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Introduction
At Braven, we fight for equity in opportunity and economic mobility. In our work, we are constantly reminded of the resilience of our Fellows who continue to overcome challenges on their way to career and lifetime success. In this report, we highlight their stories as we dive into two questions that assess Braven’s impact:
These students, along with their families and communities, deserve a more just America in every way. As we work towards an equitable recovery, we have an opportunity to build fundamentally better systems that will allow all of our nation’s talented young people a chance at the American promise.
Only 30% of about 1.3 million low-income or first-generation college students who enroll each year will graduate and secure a strong first job or enter graduate school.1 That’s more than 900,000 students every single year who aren't on the path to the American promise.
1 Composite statistics based on national sources, including NCES, NACE, and The Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Braven empowers promising college students with the skills, confidence, experiences, and networks necessary to transition from college to strong economic opportunities, which lead to meaningful careers and lives of impact.
The next generation of leaders will emerge from everywhere.
Braven empowers promising underrepresented young people on their paths to quality economic opportunities through a semester-long cohort-based course and a lighter-touch post-course experience that lasts through college graduation.
In our core higher education model, students take the course for credit either in-person or virtually. Students who come through our innovation programming via college success organizations receive a financial stipend in lieu of credit.
While trends about the job market favoring candidates are making headlines, when you dig deeper into the data, you learn it’s a candidate’s market for some–and not all. Across the nation, there has been a mismatch of labor market supply and demand tied to factors including worker desires, experience, and skills, 1 which has exacerbated inequities for workers of color and women.” 2
National Statistics
1 Edwards, Katherine A. How to Explain This Weird Job Market. Wall Street Journal, December 2021.
2 Long, Heather & Dam, Andrew & Fowers, Alyssa and Shapiro, Leslie “The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history”. The Washington Post, September 2020.
3 Long, Heather & Fowers, Alyssa and Dam, Andrew Why America has 8.4 million unemployed when there are 10 million job openings. The Washington Post, September 2021.
4 Simons, John. Gen Z and Millennials Are Leading a ‘Great Reshuffle.’ Here’s What That Means. Time, October 2021.
5 Franck, Thomas. Here’s where the jobs are - in one chart. CNBC, October 2021
6 Molla, Rani and Stewart, Emily. Why everybody’s hiring but nobody’s getting hired. Vox, September 2021.
In 2021, 680 Braven Fellows graduated from college.1 This new class is outpacing their peers nationally in strong job attainment by 16 percentage points (61% vs 45%) within six months of graduation.2
1 We have jobs data for 84% of FY21 graduates.
2 National benchmark estimates are based on data from NACE’s First Destination Survey, underemployment research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the volume Education, Skills, and Technical Change: Implications for Future US GDP Growth from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
When students are given access to information capital and networks as well as the opportunity to practice professional skills, the American promise is attainable within semesters.
By comparison, by age 30, most Americans have a 50-50 shot of outearning their parents.2
1 Inclusive of all Braven graduates from FY18-FY21
2 Chetty, Raj et al. The Fading American Dream: Trends in Absolute Income Mobility Since 1940. Science, December 2016.
3 Translation: Work hard and work smart, my friend. Hard and smart work brings success.
A high quality first job helps individuals build long-term wealth and health. Braven defines a strong first job as one that requires a bachelor’s degree and is full-time, as well as includes some combination of promotion pathways, employee benefits, and a market-competitive starting salary. 1
1 Questions about graduates’ salary were optional on our annual 2021 Post-Accelerator Fellow Survey.
2 NACE First Destination Survey for the College Class of 2019
We revisited the class of 2020 in 2021, and we’re proud to see Braven graduates from last year making progress in this uneven economic recovery.
1 We know the updated job outcomes of 87% of the Class of 2020.
Quality experiences during college that connect students’ education with their career aspirations are critical for post-graduation success.1 Unfortunately, internship attainment and completion has cratered during the pandemic.2
National Statistics
1 Source: Student Outcomes Beyond Completion: National Findings From the 2021 Strada Alumni Survey
2 Source: NACE 2020-21 student survey administered from February 17, 2021, through May 14, 2021 and includes responses from graduating seniors (n = 2,339) from 85 four year colleges and universities. Similar NACE data from the class of 2020 is unavailable due to challenges with data collection during the height of the pandemic.
3 Similar experiences include co-ops, externships, and apprenticeships on the NACE 2020-2021 survey. The NACE 2018-19 survey asked only about internships and co-ops.
For college students, internships serve as critical proof points of experience that open professional doors. Compared with their peers nationally, our 2021 graduates were 9 percentage points more likely to have at least one internship during their college experience.
1 These insights are from Braven predictive analyses across three statistical models (logistic regressions, elastic net, and random forest) across multiple regression specifications. Data analyzed for all-time Braven Fellow graduates through the class of 2021.
Braven conducted predictive analyses that show that internships are one of the most important predictive factors for quality outcomes within six months of graduation, even more so than GPA.1 Graduates with two or more internships are 24 percentage points more likely to secure quality outcomes than students who graduated with no internships.
National Statistics
College persistence has similarly declined in the last two years. Last year, college persistence at four-year public schools dropped to the lowest level since the starting cohort of 2014 and a 0.6 percentage point drop compared to the previous cohort. 2
Nationally, about 7 in 10 of Braven Fellows’ peers graduate college on time.1 Braven Fellows are persisting and graduating at encouraging rates.2
1 Implied 6-year graduation rate for Black, Latinx, and Asian students who persisted from freshman to sophomore year at four-year public institutions. Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2020 release of Tables 326.10, 326.30, and 306.50.
2 Includes graduation data of 595 all-time Braven Fellow graduates, exclusive of any Fellows who took Braven as a senior.
A Better Chicago
Abrams Foundation
Amato Foundation
Anonymous
Arbor Brothers
Arrow Impact
Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation
Charles Ashby Lewis and Penny Bender Sebring
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies
Charles Hayden Foundation
Charter School Growth Fund
Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education
College Futures Foundation
Community Foundation of New Jersey
Crown Family Philanthropies
Dani Petrie
David Cohen & Kristin Argo
ECMC Foundation
Erol Foundation
Finnegan Family Foundation
Franklin and Catherine Johnson Foundation
Gray Foundation
Grace & Steve Voorhis
Greg Gunn & Lisette Nieves
Invest For Kids
John & Wendy Cozzi
Kelly and Thom Mannard
Leslie Family Foundation
Linda and Brian Sterling
Mansueto Foundation
Margoes Foundation
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
MR Macgill
New Jersey Children's Foundation
New Profit, Inc.
Paula Sneed & Lawrence Bass
Paul M. Angell Foundation
Prosper Road Foundation
Rebekah Eubanks
Rick Braddock
Rick Witmer
Robert Mize and Isa White Trimble Family Foundation
Ron and Kathy Sonenthal
Sarah Peter
Schultz Family Foundation
Shellye Archambeau
Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2)
Siragusa Family Foundation
Sobrato Family Foundation
Square One Foundation
Steven Alesio
Strada Education Network
Stupski Foundation
Susan & Thomas Dunn
Tammy & Bill Crown
The 1954 Project
The Carson Family Charitable Trust
The City Fund
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation / PropelNext
The Heckscher Foundation for Children
The John P. and Anne Welsh McNulty Foundation
The Mayer and Morris Kaplan Family Foundation
The Osa Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation
Tipping Point Community
Valhalla Foundation
Victoria Foundation
Vivo Foundation
HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERS
Lehman College - CUNY
National Louis University
Rutgers University - Newark
San José State University
Spelman College (Launched 2022)
LEAD PARTNERS
$250K+ & programmatic support
Barclays
Capital One
Credit Suisse
Deloitte
NBA Foundation
Prudential Financial
Salesforce
Workday
ANCHOR PARTNERS
Adobe
Cisco
Cognizant US Foundation
JP Morgan Chase Foundation
LinkedIn
Morgan Stanley
KEYSTONE PARTNERS
$25K+ & programmatic support
ADP
AEA Investors
Blackbaud
Charles Schwab
CME Group Foundation
Lazard Asset Management
Northern Trust
Okta
PwC
ServiceNow
UBS
Western Digital
INNOVATION PARTNERS
$5K+ & programmatic support
Bank of the West
BMO Harris Bank
Cadent
CIBC Bank
eos Products
FCBCURE
Fortune Media
FTI Consulting
GLG
Gucci
Guggenheim Partners
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
IBM
Kirkland & Ellis
KPMG LLP
Loop Capital
Medline
NetApp
RSM
WW
IMPACT PARTNERS
<$5K and/or programmatic support
Anonymous
Audible
Cloudera Foundation
Cramer Krasselt
Google
Katie Couric Media
Mars
Maru Group
Montefiore Medical Center
Panasonic
RWJBarnabas
Schaffer & Combs
Suite 437
Tegus
The College Board
Training The Street
* There are a number of organizations we partner
with through our innovation programming that
will be recognized in our impact report.
The Poverty Tracker is a long running study by Columbia University and the Robin Hood Foundation that looks at the dynamics of poverty for New Yorkers. The project’s newest report considers what occupations and job qualities provide economic stability and mobility. One finding is that individuals need to earn $34K+ (200% of the poverty level) in their jobs to attain economic mobility. Of all employed New Yorkers aged 25-64 with college degrees, 71% earn over that $34K benchmark. Of our Braven 2021 Lehman graduates 74% are already matching or exceeding that benchmark. 1
1 Source: Maury, Matthew; Omoragbon, Airenakhue; Collyer, Sophie; Oltmans, Sarah; Sarnoff, Chloe; and Wime, Christopher. Spotlight on Occupations & Mobility: Paths towards economic security through education and work. Poverty Tracker, October 2021.
2 In the figure above, we use the Poverty Tracker team’s definitions for low income (less than $34,000 for individuals) and working age (ages 25-64).
3 Braven has benchmarked or self-reported salary data for 86% of employed Braven Lehman graduates of FY21.
In 2021, 113 Braven Lehman Fellows graduated from college. This new class has attained an 82% employment rate within six months of graduation.
While we’re encouraged the newest Braven graduates at Lehman College have attained an 82% employment rate within six months of graduation, we are working to understand why graduates have not achieved the same level of strong job outcomes as their Braven peers nationwide.
1 Parrott, James. How Does the NYC Labor Market Recover from the Covid-19 Impact? The New School Center for New York City Affairs, presentation on November 16, 2021.
2 Parrott, James. Testimony to Examine Employment Trends in New York State Caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic. The New School Center for New York City Affairs, testimony on November 15, 2021.
new york Statistics
3 2020 Financial Condition Report For Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2020: Economic & Demographic Trends. Office of the New York State Comptroller, March 2020. New York state accounts for 7.7% of the U.S. real Gross Domestic Product, but it accounted for 18.5% of lost jobs during the pandemic. The impact on lost jobs is more than double what you’d expect based on the state’s share of the national economy.
More Lehman seniors took the Braven course during the pandemic, leaving less time to complete career-accelerating experiences during college. In our analysis of national data, we found a statistically significant difference in post-graduation outcomes between Fellows who took Braven as a senior versus earlier in college and even between those who took Braven as first- or second-semester seniors.
Many Braven Lehman graduates have landed career-aligned entry-level jobs that do not specifically require college degrees. Many of these fall in healthcare (e.g., patient record, billing, and other administrative specialists). In the Bronx, healthcare and social assistance make up 26% of all jobs.1 Based on our interviews with students, on the whole, graduates are satisfied with these pathway roles because they offer benefits, promotion pathways, and broader career paths.
1 Source: Data USA (https://datausa.io/)
Nationally, about 7 in 10 of Braven Fellows’ peers graduate college on time.1 We’re seeing incredibly encouraging results with our 378 all-time Braven Fellows at Lehman College.
1 Implied 6-year graduation rate for Black, Latinx, and Asian students who persisted from freshman to sophomore year at four-year public institutions. Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, 2020 release of Tables 326.10, 326.30, and 306.50.