The Upward Project

As a Strategic Alliance partner of Leadership Brainery, Inc., The Upward Project is excited to have both our Scholars and our team members in attendance at the 2024 Graduate School Summit tomorrow, November 2nd! In addition, our Co-Founder and Executive Director Mindy Wright will join a panel of fellow leaders in education, the arts, and humanities to reflect on the role that advanced education played in her career development. We are looking forward to an amazing #GSS2024 experience with LB!

As our Scholars continue to excel in their fall semesters of college, we are excited to look back and spotlight Cohort VI Scholar Taisha Andre, a 2nd-year student at Tufts University, who gained invaluable experience this summer interning at the Supreme Judicial Court! One of our key goals at The Upward Project is ensuring every Scholar engages in a career-aligned summer opportunity. This past summer, nearly half of our Scholars pursued coursework or enrolled in specialized programs, while the rest gained hands-on experience through paid internships. We’re proud to share that 100% of our employer partners agree our Scholars excel in career management, professionalism, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking! We cannot wait to see how our Scholars continue to shine in their Summer 2025 experiences! 🌟 #theupwardproject #community #nonprofit #classof2028 #classof2024 #collegeaccess #education #educationequity #careerdevelopment #collegesuccess #boston #massachusetts #ScholarSpotlight #CareerSuccess

This past Tuesday, October 15th, the Upward Project team hosted our second annual Nominator Mixer in Boston at Dorchester Brewing Company! At the heart of our recruitment process are the incredible School Counselors and CBO Leaders that nominate students on their caseloads who match our program’s eligibility criteria. Our Nominator Mixer gives us the opportunity to show our appreciation for the dedicated nominators who help connect us with the Scholars we welcome each year. We also shared valuable insights from last year's cycle and outlined our nomination and application process. We wrapped up the evening with plenty of networking, good food, and fellowship, bringing together educators passionate about empowering the next generation of leaders! Swipe to the last slide and check out our LinkTree (https://lnkd.in/eyinCusW) to explore the ways you can get involved if you're a School Counselor or CBO leader interested in nominating students for The Upward Project. Our 2025 application cycle officially opens on Monday, January 6th, and we can’t wait to keep you updated on all the exciting opportunities ahead! 🌟

Happy Fall from The Upward Project! As we transition into another season of supporting student success, we are excited to invite past, present, and prospective nominators to join us on Tuesday, October 15th for our 2024 Nominator Mixer! School Counselors and CBO Leaders play a pivotal role in our recruitment process by nominating students who meet our Scholar eligibility criteria. As such, we are excited to host this mixer to share more about our nomination and application process, insights from our last application cycle, and create space to celebrate the invaluable work of our nominators in supporting the success of our Scholars. Hosted at Dorchester Brewing Company, the evening will include complimentary food and drinks. If you’re a Counselor or CBO advisor interested in nominating students for our program, we’d love to see you there! Please RSVP using this link: https://lnkd.in/ebfUt6Fd

As our newest Scholars begin their first couple weeks of college, we are so grateful that we had the opportunity to build authentic and trust-based relationships with them over the two-week summer intensive. Our strong curriculum and programming at TUP are strengthened by the relationships we build with our Scholars to foster true collaboration as we work together to navigate career pathways, break down barriers and celebrate succesess along the way. We are LOVING "the moments" captured that feature what it means to truly build authentic relationships! #theupwardproject #community #nonprofit #classof2028 #classof2024 #collegeaccess #education #educationequity #careerdevelopment #collegesuccess #boston #massachusetts #careertrip #professionaldevelopment #cohort

The Upward Project is in a proud Strategic Alliance with Leadership Brainery, Inc., working in tandem to support underrepresented students that are looking to pursue graduate education. Swipe through to learn more about how TUP and LB collaborate to create a pipeline for our Scholars, and check out Leadership Brainery, Inc. across all platforms to learn more about their year-round programming #theupwardproject #leadershipbrainery #nonprofit #classof2028 #classof2024 #collegeaccess #education #educationequity #careerdevelopment #collegesuccess #boston #massachusetts #careertrip #professionaldevelopment #graduateschool

As we prepare to say goodbye to Summer, we want to take a break from our regular content and shout out our on-site photographer, Mike Ritter, who truly captured the essence, personality and intentionality around our work in every single photo this summer! Mike was professional, a great listener, and knew all the right ways to engage with our Scholars, staff, and external partners to get "THE SHOT". His talent is unmatched and we look forward to connecting with him again to help us tell our story through his captivating images. Take a look at our team's favorite pictures from this Summer! #theupwardproject #nonprofit #classof2028 #classof2024 #collegeaccess #education #educationequity #careerdevelopment #collegesuccess #boston #massachusetts #careertrip #professionaldevelopment #photography #ritterbin

Every year during our 2-Week Summer Intensive, we dedicate a day to taking community building to another level by honing in on building authentic relationships in unfamiliar environments. At Alnoba Conference Center, we spent the day in nature doing activities that are largely new to Scholars, such as high ropes courses, and worked to strengthen the bonds between cohort members and the wider TUP team! Our hope is that our Scholars take the skills developed during this specific retreat and mimic them on their college campuses: - ask for help when something is hard - intentionally build community - have fun trying new things - be a leader - and be a supportive friend Thank you to Alnoba / New England's top resource for leadership & team development for another successful day in the great outdoors! #theupwardproject #nonprofit #classof2028 #classof2024 #collegeaccess #education #educationequity #careerdevelopment #collegesuccess #boston #massachusetts #careertrip #professionaldevelopment #nature #newhampshire #alnoba

One of the biggest lessons our Scholars take away from TUP's 2-Week Summer Intensive is what it means to cultivate the skill of networking. To that end, we are so grateful that Fidelity Investments hosted us this summer for our annual Lunch and Learn, where a warm and inviting space was created for our students to learn about the power of building professional relationships through networking. Fidelity is committed to supporting early career talent and cultivating relationships with organizations like The Upward Project to create a pipeline of strong talent. Our Lunch and Learn helped to reinforce the power of networking, and how our community can help our Scholars reach their career goals. Swipe through to see photos from the event, as well as a reflection from one of our Cohort VII Scholars that speaks to how special it was to see multi-generational TUP representation at Fidelity. We want to thank everyone who attended the Lunch & Learn, and we especially thank Regan (O'Malley) Scally and Lesly Diaz Guerrero (Cohort VI) for your partnership and support in making this event possible. #fidelityassociate #summerinternship #theupwardproject #nonprofit #classof2028 #classof2024 #collegeaccess #education #educationequity #careerdevelopment #collegesuccess #boston #massachusetts #careertrip #professionaldevelopment

The Upward Project’s 2-Week Summer Intensive places a high value on experiences that allow Scholars to learn about career potential, while also building social and cultural capital—especially within the city of Boston 🌆💙💼 This summer, we brought Cohort VII Scholars to the Massachusetts State House to take a full tour of the State House, learn about Massachusetts history, and hear from a panel of legislative aides and staffers who support different aspects of Boston’s governance. We were also joined by some representatives of our Scholars’ individual neighborhoods, including Liz Miranda, who is the State Representative of the 5th Suffolk District (and is running for State Senate in the 2nd Suffolk!), as well as Joseph McGonagle Jr., who currently represents the 28th Middlesex District of Everett, MA. We are so thankful to all of the folks that made time to share their stories with our Scholars—who not only learned more about careers in this field but also how to get involved in their own neighborhoods and districts! 👏🎉 #TheUpwardProject