How Our Healthcare Pilot is Shaping a Regional Career Pathways Model
December 29, 2025
But there’s a disconnect between schools, colleges, and employers that’s leaving both sides underserved. Students face disconnected systems, unclear pathways, and limited exposure to real-world career opportunities.
Nearly half of college graduates from low-income backgrounds are underemployed in their first job – and two-thirds are still underemployed five years later. These students aren’t landing strong first jobs, meaning they start behind and stay behind. (Federal Reserve & Georgetown CEW)
For 35 years, Making Waves has excelled at getting students to and through college, including:
But we’ve also learned that degrees alone no longer guarantee economic success.
We need to develop new pathways that blur the lines between high school, college, and career to open more doors to economic mobility. Building on our proven track record, we’re now exploring how to bridge the gap between education and employment.
What would it look like to create accelerated pathways connecting thousands of Bay Area students to high-demand, high-wage careers? We’re exploring pathways that could support young people to:
Making Waves’ recent pilot program, Hands-On Health, in partnership with Kaiser led to 100% of students gaining increased information about career pathways, increased social capital connections, stronger durable skills, and renewed motivation for their future.
As we explore building education and career pathways, it’s important that two things are true – these pathways are wins for both students and employers. We need to design pathways that meet labor market demand, and we need to design pathways that match students’ interests and passions.
Join the movement: Sign up for Patrick’s email list for the latest strategy updates and partnership opportunities. By submitting this form, you are opting in to receive emails.
We’re piloting programs to test our hypotheses, gather data, and refine our approach. These learning opportunities are helping us understand what works best for our students and employer partners.
We’re looking to fundamentally change how education connects to economic opportunity. Are you ready to get involved?
Donations have an immediate and long-term impact. Your support means young people have the resources and pathways to reach their education and career goals.
Let’s create hands-on learning opportunities and build career pathways together. Grow your organization’s engagement, build your talent pipeline, and be a part of community impact.
Join the movement: Sign up for Patrick’s email list for the latest strategy updates and partnership opportunities. By submitting this form, you are opting in to receive emails.
