Everyone loves success stories about hardworking students who earn full-ride scholarships to elite universities. And often it seems like the stories end there, with an imagined “happily ever after” of acing tests, graduating college, and slotting into well-paying careers.
But it’s rarely that easy. How do you navigate the four-plus years it takes to get to that career when you’re the first in your family to go to college? How do you compete for internships and jobs when you can’t afford transportation to the interview, much less an apartment anywhere near the job? Who do you turn to when your family and friends at home don’t even understand the path you’re on?
“Stepping foot on that campus was never about culture shock,” says Mindy Wright, Co-founder and Executive Director of The Upward Project, recalling her first year at Colby College. “Even though I was surrounded by many students that didn’t look like me at a predominantly white institution, it was mostly socioeconomic shock for me, just seeing the resources that others had access to that I didn’t. I couldn’t call home when a computer broke or get a tutor when I was struggling in Latin class. I didn’t even know I could drop the class to protect my grade point average.”
“Fast forward to when I graduated and became an educator,” she continues. “After working as both a classroom teacher and as director of a college persistence program at a charter school, I kept asking myself why our top kids — valedictorians attending Ivy Leagues and other top-tier universities — were consistently ending up in lower-level jobs not aligned with their impressive degrees, skills, and ambitions?”
The initial answer, Mindy explains, is the lack of connections. Students in The Upward Project (TUP) don’t come from backgrounds with a network of people working in the sectors and fields that they’re interested in pursuing. Without that network, it’s harder to learn about opportunities and internships. And even when they learn about an opportunity, cost can be a barrier.
When she launched The Upward Project eight years ago, Mindy decided that the program would provide five years of financial assistance in addition to academic and career coaching, career skills workshops, and help with internship placements. Beginning with a two-week summer intensive session before freshman year, students are given a brand new laptop as well as a $500 stipend for books and essentials, plus $350 to spend on professional attire for interviews, internships, and conferences. For the remainder of their five years with TUP, they have access to $10,000 in discretionary funds to use as needed — perhaps to buy a bike to get around campus, or to pay for summer coding bootcamp, or to go on a ski trip with friends for a social and cultural experience.
“We’re replicating the opportunities that many of their affluent peers have access to,” Mindy explains. “The money is theirs, but they fill out a quick Google form to request it so that we can help them budget and choose wisely. Over the five years, some of them use all of it, some use half, some a third; it just depends.”
The Upward Project is currently serving 57 Scholars, a relatively small number compared to some of the large, national college success programs. “We are really intentional about the relationships we’re building with students,” Mindy comments. “We prioritize getting better over getting bigger. It’s more important to us to go deep with them and foster trust, rather than serving hundreds or thousands of students. We’re often the first phone call a student makes when they’re facing a difficult situation or when they have good news they’re excited to share.”
TUP alumna Phuong Nhat Nguyen, who graduated from University of Southern California in 2021, recalls how much she needed that guidance. “I knew nothing about being a professional in the U.S.,” she says, “I grew up with a mother who didn’t speak English and worked factory jobs. We came from a lower-class family of artists and street vendors in Vietnam. But I learned how to dress, speak, and interact professionally at The Upward Project summer events. And it was an Upward Project connection that helped me secure my first job as well. Now, as a young legal professional in the tech industry, I look back on the summer events as my first lessons, though I didn’t realize how crucial they were at the time.”
Law is just one of TUP’s targeted fields for their Scholars. “We’re specifically working with students to enter some of the more rigorous pathways that have higher barriers for first-generation and low-income students, such as STEM, law, healthcare, and business,” Mindy states. “Part of our mission is to disrupt the wealth gap in Boston, so we do everything we can to create economic mobility and wealth equity for our students. The average salary of our graduates the first year out of college is $65,000, as opposed to the $45,000 average for first-generation graduates. We help them analyze job offers, health coverage, 401ks, and stock options. And we pay for them to have a year of financial advising so they understand that it’s not just about getting a big paycheck. One of our students is about to become a first time homeowner, just three years out of college, because they’ve been saving and investing wisely thanks to the advice they’ve received.”
Nate Francois, a TUP Scholar who will graduate from Northeastern University this spring, credits The Upward Project with his start in finance. “TUP made me feel comfortable asking for help, and I am grateful for that, given my transition to college was extremely difficult,” he says. “Last summer, I had the privilege of participating in the Advancing Black Pathways Fellowship at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and I collaborated with accomplished bankers and investors and was able to demonstrate my growth in both technical prowess and effective communication.”
After proudly witnessing the career trajectories of ambitious TUP students like Nate Francois and Phuong Nhat Nguyen for nearly a decade now, Mindy concludes: “The Upward Project is creating a generation of leaders who are going to be our politicians, who will be in boardrooms, become big-time wealth managers and doctors finding cures to illnesses, and who will be homeowners turning their communities around.”
Current needs at The Upward Project include funding/donations and professionals who can help provide opportunities for TUP Scholars in the form of internships, informational interviews, or career field trips in the summer. For more information or to get involved, please contact Mindy Wright at mindy@theupwardproject.org or use the contact form.
