Julia Magee
Connector Editor
The 2026 spring semester welcomes the new Braven Accelerator course, designed to prepare undergraduate students to successfully and confidently enter the workforce. The course consists of three main sections that support students’ progression working through their goals. Students meet on Thursdays from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. virtually, except for the first and last weeks of the semester, which meets in Coburn 255. It is not only for career readiness, although it does satisfy the Career Connected Experience requirement in the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (FAHSS). It also counts towards the Arts and Humanities requirement or the Social Sciences requirement. While some might be skeptical of its newness, it doesn’t take long to see that Braven is not only helping students with their careers, but also supporting general confidence, empowerment and determination. Students can also learn about Braven’s impact through their other university partnerships and the efficacy of their program’s impact on education and career readiness.
There are three main sections of the course: Design Your Career, Launch Your Career and the Capstone Challenge. The first two sections are four weeks each, and the Capstone Challenge is six weeks. Students spend the first portion of the course exploring and reflecting on their career interests, goals and values within their small cohort of students. After these discussions, students work on creating their career project plans and move on to the second portion of the course. Anchored by their goals, interests and values, students now turn towards their portfolios and job materials. This section includes working on résumés, LinkedIn profiles and interview skills, such as how to appropriately express how personal and professional experiences demonstrate their core values. Students also receive feedback on their job materials and mock interviews, and are able to practice all of these skills at networking events.
The final section of the course, the Capstone Challenge, is an opportunity for students to work directly with the course’s employer partner. In the past, employer partners have represented J. P. Morgan, Google and Capital One. This semester at UMass Lowell, the employer partner is Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance. Employer partners propose practical problems for students to solve, and students’ solutions are presented to the employer partners at the end of the course. Each section of the course is designed to support the organic progression of professional development, but the support doesn’t stop the last week of the course. Once the course is over, Braven offers Post-Accelerator support for students, which includes opportunities for mentorship, networking and job and internship opportunities from Braven email newsletters.
The Accelerator course is ideal for sophomores, juniors and transfer students; it’s never too early or too late to work on career readiness and professional skills. However, pretty soon it will be too late to enroll in the course for this semester. Jan. 26 is the last day for students to add the course without a permission number, and Feb. 2 is the last day for students to add the course with a permission number.
Braven, a now national nonprofit, was founded by Aimée Eubanks Davis in 2013. Since then, Braven has expanded across the country, partnering with universities in California, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, Delaware and most recently, Greater Boston. Ruben Sança is the Executive Director of Greater Boston, where Braven recently announced a five-year partnership with UMass Lowell. Sança has a unique and impressive history with UMass Lowell. He is a double alum, former Connector manager, a UMass Lowell Hall of Famer and former Director of Student Life and Well-Being, among other roles.
Sança initially learned about Braven through LinkedIn, and resonated with their mission and impact in numerous cities across the country. “I became involved because I really liked the mission behind Braven. I was a first generation college student, and I also come from a low-income [family]… I was 100 percent behind their mission and I really wanted to support students on their path from classes to internships to their first jobs,” Sança states in response to what drew him to Braven. He went on to explain that a partnership between Braven and UMass Lowell makes so much sense because both aim to support first-gen, low-income students. Sança reminds students that “the course is currently open… [and] having worked in the past couple of months with university administration to set up the course, we are really thrilled about our launch next week. We want to… get working on the course and provide students with the opportunities that they deserve.”
The Post-Accelerator support offered after the course is an exceptional feature of Braven’s program. A 14-week course can’t fully prepare undergraduate students for their careers. Not only does Braven acknowledge that, but they offer accessible resources for students to continue growing. One exciting resource is a 12 week one on one mentorship with working professionals who have experience navigating the current job market. These mentors could be from any of Braven’s employer partners listed on their website. With their mentor, students can decide how frequently they meet, likely at least once a week. During this mentorship, students can expect personalized career coaching, support interviewing for internships or jobs as well as guidance for networking and other practical advice. Sança continues, “it’s so hard to be able to learn about what’s out there for [each] major… Those professional mentors… they can help you and say, your résumé looks good, this is what you’re lacking, this is what some of the employers are going to be looking at. We think those [mentors] are really critical in being able to find jobs after graduation, especially for first-gen and low-income students, because their parents may not be in those industries.”
Fajr Zahid is a Recruitment Associate at Braven and recent UMass Lowell Public Health graduate. As a Recruitment Associate, she shares information about the course with students considering enrolling during info sessions and tabling events. One question she frequently receives is to explain what sets the Accelerator course apart from UMass Lowell’s Career Services. Zahid says that the course isn’t supposed to be better than Career Services, but to complement them, reinforcing Sança’s sentiment about the nature of Braven’s partnership with UMass Lowell. Despite this, the course has some unique features that students are encouraged to take advantage of in addition to Career Services, especially the employer partners, the student cohort communities, the Capstone Challenge, the Braven Network and ongoing mentorship. Zahid elaborates that students are able to join two community cohorts for two different pathways, allowing students to receive newsletters about job and internship opportunities from multiple career pathways. During these tabling events Zahid often tells students wondering if the course is a good fit for them that “everything you do in this course are things that you’d have to do eventually. By taking this course, you have resources, mentors, guidance to help you navigate that path to getting a strong first job after graduation. Having a good résumé, knowing how to interview well, maximizing your presence on LinkedIn, these are things that you have to have knowledge of when you are applying for jobs and internships.”
To learn more about Braven and the Accelerator course, check out their page on the UMass Lowell website, uml.edu/braven, and look into Braven’s website, braven.org, to learn more about their history, values and the research on the efficacy of their program. The deadline to register for the course, FAHS.2800, is coming up next week, Jan. 26. Students can register with a permission number until Feb. 2. Students interested in strong job opportunities after graduation, as well as confidence, experience and professional skills should consider enrolling in Braven’s Accelerator course.
