Jessica Ricci has two dreams. Her "realistic dream" is to someday write about music for the Boston Phoenix, and her "unrealistic dream," she says, is to write for Rolling Stone. I gather that Ricci, a 19-year-old employee at the youth-run More Than Words used bookstore on Moody Street, loves music.Her iPod contains an eclectic mix that represents her diverse musical tastes. "Everything from classical to Britney Spears to Metal," she says, grinning.

Ricci is one of the 16 employees between the ages of 16 and 21 at More Than Words who comes from the foster care system or are homeless and are referred by the Department of Social Services, probation officers and non-profit agencies to the bookstore. More Than Words is essentially a job-training program for these youth. They run nearly every operation of the non-profit-including managing their own book sections, arranging the displays, running the register and shipping books-- for six to 12 months, before leaving for college or another job.

Ricci sits downstairs in the More Than Words basement, a space whose walls are lined with bright blue and yellow posters with aphorisms like "Negotiation is About Compromise" and others dedicated to the "Principles of Selling." Seemingly endless rows of books line the far left side of the basement. I am told that employees are in the process of sorting and organizing these books to display in their sections or ship off to customers. A master schedule with staff shifts and store events hangs directly across from the shelves on the opposite wall.

Nearby, Matt Soloman, an 18-year-old associate with blonde-streaked hair, who has worked at the store for about one-and-a-half months, shows several new employees how to enter their work hours into an Excel spreadsheet and calculate the percentages of their attendance and punctuality.

When Soloman gets frustrated with the spreadsheet, Jodi Rosenbaum, the store's director, turns to him: "Take a deep breath. We're on the same team, kiddo." She guides him step by step, and when he understands how to perform the function, he turns to the boys around him and explains it to them, epitomizing the wisdom behind experiential learning.

"If your percentage drops below 80 percent, you'll get $50 out of your paycheck," Soloman tells the others, quickly explaining how they can earn back this money through continued, diligent work.

When I ask Ricci to tell me about herself, she gives me a brief summary. She was born and raised in Waltham, and spent time in a number of hospitals before her counselor from the Department of Social Services referred her to More Than Words, where she's been working for two months. Today she juggles a 20-hour a week work schedule and a busy senior year at Waltham High School. Ricci shifts to talking about her work at the store. A pattern of focusing on the present and the future becomes apparent the more employees I speak with.

More Than Words represents a clean slate for these youths. Whatever their background, they begin anew here on equal footing. When they work here, they're not talking about their past experiences or what circumstances brought them to work at the store. Instead, they focus on their day-to-day running of the store, building their professional tool kits and looking to plans for next year.

Many of the youths, who come from all around Boston, enter the store not knowing how to turn on a computer, but they leave knowing how to operate a variety of computer programs and a cash register, send professional e-mails, speak before a group of people and other skills.

"We really look for the youth who have a lot of need and definitely the want of the program," says Carolyn Gordon, the transitions manager, a social worker who plans with each youth their next steps in life.

Upstairs, the used bookstore, art gallery and performance space located at 376 Moody St. offers a warm, spacious respite along the downtown Waltham street. I peruse the sections: Psychology, Fiction, Parenting, and a special display on Boston. An artfully decorated front window displays some of the store's highlights: The World of the Dalai Lama, The Pursuit of Happyness and The Village of Waiting. The store's name is painted on a sky blue sign in white bubble letters above the door, greeting shoppers as they approach. The youth have painted encouraging words like "Equality", "Love" and "Knowledge" on the door.

A stage area in the back with room for chairs and a plush red sofa serves as a performance space for open mic nights and other events.

Although it's nestled between restaurants Tom Can Cook and Jewel of India, it's possible you've never noticed the cozy storefront. Rosenbaum, a veteran of the juvenile justice system with a Masters degree in Education focused on risk and resilience, founded the store as an online bookseller (then called Teen Leep) in 2004 with several teenage boys. When I ask her how she decided to start a job-training program for youth, she explains her frustration with the statistics surrounding young people who get stuck in the system. According to Rosenbaum, 60 percent of youth who leave state custody don't have a high school diploma or job experience.

"These are the kids that will fall off," she says with a twinge of sadness. Her tone quickly changes to one of pride when she tells me that alumni of the store have gone on to college, two have entered Brandeis' Transitional Year Program (one is currently in TYP), and another, for instance, got a job at the Boston Science Museum.

The store also has partnerships with local businesses, including Mount Auburn Hospital and the Westin, Frank Galligan, DSS' area director in Arlington, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "These businesses will often employ 'graduates' of More Than Words knowing that they have learned considerable skills," he wrote.

This model of social enterprise is becoming a framework for job-training around the state, Rosenbaum says. "This is what real job training looks like," she adds knowingly.

Several years ago, Galligan wrote some letters of affiliation and support that helped Rosenbaum receive start-up grants for the store, and currently the store is under review to become a DSS Family Networks provider.

Today, More Than Words is largely self-supporting. The store is a hybrid social enterprise, meaning it covers around 35 percent of its budget with earned revenue and receives private donations for additional support.

Youth empowerment has been the bookstore's theme from day one. Employees named the store, they interview and train applicants, and agree that they feel at home there.

"This is their house. This is their store," Rosenbaum says. While an "adult" is always present during the store's hours (either Rosenbaum, Gordon or volunteers), Rosenbaum calls this person "back-up." Employees shelve books in their sections with ease and approach customers to explain items and answer questions with confidence.

When I first enter the store, I am greeted proudly by the employee behind the counter, "Hi, Welcome to More Than Words."

The youth move up through "pods," or positions at the store, starting out as an associate, moving up to partner, manager and then alumni after they've left the store. As associates, they make $7.50 an hour, $7.75 as partners and $9.25 as managers, gaining new responsibilities as they progress.

The store also serves as an art gallery and shop, with tee shirts, bags and other merchandise made by the youth prominently displayed. Paintings by Artists for Humanity--a Boston-based non-profit that gives underserved youth paid employment in the arts--cover the walls. One painting of a blue head with piercing, bloodshot eyes, surrounded by blinking red lights is particularly startling. The piece, by Fredy Gerrero, Raul Fernandez and D. Arguelo, is priced at $300. Inspiring quotes by figures like Muhammad Ali, T.S. Elliot and the youth sprinkle the walls and ceiling.

The store's laidback, artsy atmosphere is balanced by the focused, serious nature of the employees' job training and transitions planning. "We help them dream. We help them think through goals too," Rosenbaum says of the balance.

Gordon, the lone, full-time transitions manager, who is currently working with around 60 youths, says her goal is for her clients not to wind up at entry-level positions "when they can do more." Her frequent "action meetings" with each employee touch on housing, education prospects, health coverage, skills development, career interests, public speaking and professional e-mailing.

Gordon takes the youth on monthly site visits to transition options offered at colleges like Pine Manor in Chestnut Hill, Bentley College and Brandeis. She and Rosenbaum stay in touch with recent graduates, continuing to offer their support and occasionally asking them back for shifts and special store events, like visiting authors and open mic nights.

Erika Smith, Brandeis' TYP director, says she's met with More Than Words youth, and will continue recruiting from this pool. "Hopefully it becomes a long relationship," she says.

Kristin Carmichael (TYP), an employee at More Than Words for four months, says when she first started, all she knew was she "really into books." She didn't know that she would most enjoy working the register and arranging displays.

Initially, Carmichael was pretty shy, but she came out of her shell, gladly accepting feedback from her coworkers and excelling in group leadership, Rosenbaum writes in an e-mail to the Justice. Carmichael grew up in Bellmont and took the commuter rail to the bookstore, pulling 25 hour a week shifts through high school. She describes her high school experience as fairly "isolated," except for her love of reading and work at the bookstore. Today, she continues taking shifts every so often, and plans to study creative writing at Brandeis and pursue writing professionally.

"It has been amazing to watch her grow and find herself and realize how bright and capable she is," Rosenbaum writes.

The store's high standards encourage youth to pursue higher education and/or employment opportunities. The store's challenge is maintaining those high standards of responsibility and accountability for all employees, keeping it empowering and youth driven, yet never lowering the bar. "It's working . That said, there's always a kid [who] falls off," Rosenbaum says.

Thomas Pineros Shields, a researcher at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, concurs with Rosenbaum that the model of on-the-job entrepreneurial learning works for some, but not for all.

Still, because it's empowering, experiential learning works universally. "I'm a convert," he admits jokingly.

The typical strategy among this population has been direct service, but on-the-job training looks at young people as having assets and being capable of contributing to society, Pineros Shields says.

"When you provide opportunities for young people to have responsibility and to contribute, they'll rise to that occasion. I've definitely come to the conclusion that young people are more than just a bundle of needs," he says.

"It's hard to undo 17 or 18 years of trauma or drama or dysfunction," Rosenbaum says. Still, when she maintains high expectations and the youth set high goals for themselves, "They rise to it every time."

Pineros Shields currently works as the project manager for a research team at Heller that's evaluating the curriculum of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an organization that partners with high schools in low-income communities to teach business skills. In the curriculum, students start their own businesses. Jodi, a trained NFTE teacher, infuses sections of the curriculum into workshops and trainings.

"It's not just book learning," he says of NFTE. "It's based on the idea that you learn best by doing. Overall it's an approach of seeing young people not just as problems to be solved, but as contributors to society who are able to.participate as entrepreneurs."

While Ricci, like others, has loved working at the store, she's honest about the stress that comes with the responsibility of running a business. Her most recent challenge has been planning author Anita Diamant's visit to the store at the end of last month. As the project manager, Ricci coordinated the event's logistics and communicated with Diamant regarding how everything would run.

"I e-mailed back and forth with Anita," she says. I pause and look up at her from my notebook. "Anita?" I ask. Rosenbaum says teasingly, "Oh, e-mailing back and forth with Anita. That's what I'm talking about."

"I just try not to think of her as a big, famous writer," Ricci responds. That confident attitude seems a far cry from how she felt when she first arrived. "I was worried that I was going to mess something up and be gone in two weeks," she says.

A few days later I'm back in the store for the big event.

Ricci, who wears her blonde hair in pigtails and dresses in black pants and a white button-down shirt, appears cool and collected. She greets customers as they peruse the shelves and nibble on refreshments, and she smoothly introduces Diamant, who answers questions about her latest book of essays, Pitching my Tent and her 2005 bestseller The Red Tent.

In the intimate, warm space in the back, Diamant sits in a chair next to employees Jazmin Cunha, 18, and Gordon Doristin to answer the questions. They ask her poignant questions about how women today compare to women in the Bible, how religion influences her writing, how she got into writing and the differences between men and women.

After the event, Cunha shares with me her relief that it's over. "I don't know if you saw me, but I was shaking," she says, adding, "I just tried to keep my head high." She appeared calm and always kept a steady tone.

As I walk around the store, I try to approach as many employees as I can. Banks, a 22-year-old alumnus who left six months ago, tells me about how he stays in touch with the store, welcoming the opportunity to perform his lyrics at open mic nights, helping with training and More Than Words presentations to the public. "I'm a regular favorite," he says. "I'm always here."

Instead of emphasizing any troubled past, employees tell me about their duties at the store and their hopes for the future.

I move on to Manny Sanchez, 17, who spoke before Diamant about what it means to him to work at More Than Words. As a manager, Sanchez frequently represents the store to the public through presentations and interviews youth who apply for work. I ask him if he was nervous about speaking today before the audience. Without a moment's pause, he answers that he feels comfortable and confident in front of even 500 people. "Mostly what I was nervous about was that Anita Diamant was here. Other than that, this was just another presentation for me." He hopes to attend Bentley College and study business.

Cunha, a senior at Newton South High School, has been with More Than Words for four months. A day or two before the event, I interviewed her at the store. She speaks eloquently and appears sophisticated, her short black hair rounding her face. She admits that working at the bookstore has been a life changing experience, but it hasn't always been easy.

"Truthfully, it's been up and down. I have my lows and I have my highs," she says. The hardest part, she says, has been realizing that she's growing up, but the best part has been picking up the business and social skills she needs for the future.

Rosenbaum jumps in with a suggestion of Cunha's assets. "I think you've also uncovered leadership skills," referring specifically to a recent team meeting when Cunha "empowered" everyone during a run through for the event. Team meetings (led by and for the youth) are held every Wednesday evening.

Cunha is hoping to attend Pine Manor College next year, an all women's institution. "It's just really nice. It's really relaxing," she says of the campus. Gordon took Cunha and others on a tour of the college recently. Beyond college, Cunha dreams of traveling the world.

Some Brandeis students and staff not only shop at the store, but also contribute to it. Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams, who serves on the store's board of directors, taught a six-week creative writing workshop last year. The workshop included discussions on the meaning behind an artist's pen name, different genres of poetry, like haikus, limericks and free style, and time for the youth to produce an anthology of poetry and practice performing their pieces.

Adams was most moved by the candor and fearlessness the youth expressed in their "raw" and "unbreakable" poems.

"I don't know if they even see their brilliance, so I like that," Adams says.

It's unfortunate, however that some may discount their abilities because of the challenges they've faced, he says. He would like to see Brandeis students share their interests with the youth and teach workshops of their own.

While Waltham Group led a successful "Dump and Run" last year, which yielded 1,200 books for More Than Words, Rosenbaum said she would love to see greater collaboration with a university.

"We would love to get picked up by a university," she says. "That would be my dream." Specifically, she hopes a university will allow More Than Words to place receptacles around a campus for students, staff and faculty to drop off old books for the store. Adams says Brandeis could potentially partner with the store.

Other store goals include opening a café in the next few months, hiring another transitions manager, starting up a local slam poetry team and spreading the More Than Words model to other communities.

"The hope is that it becomes infectious," Adams says.