Career Pathways / A bold new direction
From “Can I?”
to “Watch me.”
Every girl deserves more than a dream. She deserves a pathway.
Apareció is reshaping its work around a sustained commitment to girls from underserved communities. Career Pathways connects early curiosity with focused learning, relationships, visible proof of skill, and support through the transition to college and work.
The stakes are her future.
Ambition needs access: to people who can explain a profession, tools to practice with, guidance through unfamiliar decisions, and opportunities to demonstrate what she can do. Our focus includes young Black and Latina women whose talent deserves room to grow.
The goal is a future she can shape—with economic stability, meaningful responsibility, leadership, and long-term choice.
What makes this a bold new direction?
We are bringing our experience in education, STEM, leadership, and mentorship into a connected, year-by-year model. Each experience should prepare a student for the next. Schools, mentors, employers, and funders have a part in making that continuity possible.
She can see the next step.
Defined learning milestones connect exploration, technical practice, and a portfolio that demonstrates her skills.
She has people in her corner.
Mentorship, academic support, employer involvement, and follow-up are designed to accompany her through important transitions.
She can put ability to work.
The model aims to connect students with paid placements, early credentials, and careers offering advancement and security.
The evidence behind our direction
Ambition deserves
a researched approach.
We are designing Career Pathways around structured learning, sustained relationships, and access to paid experience. Research on related approaches informs these choices—and the questions we will ask as our own model develops.
Career-connected learning can have lasting value.
MDRC’s randomized study of Career Academies in nine high schools found an average annual earnings increase of 11% over eight years after expected graduation. The model combined academic and technical learning with employer partnerships.
The gains were concentrated among young men. This is evidence from a related model, not a forecast of results for Apareció’s students. College attainment did not improve relative to the comparison group.
Read the MDRC report · 2008Paid experience belongs in the pathway.
In NACE’s 2022 survey of four-year college students, paid interns reported an average of 1.61 job offers, compared with 0.94 for unpaid interns and 0.77 for students without internship experience.
These are survey associations, not proof that internships alone caused the difference. They help explain our emphasis on building access to paid opportunities.
Read the NACE position statement · 2023Our commitment to evidence
Build thoughtfully. Measure what happens.
Career Pathways is in development. We plan to track learning milestones, portfolios, credentials, paid experiences, and student transitions, with follow-up at 12 and 24 months. We will distinguish program goals from achieved results as we report our progress.
From first curiosity to her next bold step.
- Explore · Elementary and middle school.Hands-on introductions make unfamiliar careers visible and spark questions.
- Commit · High school.Beginning in ninth grade, students choose a field and build technical skills, leadership, mentor relationships, and a portfolio over time.
- Launch · College bridge.Paid learning experiences, early credentials, and continued guidance help connect preparation with opportunity.
- Sustain · Follow-through.Planned check-ins at 12 and 24 months support persistence and help us understand what happens next.
Seven fields. Futures she can shape.
Our initial model focuses on fields selected for earning potential, advancement, specialized skills, and opportunities for women to lead.
- Biomedical engineering
- Medical devices, clinical engineering, and patient-centered innovation.
- Veterinary science
- Animal health, comparative medicine, and laboratory careers.
- Regulatory science
- The standards and decisions behind medicines, devices, and animal health.
- Clinical research
- Clinical development, drug safety, and the work behind new treatments.
- Biotechnology
- Laboratory operations, manufacturing, and quality systems.
- Finance / Investor Pathways
- Markets, investment research, actuarial science, and financial decision-making.
- Electrical engineering
- Systems design, applied engineering, and technical problem-solving.
From skills to shares.
Financial fluency is part of the ambition. Investor Pathways is designed both as a dedicated finance track and as a foundation across the model: understanding investing, ownership, entrepreneurship, and how wealth is built.
Proposed experiences include an Investor Literacy Lab, investment clubs using mock portfolios, a Founder Finance Studio, and guidance from women investors, founders, and analysts.
The next chapter has roots.
14 Under 45, signature experiences such as Girls in Medicine, and 100 Women in STEM offer entry points into a longer journey. Career Pathways is designed to connect exposure with the learning and relationships that follow.
Read the 14 Under 45 storyWhat your support makes possible.
We are seeking the funding and partnerships needed to develop learning sequences, prepare mentors, coordinate school and employer relationships, equip hands-on learning, and build paid experiences and follow-through into the model.
Employers can help shape relevant skills, host learning experiences, mentor students, and support paid placements. Industry partners can contribute equipment, software, materials, and technical expertise.
Progress worth following.
Our intended measures include learning milestones, portfolio work, credentials, transitions, and persistence. Longer-term success means fair pay, advancement, benefits, an inclusive workplace, and greater agency in her own life.
Career Pathways is in development. Launch dates, places, and individual opportunities will be announced as funding and partnerships are established.
Stay unstoppable.