UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State alumnus Josh Fields has been chosen for inclusion on the 2024 Forbes “30 Under 30” List, in the social impact category.

Honorees for the award’s 20 categories are selected from the more than 20,000 nominations submitted annually by a panel of Forbes staff and independent judges based on a variety of factors, including (but not limited to) funding, revenue, social impact, scale, inventiveness and potential.

Fields, who graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in labor and employment relations, was selected for his remarkable success with the Next Step Programs (TNS) — a nonprofit based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, that he co-founded in 2015 at age 16 to help young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities after they age out of the public school system. The organization — which provides vocational training, coaching on applying for jobs, life skills classes on topics like cooking and budgeting, and overnight programs to practice independent living — has worked with more than 1,000 families in southeastern Pennsylvania and was approved this year to tap state Medicaid funding.

According to Fields, TNS’ core belief is that individuals with disabilities deserve every chance to immerse themselves in all aspects of life, including pursuing higher education, living independently, building social networks, and playing an active role in their communities.

“Disability rights are human rights,” said Fields.

Fields noted that he has wanted to be a successful business owner for as long as he can remember.

“I’ve been business oriented ever since he was a young kid,” he said. “I knew I wanted to start my own business one day by taking a small idea and making it big."

Equally motivating to him from a very young age, he added, has been his desire to support individuals with disabilities.

Meghan “Meg” Kensil has been one of Fields’ best friends since childhood. Reflecting on the tail end of his high school career, Field recalled “struggling to figure out my next steps after high school.” About the same time, Fields learned that Kensil, who has Down syndrome, would stay in the school system until she was 21 years old.

“What happens for you after 21?” he remembered asking her. “I don’t know,” was her response.

“As somebody who is very career focused, it really upset me that my dear friends I grew up with and care about deeply were not going to have access to the same tools I did transitioning out of high school,” he said. “Meg is a smart, funny, capable young woman who could do anything … but the fact of the matter is that the school districts across Pennsylvania at that time prepared young adults with disabilities to transition out of school into their parent’s homes.”

That realization prompted Fields to volunteer at Camp Pals, a national program for people with Down syndrome, in 2014.

“I learned firsthand all my misconceptions about disabilities and the things I thought people with disabilities couldn’t do,” he said. “I quickly realized by giving them support, on top of what they are already capable of, they can achieve far more than what society decides for them.”

Not only did Camp Pals inspire Fields to continue advocating for individuals with disabilities, he said, but it’s also where he met a dear friend, mentor and eventual TNS co-founder, Ricky Price. Fields, who was in high school at the time, and Price, who was a graduate student in college, both left camp inspired and determined to stay in touch.

“I was so excited to have a graduate student as a friend,” Fields said. “He viewed me as a 16-year-old with passion and energy rather than a 16-year-old without credibility and experience. That meant everything.”

Price’s innovative nature and experience, combined with Fields’ innate entrepreneurial calling, led them to launch TNS in 2015. What started out as an avenue for Fields to help some of his closest friends turned into a nonprofit benefiting thousands in the region by offering new solutions for families and young adults with disabilities to help them achieve their full potential and live a fulfilling life.

“We are an organization that is continuously thinking, re-thinking, and questioning how systems work so young adults with disabilities can become adults with disabilities and elderly with disabilities and still be people who belong, function, and can access society,” Fields said. “We want there to be equal opportunities for all. Access to employment, independent living, friendships, socialization, community — all the things that make anyone a member of an adult society.”

TNS also practices what preaches in terms of hiring individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said Fields.

“We have these incredible individuals working full-time here at TNS,” Fields said. “Meg is our office manager and does so well in the position — not only because she’s naturally capable, but because we have given her support and training. If I can do that for Meg and others as part of our program, then other people can do that on a massive scale. Embracing our differences makes us all stronger.”

Wanting to create meaningful gainful employment for all individuals is part of the reason Fields chose to pursue a degree in labor and employment relations at Penn State, he said.

“The field is a career where you truly can decide your own path because it doesn’t lock you into one job you’ll have to work your whole life,” he says. “I can apply my degree to any setting at any organization. You can be an HR professional at a nonprofit, for-profit, a school, or a university; you can represent one of the thousands of unions that exist all over; or you can take the skills of learning how to work with people and understanding business and enter really any field.

“I graduated with a set of skills and tools that I knew would help me build the career I wanted for myself, but also to help others," said Fields.

Credit for his accolades from Forbes are due largely to his TNS colleagues, Fields said — and to Meg.

“I might be the person with my name tied to this recognition, but the honor doesn’t come without the entire TNS team behind me,” he said. “The very programs that exist at TNS today were built from the initial needs that Meg had while she was transitioning out of high school. She has been through a lot with me since we met at a school dance when I was in seventh grade and she was in eighth.”