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Category: National

A Strong Economy Requires Strong Education

Navy background with white border. Text: "Braven. Keep Students Front & Center." Red Braven logo above text.

At Braven, we know that education is the engine of economic mobility, national competitiveness, and leadership development. For over 40 years, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has played an essential role in ensuring that all students—particularly those who identify as first-generation and/or low-income—have access to the resources and opportunities they need to learn and […]

Braven to receive $1.5M from the Deloitte Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Kasia Kalata Braven kasia.kalata@braven.org Braven to receive $1.5M from the Deloitte Foundation  Braven, a national nonprofit organization that is helping college students on a path to economic mobility, announced a $1.5M three-year commitment from the Deloitte Foundation. This donation is one of the most significant collaborator investments made to Braven to date. […]

Braven Announces Winner of 2022 Fellow Card Design Content

Braven contest winners and winners.

Braven invited Fellows and Post-Accelerator Fellows to submit their unique art for our first “2022 Card Design Contest” with a chance to win a $200 gift card and have their work published on our end of year celebration greeting card. Each design created by our talented Fellows represents the theme Our Hope for the Future […]

The Uneven Climb From College to Career

Braven works with colleges around the country to help first-generation and underrepresented students gain career-readiness skills and land a strong first job.

How to make good on the American promise for all, not just some

There are only some winners in today’s job market—and then everybody else, writes Aimée Eubanks Davis, CEO of Braven. To share prosperity equitably, we must invest in career development for more women, first-generation college-goers, and students of color.

How to Close the Networking Gap

This Braven Fellow learned how to seek the kind of professional connections he would have had trouble making on his own as the child of a construction worker and night-shift lab technician who emigrated from Macedonia a decade ago.

After 1954 Podcast, hosted by Aimée Eubanks Davis

A picture of a man and a woman in front of a building with the words after 1954.

Hosted by educator and nonprofit leader Aimée Eubanks Davis, this five-part podcast series takes an important look at the impact a Black educator can have on a Black student’s life, and how we all can help support and strengthen the roots that help our children achieve.

Pioneers of Progress: Aimée Eubanks Davis of Braven

Across the world, education is one of the strongest predictors of life outcomes. However, access to education is uneven, and the opportunities it affords are not equally available to all. The disadvantages some students face follow them into the world of work. With Braven, Aimée Eubanks Davis is attempting to close the gap between education and employment and is contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals.

On Influential Mentors and Closing the Network Gap

Whether it’s through an organization like Braven, your employer, or individually, we can all play a role in helping our country’s young people achieve their full potential through mentorship and expanding their networks. Here are a few ways from Braven CEO and founder, Aimée Eubanks Davis.

Spelman College & Braven Nonprofit Announce New, Innovative Partnership 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Kasia Kalata Braven 773-225-0054 kasia.kalata@braven.org Jazmyn Burton Spelman College 404-798-5212 jburton8@spelman.edu Today, Spelman announced a new, innovative partnership with Braven, a national nonprofit helping promising college students on a path to economic mobility, as part of its Spelman Pathways: Creating Your Path to Life and Career Excellence initiative.  The partnership will offer […]

How to Find a Strong First Job After College

imée Eubanks Davis, CEO, and founder of Braven, believes that a strong, high-quality first job can make all the difference for students of color, especially those from low-income families.

Walton Family Foundation awards $15 million to 1954 Project

Walton Family Foundation is awarding $15 million to 1954 Project, an initiative of the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education (CAFE) to embrace and advance Black leadership in the education sector, with Braven being once of its recipients.

Lessons Earned Podcast: Ebony Beckwith

Ebony Beckwith, Chief Philanthropy Officer and CEO of the Salesforce Foundation, leads a global team and directs hundreds of millions of dollars in grants focused on education and workforce development. She urges everyone to reimagine education so it serves the lifelong learner and embraces multiple pathways between learning and working.

Lessons Earned Podcast: David Deming

Harvard education economist David Deming uses hard data to stress test ideas and see what might work, and what probably won’t. In this podcast episode, he shares what he’s learning and what he recommends we do right now to improve the value of education for an increasingly diverse workforce.

Lessons Earned Podcast: Reynold Verret

In this podcast episode, Reynold Verret, the child of Haitian political refugees who grew up to become president of Xavier University of Louisiana, shares what HBCUs can teach the rest of higher ed about student success.

Braven Equips Students with Professional Skills to Increase Earning Potential and Mitigate Debt

Colleges teach students how to succeed in their careers, but that success often requires much more than knowledge. That’s why Braven provides first-generation, low-income, and minority students with training in professional skills, leadership, networking, and other critical areas. The organization accomplishes that through for credit college courses and additional programs, all of which increase opportunities to land quality jobs right out of college. Support from mentors, coaches, and fellow students helps young professionals make the most of their college years and start their careers on solid financial footing.

Lessons Earned Podcast: Michelle Weise

In this podcast episode, Michelle Weise, an expert on the future of work and author of “Long Life Learning,” explains why human skills like communication, creativity, and teamwork will remain critical in an era when robots and automation take over routine jobs.

Lessons Earned Podcast: Michael Collins

In the midst of a pandemic disrupting education and work — especially for low-income people of color — Michael talks about how to equip people for jobs today without closing off opportunities to advance in jobs of the future.

Lessons Earned Podcast: Jeff Selingo

After spending a year inside admissions offices, journalist and author Jeff Selingo reminds parents and students that admission into college is not just about grades and hard work, and it never was.

Aimée Eubanks Davis: How your unique story can get you hired

When searching for a job, you may feel like you’re not good enough or qualified enough to get it. But you are. Here’s how to take your doubts and struggles and turn them into strengths, according to Aimée Eubanks Davis, founder and CEO of Braven.

Spotlight: Bridging the Education-to-Employment Gap to Build Equity at Braven

While we know that education and training beyond high school is now necessary to secure a well-paying career in today’s labor market, a postsecondary credential alone is not a guarantee of success. The ability to tap into a network—a group of people you are connected to personally or professionally that can provide information, counsel, and inroads to employers—is critical. To begin digging into the topic of social capital, ESG spoke with Aimée Eubanks Davis, founder of Braven, an organization dedicated to bridging the education-to-employment gap for first-generation, underrepresented, and/or low-income students. 

Think a college degree is enough? Here’s why peers and alumni can make all the difference

For the past few years, the Christensen Institute has been documenting emerging models that are explicitly aimed at stocking students’ “treasure chest” of social capital to pave better pathways to opportunity. This week, we released a set of profiles on four such programs: Basta, Braven, COOP, and Climb Hire. The first three support current college students and recent graduates. Climb Hire serves jobseekers whether or not they have attended college.

KIPP Launches First-Of-Its-Kind Alumni Network to Help Its 30K Graduates With Careers, Mental Health and Finances

A first-of-its-kind alumni network for K-12 KIPP charter school graduates launches today, drawing on its unique national alumni base of 30,000 students that’s expected to grow to 80,000 by 2025. The National KIPP Alumni Network offers both alum-to-alum support as well as outside professional guidance. One of the three external players in the network programs includes the Braven Career Booster Program, a two-week virtual career guidance bootcamp.

How Businesses Can Recruit and Develop More Young People of Color

Several organizations are already working with employers to create more equitable opportunities for recent grads of color. Braven, for example, works with businesses and universities alike to launch students into “strong first jobs,” empowering young people to lead within the companies and organizations they join following graduation.

The Road to the American Dream: Finding Purpose in the Detours

This collection of essays includes commentary from experts on how higher education and policy makers could better serve students who face similar obstacles on their paths to a well-paying job and satisfying careers. It also features an essay by one of the students we profiled, Braven Fellow Joshua Christie, and comments from readers.

Innovation in Higher Ed. Has Never Been More Important

At this historic crossroad, our nation’s incredibly talented young people from humble beginnings need to be prepared to compete for strong jobs. With a bachelor’s degree, this group of college students holds some of the greatest earnings potential in their entire family units—earnings that are likely to have a multiplier effect in low-income communities to help fuel an economic recovery and rebuild our country in the short term and will bolster their lifelong earnings in the long term.

Six Tips for Creating Strong Virtual College Experiences

College students today are dealing with a lot of uncertainty about their futures. The pandemic has shifted the type of learning instruction most of us have ever known, while also bringing about a national unemployment rate that is higher than it was during the Great Recession. The pressures on many college students are daunting, especially if they come from humble beginnings. Some college students are worried about balancing family responsibilities, while others are trying to figure out how to pay their way through school.

How One Organization Is Building Social Capital For Low-Income, First Generation College Graduates In The COVID-19 Economy

The COVID-19 economy has had a drastic impact on recent college graduates. But for low-income, first generation college students, their struggles existed well before the pandemic and are likely to be exacerbated. Addressing the education-to-employment gap has been a priority for Aimée Eubanks Davis, Founder and CEO of Braven, who shared innovative ways Braven is working to ensure that these incredibly hard-working, resilient, and diverse graduates can navigate one the toughest job markets in a generation.

To Succeed, College Students Need Schools To Measure, Prioritize Building Networks

Programs like Braven help expand students’ access to professional networks. Braven partners with universities to offer a course for low-income and first-generation students and students of color aimed at empowering them with the skills, confidence, experience, and networks necessary to transition from college to strong first jobs. Braven is now attempting to reach even more students with a short, intensive, virtual program, called Booster, to reach low-income and first-generation graduating seniors and recent alums who are navigating their job search during the pandemic and recession.

Training The Street Announces Successful First Phase of Partnership with Braven

Training The Street (TTS), the leading corporate training provider for Wall Street firms and top-tier business schools, is pleased to announce the completion of the first phase of its strategic partnership with Braven, a national nonprofit organization founded in 2013 with a mission to empower underrepresented college students on their path to a strong first job and economic mobility. As a first step in the TTS /Braven Partnership, Braven Fellows had the opportunity to attend virtual TTS public courses. TTS team members also participated in Braven’s mock interviews in the spring.

Commemorating Juneteenth

Juneteenth serves as a day of reflection and reminder that we must continue to right the systems that allow racism and inequities to exist today. 

A Letter from our Founder & CEO

Justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere by martin luther king.

As an organization, Braven stands in solidarity with the Black community against racism, oppression, and the violation of human rights. As a country, we need to do better — we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the injustice that disproportionately affects the Black community daily. Read our Founder and CEO’s letter here.

Lessons Earned Podcast: Aimée Eubanks Davis

Long before COVID-19, America’s most vulnerable students were struggling to access not only education and skills training, but the social connections that open doors to great careers. Aimée Eubanks Davis, founder and CEO of Braven, says the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on low-income and minority communities has also laid bare inequities in the education-to-workforce ecosystem. It’s time, she says, to level the playing field so all college graduates can secure strong first jobs that lead to long-term career success.

Before you say no to virtual internships, read this

Both college students and employers know internships matter. With work going virtual in the time of COVID-19 and a recessed economy, it’s more important now than ever for students and employers to give virtual internships a chance.

Lessons Learned in Times of COVID-19

The world has changed drastically over the last couple of months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting us all. In the world of higher education, universities have moved to virtual learning environments—uncharted territory for many. At Braven, we’ve explored and implemented solutions to ensure the best experience possible for our students in this new virtual space. Here’s what we’ve learned along the way.

Top 10 Reasons to Take the Braven Course

A group of people posing for a picture holding a certificate.

We believe leaders emerge from everywhere. The future demands that people, like yourself, have the professional skills, confidence, and experiences to thrive in today’s competitive world. You get that and more at Braven. Here are the top 10 reasons to take the Braven course. 

Braven recognized as an Inaugural McNulty Prize Catalyst Fund recipient

The McNulty Foundation announced the inaugural recipients of the McNulty Prize Catalyst Fund, a new fund at the Aspen Institute to support innovative social ventures at vital inflection points. A total of $110,000 will be granted to six organizations around the world that have proven results and show great potential for further impact. Each is led by an Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) Fellow using their entrepreneurial spirit and expertise to address critical global problems.

Three Recommendations to Help Solve Tech’s Diversity Problem

Tech leaders have often claimed they can’t find qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds. There are three recommendations that can help solve tech’s diversity problem, though, that start at the earliest stages of the process — and Braven is one of them.

At San Jose State, building connections, no ‘rich uncle’ required

Braven is helping San Jose State University students gain the skills and connections they need to land good jobs after graduation. Read The Mercury News’ article about how Braven matches Silicon Valley mentors with students who don’t have “classic rich-uncle connections” to help them get a foot in the door.

2016-2017 Braven Impact Report

Braven’s mission is to empower untapped and underrepresented college students with the skills, confidence, networks, and experiences they need to put their education to work. This is possible only if we know exactly what is working. To that end, we’re eager to share our 2016-2017 Braven Impact Report.

The Unexpected Value of the Liberal Arts

In his new book, You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Education, author George Anders tells the story of Braven Rutgers-Newark Fellow Dyllan and Leadership Coach Josmar to illustrate the transformational nature of built-in career support for first-generation college students.

Disrupting Opportunity Gaps Will Hinge on Networks

Last week, Stanford researcher Raj Chetty came out with yet another new study on the jagged landscape of opportunity facing America. He analyzes the relationship between young people’s exposure to innovation and the likelihood that they would go on to become inventors.

Incredible Nonprofits to Donate to in 2017

Consider supporting a nonprofit through the end of this year! No matter who you choose to support, remember that we all have the capacity to make an impact in this world, no matter how big or small. Here is a list of incredible nonprofits to donate to in 2017.

We Don’t Need More Alternatives to College

MissionU is the latest addition to a growing lineup of startups bypassing universities and building curriculum directly endorsed by employers. But let’s think about how we can combine the best of university experiences with the best of boot camps.