For many students, getting in college is a tremendous feat, especially for those who are first in their family to receive higher education. Yet, for all its merits, entering college can be as hard as what follows after it: building a career.
Many college graduates have a hard time looking for a job. Some of them don't know how to look for a job outside of online job searches. Some who availed of college career services say it didn't really help them that much, and so currently, many college graduates are jobless and without means to repay their student debt.
Enter Braven, an organization set out to help students transition from the challenging world of higher education into the challenging marketplace. MarketWatch reports that Braven aims to help college students, especially first-generation college students and those from underrepresented minorities, move from studying in college to building a great career for themselves.
Aimée Eubanks Davis, founder of Braven, started the organization based on a belief that the next generation of leaders can come from almost everywhere. Formerly a sixth-grade teacher at Teach for America, she noticed how former TFA students, now college graduates, have a hard time finding a job without a network similar to their wealthier peers.
She said she was "just mortified" thinking about how their former students still fail to start great careers even after doing "everything a teacher, a preacher or parent told them to do."
Eubanks Davis launched Braven in 2013, and from then on the group focused on teaching students a mix of hard and soft skills necessary for the transition from school to marketplace - hard skills like writing a resumé, and soft skills like making small talk that helps in making connections and expand networks. Students who join enter a three-month program where they are taught what they need..
Dorsey Woods, a Rutgers-Newark student who finished Braven's program just last month, said he would never have landed a marketing-related offer if not for the tips his coach at Braven gave him.
"They helped me market myself and sell myself the best that I can to get that job," he said.
