high school, with structured programming that focuses on career exploration and drop-in teen programming that takes that to the next step, with work-based-learning programs that include internships, job shadowing, and career mentoring.
That model of helping students find out what kind of jobs they would enjoy and the opportunity to try things out has roots in her own career journey. After a 25-year career climbing the corporate ladder, with roles including a chief financial officer and a senior vice president at a cybersecurity company, Saris made a dramatic shift following the Sept. 11 attacks, stepping away from the business world to pursue something more meaningful.
“I had always wanted to start a nonprofit, and after 9/11, I had a lot of rethinking to do about whether I wanted to stay in corporate or follow that dream,” she said. “So I started looking close to home, in Salem and Lynn, to see what was available for older youth and where there might be gaps.”
What she found was a system heavily focused on younger children, with few options for teenagers — especially when it came to preparing for life after high school.
“There wasn’t anything that was very academic or college or career oriented,” she said. “There were sports programs and social programs, but nothing really helping kids think about what comes next.”
That gap became the foundation for LEAP. Initially, Saris began working with Salem Cyberspace, a small internet cafe-type space that offered computer access and basic training, which quickly evolved. Kids started showing up after school, and Saris found herself doing more than just teaching technology.
“I finally said, ‘OK, you can go on the computers, but you’re going to need to do your homework first,’” she said. “So we’d sit down with them, help them with their homework, and then we started adding enrichment — making music videos, doing photography scavenger hunts, things like that.”
Over many years there, the program grew into a comprehensive model centered on project-based learning and career exploration. Eventually, Saris rebranded to LEAP for Education, an acronym for “Learn, Explore, Aspire, Pursue” that focused fully on helping students identify their interests early and connect them to real opportunities.
At the heart of that work is a philosophy Saris often repeats.
“Talent is everywhere. Every student has a talent,” she said. “Opportunity is not. So part of what we’re doing is helping kids figure out what they’re good at and then showing them what pathways exist to turn that into a career.”
Over time, that approach has paid off — not just in program growth, but in the lives of the students themselves. Saris recalled former participants who have gone on to become teachers, police officers, artists, and even elected officials like Manny Cruz of Massachusetts’ 7th District. Those kids who Saris first mentored have stayed in touch, maintaining relationships that stretch far beyond their time in the program. Many of them will travel to the ceremony in celebration of her work in June.
“In the early days, I not only knew the kids; I knew their parents — there was that amazing connection,” she said. “As we grew, I got more pulled into the administrative side and a little more separated from the kids, and that’s something I really miss.”
Now, as she prepares to step down from her role in June, Saris is looking ahead to what comes next. It’s a mix of travel, fitness, and, eventually, a return to the kind of hands-on work that first drew her in.
“I really want to go back to what I loved doing: doing music videos with kids, playing chess, helping them figure out their future,” she said. “Not just being in my office writing grants.”
For Saris, Swampscott has remained a constant — the place she chose decades ago, and the place she still calls home as she closes this chapter. And while she may be stepping away from leading LEAP, she doesn’t expect to step away from its mission.
“I can absolutely imagine myself volunteering here,” she said. “I love working with kids. That’s the part of this that never changes.”
