Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit, founded in 2013 by Aimée Eubanks Davis, a former teacher and Chicago native. It works to help promising college students from underrepresented backgrounds - including first-generation and low-income students and students of color - secure strong first jobs after graduation, addressing the gap between a college education and career success.

Its principal programme, the Braven Accelerator, is a semester-long career acceleration course delivered as a hybrid learning experience, combining online coursework with in-person coaching from volunteer working professionals. Students, known as Fellows, develop professional skills, build networks with people in work, and complete capstone projects alongside employer partners. Braven partners with public universities and employers to deliver the programme, and it continues to support students through graduation with mentorship, networking events, internship opportunities and career guidance.

The organisation operates in multiple cities, among them Chicago, New York, Newark, Atlanta and the Bay Area, and describes its work as national in scope. Braven reports that its graduates are 14–22 percentage points more likely than peers to secure strong full-time jobs or enrol in graduate school within six months.

Staffing at Braven rests on a mission-driven model in which volunteer working professionals coach and mentor students alongside the organisation's own team. Its fields of work are education, workforce development, higher education and the nonprofit sector.