Potential is
not the problem.
Preparation is.
Bold Futures Academy helps young people understand themselves, practice the capabilities every path requires, and learn from real experience before the stakes get higher. College, a trade, a job, or a business of their own.
in March 2025
Every Number Documented
Didn't Prepare Them to Think Entrepreneurially
· UConn, 2025
in High School
A generation full of potential,
pointed at a future nobody prepared them for.
Young people entering the workforce are talented, ambitious, and unready, and it is not their fault. Most reach the consequential decisions before anyone has helped them understand themselves, practice what those decisions demand, or learn from real experience.
employers say colleges are not preparing graduates for the workforce
Intelligent.com employer survey, 2024
teens would rather build something of their own, yet most never take a course that shows them how
Junior Achievement teen entrepreneurship survey
of graduates would change something about their education, most often what they studied
Cengage Graduate Employability Report
companies fired a recent graduate they hired that same year
Intelligent.com survey of 966 business leaders, 2024
of recent graduates are underemployed, in jobs that do not require their degree
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2024
The bill comes due years later. Four years and the wrong major. A first job that goes wrong fast. An idea that never gets built. And a capable young person who quietly decides they are not the kind who succeeds.
None of this is a talent problem. It is a preparation problem.
One mission. Many paths forward.
The future is not one-size-fits-all. Preparation should not be either. Bold Futures Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps young people build the self-awareness, capabilities, judgment, and experience they need to navigate whatever comes next. Four steps, and the path they choose is theirs. More than seventy young people so far, every number documented.
Every student starts with the Bold Futures Navigator, a short assessment that puts language to what they are good at, how they work with other people, and what actually drives them. It is a starting map, not a verdict, and most have never been asked.
Then the practice starts. Communicating when something is at stake, working with a team, following through when the work is hard or unclear, handling money, and reading an opportunity. The capabilities every path requires, practiced out loud rather than lectured.
Students test what they are learning in real settings: building a venture in LaunchLab, working through an internship or a first job with Ignite, or going deeper into a pathway with one of our partners. College, a trade, a job, a business of their own. We do not push one over another.
Nobody does the transition alone. Students reflect on what each experience taught them, build evidence of what they can do, and take the next step with mentors, guest speakers, and Demo Day judges whose relationships tend to outlast the program. Several of our students have come back to work with us.
The three program lines below are where this path gets delivered, surrounded by mentors, partner organizations, and applied experiences. They are not three separate offers. They are the same path, met by students in different places. We build what is core to readiness and partner where specialized organizations can take students further.
Where the work
actually happens.
Workshops, program mentoring, and one-on-one coaching through the transition into work
Values-aligned mentorship students describe as natural and genuine
Built on mentorship work with UConn's Werth Institute that started in 2023, before the organization did
Six capabilities in one developmental arc, built around your program rather than picked from a menu
Sixty to ninety minute sessions built on practice, feedback, and reflection, virtual or onsite
Delivered with Hartford Youth Scholars, one of our first partners for the series · Central Connecticut State University · July 2026
Virtual delivery · open nationwide · 10 seats per cohort
Historical analysis · live simulations · entrepreneur speakers · forecasting
Human-centered design · ethical decision-making · real business planning
Every student works on their own individual venture from Week 1
We don't just teach a subject.
We put students inside it.
Across every program line, the approach is the same: start with the person, put them in the room with people further along, and give them real practice instead of a lecture.
Every student starts with the Bold Futures Navigator, a starting map rather than a verdict, so what comes next is built from who they actually are.
Every readiness series runs across multiple sessions, and the relationships run longer than that. We follow students through college and into work. Mentees have become interns, and interns now facilitate our programs.
Mentors, founders, and professionals show up in every program line, and students eventually become the ones showing up.
Simulations, scenarios, real interviews, live pitches, and feedback rounds where students practice the hard thing out loud, then try it again.
Speaking up when something is at stake, using feedback, working with a team, following through, handling money, and reading an opportunity. The readiness capabilities every path requires.
Deciding well when information is thin, people disagree, and holding your values costs you something.
What students say it changed.
Verbatim. Unedited. The words of students from BFA's Ignite and LaunchLab programs.
The need is measurable.
So are the early signals.
Our own surveys confirm the problem is real, and our early numbers reflect what participants reported after getting what they were missing. Small groups, honest numbers. One column is why we exist. The other is what we have measured so far.
of students we surveyed said school never taught them to think like an entrepreneur
scholars at our Hartford workshop, from some of Connecticut's most competitive schools, arrived unable to put their own value into words
average confidence describing themselves, out of 5, after one hour of our personal branding method
real ventures built, named, positioned, and pitched at Demo Day by our inaugural cohort
every Demo Day mentor scored the top founders a perfect five on delivery
"From a lack-of-scope, data-less, un-researched idea to a professional-grade deck and pitch presentable to board members."
Volunteer Mentor · Demo Day Observation
Every gift helps a
young person get ready for what comes next.
501(c)(3) · EIN: 33-3751028 · All contributions tax-deductible · Monthly giving available
Prefer monthly? Every tier can be given as a monthly gift on our GiveButter page, steady support that keeps programs running all year.
There's a place for you
in this mission.
Whether you are a student, a school, a mentor, a corporate partner, or a donor, there is a seat at this table. Find the one that fits you.
The Roundtable
Series.
Ten seats, ninety minutes, and one honest question about how young people get ready for what comes next. Employers, educators, parents, and young people answer it at the same table, and students are in the conversation rather than in the audience.
The purpose is simple. Most conversations about young people happen without them, and most people working on this problem never end up in the same room. We put employers, educators, parents, and young people at one table, and the relationships that come out of it are what actually move things.
Bring the people closest to a problem into one room, name what has gone unaddressed, and move on it together.
One mission.
Many paths forward.
The future is not one-size-fits-all, so the preparation is not either. Three connected program lines, surrounded by mentors and partners, all pointed at one promise: a young person who understands themselves, has practiced the capabilities every path requires, and is ready for what they choose next.
LaunchLab
Six weeks. One idea. One real plan.
Ten seats per cohort, and every student builds their own venture, not a team project and not a hypothetical. From Week 1, it is your actual idea. You finish with a business plan, a tested prototype, a pitch deck, and a Demo Day pitch in front of real mentors. Cohorts run a few times a year and the application stays open between them, so you can apply whenever you are ready and we will be in touch as soon as the next dates are set.
What makes this program
genuinely different.
Most high school entrepreneurship programs cover the basics. LaunchLab goes deeper, equipping students with the analytical, ethical, and forecasting skills to navigate an economy still being built.
Students study history’s major economic shifts, the Industrial Revolution through the AI era, and learn who adapted, who didn’t, and why.
Students inhabit real leadership roles each week (CEO, CMO, CTO, Ethics Advisor), then compare their thinking against how real founders solved the same problem.
Working entrepreneurs share their stories live, failures and pivots included, and students ask questions directly.
Students read real economic data to forecast where industries and opportunities are heading over the next decade.
Students learn to deeply understand the people a product will affect before designing anything for them.
Every major decision is examined through an ethical lens, AI ethics included, so ventures are responsible, not just viable.
Entrepreneurship in the Age of AI:
The Human Advantage
Every LaunchLab cohort teaches the same entrepreneurship fundamentals. What changes each time is the lens. We chose this one because these students are not entering the economy their parents worked in. Much of what people once did by hand is being automated, and the question worth their attention is what remains distinctly ours to do.
They work it out three ways. They look backward at previous technological upheavals for what held true each time. They study founders working through this shift right now, both in case studies and live in the room as guest speakers. And they look forward at where things are heading, then let that shape the ventures they design rather than building for a world that is already passing.
The inaugural cohort,
honestly reported.
Six students enrolled, four built ventures, and three pitched at Demo Day. We report those numbers exactly as they are.
“Before LaunchLab, I thought entrepreneurship was strictly building a business. Now I think entrepreneurship is building an idea with purpose to help other people.”
Anonymous Founder, Spring 2026
Workshops · Guest Speaking · 1:1 Coaching
Includes UConn Werth Institute · 3 years running
100% said high school left them unprepared to think like an entrepreneur. 86% would have joined LaunchLab.
4.1 out of 5 confidence in bringing their idea forward. Five of seven opted into ongoing mentorship.
Ignite Program
Mentorship-driven support for college students making the transition into work: communication, self-advocacy, professional judgment, and reflection on internships and first jobs, through workshops, guest speaking, and one-on-one coaching. Our partnership with UConn's Werth Institute began in 2023 and has run continuously since, predating the organization itself, and in post-workshop surveys students most often describe the sessions as fun and informative.
"Working with Ruth honestly felt so natural. I loved how our values aligned and how easy it was to brainstorm with her."
Ignite Program Alum
The Readiness
Workshop Series.
A multi-session experiential learning series that helps young people practice the human capabilities they need to navigate school, work, relationships, money, and opportunity. We partner with schools, employers, universities, and youth-serving organizations to deliver it, and each series is built around the age, setting, and real situations of the participants in the room. We do not just teach a subject. We put students inside it.
One coherent developmental arc, not a menu of one-off workshops.
Each session is experiential: scenarios, simulations, role-play, live practice.
Participants try the hard thing, get feedback, and try it again.
Middle school, high school, college, and emerging adults. The capability stays the same; the situations change.
The series moves from self, to people, to work, to money, to what comes next. These are the components of every series, not six separate products.
How do I understand myself well enough to make better choices and work well with others?
Strengths, values, working style, patterns, and how you tend to show up with other people. The Bold Futures Navigator gives participants language for this; the series lets them test it through action.
How do I communicate clearly when something is at stake?
Communication, listening, asking for help, giving and receiving feedback, difficult conversations, disagreement, boundaries, and basic negotiation.
How do I contribute when success depends on other people too?
Collaboration, leadership, trust, accountability, role clarity, and group decisions. Participants learn about themselves as teammates and leaders by doing it.
How do I keep moving when the work is hard, unclear, boring, or changing?
Motivation, initiative, adaptability, resilience, priorities, and follow-through. We teach and practice the actual behaviors behind self-management.
How do I make better money decisions as my responsibilities grow?
Tradeoffs, spending, saving, banking, a first paycheck, credit, taxes, benefits, and longer-term planning, with complexity matched to age.
How do I recognize, evaluate, and act on an opportunity?
Recognizing an opportunity, evaluating fit, comparing tradeoffs, spotting what you still need to find out, asking good questions, and taking a next step. Partners provide the deeper pathway exploration; we build the capability to navigate it.
Personal Branding Workshop with Hartford Youth Scholars at Central Connecticut State University.
Hartford Youth Scholars is one of the first organizations we partnered with to deliver the series. At Central Connecticut State University we ran sixty minutes on the Know Yourself capability: scholars from eight Connecticut schools mapped their experiences, wrote accomplishment statements, and pitched themselves out loud with live feedback. One session, eight scholars, reported exactly as it happened. It is also what taught us to build the series rather than the session.
confidence describing themselves, out of 5
would recommend it to a friend
from arrival to pitching themselves out loud
"My experiences can be small, they don't have to be big."
12TH GRADER · HARTFORD YOUTH SCHOLARS WORKSHOP
Ready to get involved
in a BFA program?
Students, schools, mentors, and partners are all welcome. Find your place in our mission.
The people behind
Bold Futures.
Different backgrounds. One goal: helping young people build the judgment, capabilities, relationships, and experience to navigate what comes next.
Board of Directors
BFA's Board brings expertise across education, finance, community engagement, marketing, and entrepreneurship, with 4 standing committees overseeing governance, program quality, finance, and marketing & outreach.
Four standing committees.
Overall governance, leadership direction & organizational strategy
Fundraising, grants, donor engagement & financial sustainability
Brand, partnerships & recruitment
Curriculum quality, student experience & program evaluation
The People Behind the Work
BFA is powered by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers: grant writers, co-facilitators, program managers, talent recruiters, and communications designers who make the work possible every day.
The Summer 2026 interns.
Eight interns carry real organizational deliverables from June through August, across operations, communications, partnerships, and program development.
Want to join the BFA team?
We welcome mentors, guest speakers, facilitators, grant writers, and volunteers. Reach out, there's a role for you here.
Support young people
getting ready for what comes next.
Your donation directly supports BFA's work helping young people understand themselves, practice the capabilities every path requires, and learn from real experience, with mentors beside them the whole way.
Where your donation goes.
BFA runs lean by design: virtual delivery, a volunteer mentor model, and a working board keep overhead small. The large majority of every gift goes directly to programming, with a small share covering the operations that keep cohorts running.
Curriculum & Materials
Workbooks, case studies, scenarios, simulation materials, and digital tools that put students inside the subject instead of in front of a lecture.
Mentorship
One-on-one and cohort mentoring by Ruth Gay and guest mentors, the most impactful component of our model.
Guest Speakers & Mentors
Honorariums for the professionals and mentors who speak live to students, making real-world connection possible for every cohort.
Outreach & Access
Marketing, school partnerships, and recruitment efforts that ensure every willing student, regardless of background, can find BFA.
Bookkeeping, platforms, and the evaluation infrastructure that turns each cohort into evidence for the next. Books are reconciled monthly, and financial statements are available to funders on request.
More than seventy young people reached, every number documented. Read the complete record of what BFA has built, who we have served, and what the students made.
Make your impact last all year.
Monthly giving creates the predictable funding BFA needs to plan for future cohorts, hire facilitators, and reach more students. Starting at just $10/month, you can sustain the mission year-round, and cancel anytime.
- ✓ Cancel anytime, no commitment lock-in
- ✓ 501(c)(3) tax-deductible, annual receipt provided
- ✓ Monthly donors are recognized in our annual report
Find your level of impact.
501(c)(3) · EIN: 33-3751028 · All contributions tax-deductible · Monthly giving available · $250+ donors receive receipt
Tax Information
Bold Futures Academy is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization (EIN: 33-3751028). All contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Donors giving $250 or more will automatically receive a receipt for tax purposes.
Your Privacy Matters
We never sell or share donor information. Your privacy is our priority. Donor information is used solely for acknowledgment and reporting purposes.
Send a Check
Bold Futures Academy Foundation
153 Turner Road
Rockland, MA 02370
Checks payable to Bold Futures Academy Foundation.
Every gift helps a young person get ready for what comes next.
Join us in preparing a generation for whatever path they choose.
Donate Now →Contact
Bold Futures.
Have questions about our programs? Interested in partnering? Want to mentor the next generation? We'd love to hear from you.
admin@boldfuturesacademy.org
boldfuturesacademy.org
Bold Futures Academy Foundation
153 Turner Road · Rockland, MA 02370
EIN: 33-3751028
Find your place in our mission.
Students
Apply to LaunchLab or Ignite, or start with the Bold Futures Navigator, a starting map rather than a verdict.
Schools
Bring a multi-session readiness series or LaunchLab to your students. We bring the curriculum, the facilitation, and the follow-through.
Mentors
Mentor a cohort, guest speak in a session, or commit to one-on-one Ignite mentorship.
Partners & Donors
Sponsor a cohort, provide mentors, or fund operations. All contributions are tax-deductible.
It started with a handful
of college students.
In 2023, before Bold Futures Academy existed, our founder Ruth Gay began mentoring college students through UConn's Werth Institute. There was no program and no plan behind it. It was one person and a handful of students, meeting because they asked.
The same thing kept surfacing, and it was never anything missing in the students. They were sharp and driven. What stood out was how late the help had reached them. They were already deciding on a major, a job, a direction, and the first time anyone had walked them through what they were good at and how to build from it was in college, with the choices well underway. The ability was always there. Nobody had helped them read it early enough to build on it. And it was never only about picking a direction. They had reached consequential decisions and unfamiliar rooms without enough self-understanding, practice, feedback, relationships, or real experience to draw on.
Some of those students are still with us. One came in as a mentee, returned as an intern, and now helps lead our high school program, mentoring students the way she was mentored. That is the whole idea in one person. It is why this became Bold Futures Academy in 2025, built on work that started well before the name did. We began earlier on purpose. Not to choose anyone's future for them, but to help young people understand themselves, practice the capabilities every path requires, and learn from real experience before the stakes get higher.
The values we build
into the work.
We believe a lot of things about young people and the world they are stepping into. A handful of values sit under all of it, and each one shows up in how our programs actually run.
Empathy and human-centered design
The strongest work comes from people who care about the problem in front of them and feel a personal stake in it. We teach students to lead with empathy, to design around real people instead of assumptions, and to keep those people at the center the whole way through.
Integrity, even when it costs
Doing the right thing is simple until it starts to cost something. We build integrity on purpose, through readiness sessions where students practice hard conversations, feedback, and disagreement, and through simulations where students have to weigh real ethical tradeoffs and stand on what they believe.
Readiness and resilience
Getting ready is more than seeing what is coming. It is being able to stand firm when it arrives. We prepare students for a fast-changing world, this year through the lens of AI, and we build the kind of steadiness that holds up whatever the economy or the moment brings.
Underneath those sit a few more convictions that guide the work. We believe people learn by doing, so students build real things instead of studying them from a distance. We believe wisdom is worth seeking, so mentors walk with students through nearly every program. And we believe in curiosity, and in young people who already carry the heart of a leader and simply need somewhere to grow.
Students who are curious,
creative, and ready to grow.
BFA's programming is especially valuable for young people who:
Are still figuring out what they are good at and what they want
Are approaching a transition: an internship, a first job, college, or the choice after high school
Want to communicate, lead, and work with other people more effectively, and want practice navigating unfamiliar rooms before the stakes are real
Are exploring possible futures and want better evidence about themselves and their options
Want mentorship from people with real-world experience
Have an idea they care about and want to build something real through LaunchLab
Are looking for a space where they can be both challenged and supported
Already carry the heart of a future leader and want the direction, and the wisdom, to grow into it
Feel a real sense of responsibility for the future they are stepping into, and want to be ready for it
Students do not need to have everything figured out to begin. They simply need a place to start. LaunchLab serves grades 10 to 12, our college programming serves college students anywhere, and the Readiness Workshop Series comes to young people through partner organizations, adapted from middle school upward.
A generation that leads
with skill and with character.
Young people whose work fits their talents and whose character holds up under pressure. People who know their worth, can hold a hard conversation, adapt when the ground shifts, and make a habit of seeking wisdom. A generation that recognizes opportunity and builds with ethics, not just profit.
Our MissionTo help young people understand themselves, build the capabilities every path requires, and learn from real experience, so they can navigate what comes next with clarity and readiness. College, a trade, a job, or a business of their own. We do it through experiential programs, mentors beside them the whole way, and partners who can take them further.
Trained in math, statistics, and economics. Years of corporate experience across operations, IT, and process improvement, including work as a scrum master and project manager.
Giving back what
I was given.
"Bold Futures Academy began as an act of faith. I kept watching young people be handed a future changing faster than anything they were taught to meet it with, and I recognized the pattern. Every time technology leaps, the people without the new skills get left behind. I was not willing to watch that happen to a generation I believe in.
This is also me giving something back. I would not have had the confidence to build a corporate career, or to start ventures of my own, without people who spoke into my life at every stage of it, from childhood through my career. They gave me room to try, to get it wrong, and to keep going. That is why mentorship sits inside everything we run. I want students in the habit of seeking wisdom from people who have already walked the road.
What I want for these students is simple. Know what you are worth and say it out loud. See the root of a hard problem instead of the symptom. Speak for yourself and your generation in any room you walk into. Be led by your ethics, not only by what pays. And know that whatever you build, somebody is behind you."
Join the Bold Futures story.
Whether you are a student, parent, educator, mentor, or supporter, there is a place for you in the work we are building.
Apply to
Bold Futures Academy.
Wherever you are right now, there is a place for you here. Start with the Bold Futures Navigator, and we will help you find the program that fits, whether that is LaunchLab, our college programming, or simply a clearer picture of yourself and what to explore next.
Start with the Bold Futures Navigator
Before you submit an application to LaunchLab or Ignite, please take the Bold Futures Navigator. It is a short assessment that helps you name your strengths and how you work best, and it is part of the application for both programs. It takes about ten minutes, there are no wrong answers, and what you get back is yours to keep whether or not you end up in a cohort. We read your results alongside your application, so it helps us understand you before we ever meet.
Take the Navigator →Before you submit: please take the Bold Futures Navigator. It is part of this application and takes about ten minutes.
Ready to build something real?
LaunchLab is a 6-week virtual entrepreneurship program for students in Grades 10–12. There are no right answers in this application, we are looking for authenticity, curiosity, and effort.
We review applications on a rolling basis and follow up by email
Every applicant is invited to a short info session before the cohort begins, to learn about LaunchLab and ask questions. Parents and guardians are welcome
Cohort dates, the application deadline, and the decision date are emailed to everyone who applies once the next cohort is set. The program runs six Saturdays, and orientation is the week before it begins
Grades 10–12 · 10 seats per cohort · Applications reviewed on a rolling basis
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Got questions? We've got answers.
Not at all. Neither LaunchLab nor Ignite expects any prior business experience, and both are designed for students at all starting points. We are looking for curiosity, effort, and a genuine interest in learning, not a business background.
Yes. LaunchLab is delivered entirely online, every Saturday. This means students from anywhere in the country can participate, all you need is a computer and a good internet connection.
The program runs 6 weeks, with sessions on Saturdays from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM EST. Students should also expect some light work between sessions as they develop their venture concept.
Bold Futures Academy is a nonprofit. We work to make our programs as accessible as possible. Reach out to us directly if cost is a barrier, we do not want that to prevent any student from participating.
We review applications on a rolling basis and follow up by email. Once the next cohort is set, we email the six Saturdays, the application deadline, and the decision date to everyone who has applied. Every applicant is invited to a short info session before the cohort begins, and parents and guardians are welcome.
No. Ignite is open to college students anywhere, whatever school they attend. We do partner with specific campuses, including UConn's Werth Institute, but you do not need to be enrolled at a partner school to take part.
LaunchLab is our six-week program for high school students in grades 10 through 12, where each student builds a venture and pitches it at Demo Day. Ignite is for college students and focuses on the transition into work: mentoring, communication, self-advocacy, and professional judgment, through workshops, guest speakers, and one-on-one mentorship.
The Readiness Workshop Series is a multi-session series we deliver with schools, employers, colleges, and youth programs, so it is not something you apply to individually. If your school, program, or employer might want to bring one to your group, please put us in touch with them. In the meantime, the Bold Futures Navigator and mentorship are open to you directly.
Yes, for both LaunchLab and Ignite. It is a short assessment, about ten minutes, that helps you name your strengths and how you work best. We read it alongside your application, and the results are yours to keep either way.
We are happy to help. Reach out to us at admin@boldfuturesacademy.org and we will get back to you.
Let's build something
for your young people.
Bold Futures Academy partners with schools, colleges, nonprofits, and companies that already serve young people. The question we start with is not which session we can drop into your calendar. It is which part of your students' developmental pathway BFA can own or strengthen. We build what is core to readiness and partner where specialized organizations can take students further, and every partnership starts with a conversation about the gap you are trying to close.
Several kinds of partnership,
one starting point.
Bring a readiness series to your students. Add professional development to an internship program. Bring LaunchLab to your school. Sponsor an applied challenge. Extend the pathway with what your organization does best. Or host a roundtable. Find the section that sounds like your organization, and if none of them quite fit, reach out anyway.
Bring a program
into your building.
We work with high schools to put a structured readiness sequence, or our entrepreneurship program, in front of students who would not otherwise get it. A readiness series fits inside an advisory or enrichment period, an after-school block, a summer program, or a school-run internship, with a grade level or a smaller group, over multiple sessions.
Our six-week entrepreneurship program, delivered to your students. Each one builds their own venture, from first idea to a pitch in front of real mentors. If your students want substantive entrepreneurship education, this is the program for it.
A multi-session series on the capabilities no class covers: knowing yourself, speaking up, working with a team, following through, handling money, and navigating opportunity. Adapted to your students' grade and situations. Virtual or onsite.
Tell us the gap you are seeing in your students and where the series would sit in your calendar. We shape the arc and the scenarios around your context rather than handing you a template.
Send us the students your counseling load cannot reach. Our student programs are virtual, so distance is never the barrier.
Readiness support
for your students.
Career centers help students reach opportunities. BFA helps students practice how to navigate them. We partner with career centers, entrepreneurship centers, and student success offices as a complementary experiential partner, on campus or online, alongside the work your staff already does. Our work with campus partners, including UConn's Werth Institute, has run continuously since 2023.
A multi-session series built around the first-job transition: communication, feedback, self-advocacy, teamwork, professional judgment, internship reflection, and financial readiness. Scenarios drawn from the situations your students are actually walking into.
We pair your students with working professionals and run the matching, structure, and follow-through so your staff does not have to.
Bring our team or our network into your programming for a session, a panel, or a full event.
If your career center keeps a directory of professionals who support students, we are glad to be in it and to send our own network your way.
Add to what
you already run.
If you already run a summer, after-school, college-access, workforce, or youth-development program, BFA can own the readiness strand across that experience without adding to your staff's plate. You keep ownership of your core program. Tell us what it needs and we will scope the series and the terms with you.
A multi-session strand woven through your summer or academic-year programming. We bring the curriculum, the facilitation, the experiential practice, the reflection, and the developmental progression.
Your young people join a LaunchLab cohort as a group, with your staff looped in on their progress.
Demo Days, roundtables, and family nights that serve both of our communities at once.
Put your people and your
problems to work.
Corporate partnerships are funded partnerships, and the best ones give more than money. Two ways in: add a professional readiness series to the internship program you already run, or bring a real problem, mentors, and funding to a sponsored cohort. Either way, your team provides the work experience. BFA builds the readiness around it.
The Sponsored Cohort
Your company chooses a real problem from your industry. A cohort of students spends the program working on it, with mentors from your staff beside them and your funding underwriting the seats. You get a front-row view of emerging talent and your people get the kind of mentoring work they actually want to do.
- You provide the problem, the mentors, and the funding
- We run the curriculum, the students, and the logistics
- Ends with a Demo Day your leadership is invited to
The Professional Readiness Series for Internship Programs
If you run a summer or year-round high school or college internship program, your team owns the meaningful work, the projects, the supervision, and the industry learning. BFA owns the professional-development layer around it: self-awareness, professional communication, feedback, self-advocacy, teamwork, initiative, workplace judgment, financial readiness, and structured reflection.
The internship itself becomes part of the curriculum. Early on, interns predict how they will work and communicate. Midway, they use real feedback and learn about themselves as teammates. During paid weeks, they decide what to do with the money they are actually earning. At the end, they name what the experience taught them, what evidence they now have about themselves, and what to explore next.
Multiple touchpoints across the cohort, virtual or onsite, priced per cohort rather than per student. We complement your supervisors and HR; we do not replace them.
Sponsorship & Skills
- Site sponsor. Underwrite a full cohort or a program site, recognized across the program and its events.
- Mentors from your team. Skills-based volunteering with a clear scope and a real endpoint, rather than an open-ended ask.
- Demo Day judges. Send a few people to review student pitches. It is the fastest way to understand what we do.
Extend the pathway
with what you do best.
BFA does not try to build every part of a young person's development. We own self-understanding, readiness, experiential practice, and reflection, and we partner where another organization has deeper specialization, infrastructure, or access. If your organization offers any of the pathways below, we would like our students to reach you, and we would like to be the readiness layer for yours.
Industry-specific exposure, job shadowing, site visits, and pathway-specific advising. Our students learn to recognize and evaluate an opportunity; you show them what is out there.
Trade programs, technical courses, and credentials. We do not duplicate that work. We help students arrive ready to get the most from it.
Our series covers foundational money decisions. Financial institutions and educators can take students further with deeper modules.
Employers, workforce programs, and networks with real openings for young people who have done the readiness work.
Host us in your space.
Whatever kind of organization you are, offering a room is a real partnership on its own. A high school can host a readiness series for its students, or a session for families in the neighborhood. A college can host a program we run for students beyond its own campus. A nonprofit or community organization can open its space so young people who would not otherwise reach us can walk in. A company can host a roundtable, a Demo Day, or a session for its own interns.
We bring the curriculum, the facilitators, the materials, and all of the follow-through. What we need from you is the room and, if you have it, help getting the word out locally. If you have a space and are not sure what would fit in it, tell us what you have and we will suggest something.
Offer a space →Host a conversation
worth having.
Our roundtable series gathers employers, educators, parents, and young people around one honest question about how young people get ready for what comes next. For partner organizations it does three things at once: it puts your work in front of people who should know about it, it introduces you to others working the same problem, and it gives you a real forum to raise the issues your field keeps running into. Organizations can take part in three ways.
Shape the question with us
Your people and our format, built around a problem both of our organizations actually touch. You help decide what gets asked and who is in the seats.
Why organizations do it: every organization at the table gets time on the record to describe their work and name one concrete way someone could plug in, and we send that to every attendee afterward.
Offer your space and network
Give us a place to gather and we handle the rest. We bring the facilitation, the students, and all of the follow-through afterward.
Why organizations do it: ten people who touch the same problem from different sides, in a format built for conversation rather than panels. Most of our partnerships started at a table like this.
Underwrite a session
Fund a roundtable and be recognized in the recording and the clips that come out of it, without any pitch inside the room itself.
Why organizations do it: to put the issue their field keeps hitting in front of the people who could actually move it. Employers, schools, families, and young people, naming what has gone unaddressed together.
Bring a readiness series
to your people.
Talk with us about a series.
Tell us about the young people you serve, the program the series would sit inside, and what you want them to be better able to do by the end. We build a multi-session series around that, adapted to their age and the situations they are actually navigating. Send this over and we will follow up to scope it with you.
Not sure which one
fits your organization?
Tell us what you are trying to do for your young people and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right partner for it.
Privacy
policy.
We work with young people, so we take this seriously. Here is exactly what we collect, why we collect it, and what we do with it. Last updated July 23, 2026.
Who we are
Bold Futures Academy Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 33-3751028, based at 153 Turner Road, Rockland, MA 02370. You can reach us any time at admin@boldfuturesacademy.org.
What we collect
We only collect information you give us directly. Depending on what you do on this site, that may include:
- Program applications: name, email, phone, school, grade level, and your written answers.
- The Bold Futures Navigator: name, email, school or field of work, and your assessment answers and results.
- Mentor, facilitator, speaker, and volunteer forms: name, email, phone, location, professional background, and availability.
- Contact and newsletter forms: name, email, and your message.
- Donations: handled entirely by Givebutter. We never see or store your payment card details.
- Website analytics: aggregate, privacy-friendly traffic data. No cookies, no cross-site tracking, and no individual profiles.
Why we collect it
To review applications and make admissions decisions, to match mentors and volunteers to the right roles, to run our programs and stay in touch with participants, to report aggregate outcomes to funders and partners, and to improve what we offer. That is all.
Students under 18
Most of our students are minors, and we treat their information accordingly. We collect only what we need to run the program. We do not sell it, rent it, or share it with advertisers, ever. We ask for guardian contact information where a program requires it, and we ask for permission before using any student photo, name, or work publicly. A parent or guardian may review, correct, or request deletion of their student's information at any time by emailing us.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your information. We share it only with the service providers that make our programs run, and only to the extent they need it:
- Form and application tools that receive submissions
- Our project management system, where staff review applications
- Email and calendar tools we use to communicate with you
- Givebutter, which processes donations
- Zoom, which hosts our virtual sessions
How long we keep it
Applications and program records are kept for up to three years so we can report outcomes and stay in touch with alumni. Newsletter subscriptions last until you unsubscribe. You can ask us to delete your information sooner, and we will.
Your choices
You can ask to see what we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted. You can unsubscribe from our emails at any time using the link in any message, or by writing to us. To make any of these requests, email admin@boldfuturesacademy.org and we will respond within thirty days.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle information, we will update this page and the date at the top. If the change is significant, we will tell participants directly.
Help a young person
get ready for what comes next.
This page is for people who want to give their time. Mentors, co-facilitators, guest speakers, interns, advisors, and anyone who wants a seat at one of our roundtable conversations. You do not need a background in education or entrepreneurship. You need to be willing to be honest with a young person about how things actually work.
Find the role that
fits your season.
Every one of these shapes a student's experience directly, and none of them ask you to do it alone. Each application takes a few minutes, and we follow up to schedule a short conversation.
Mentor a student through a cohort
You are paired with the same student across a full cohort, so the relationship has time to become real. Most of what students need from you is not expertise. It is someone who asks good questions, remembers what they said last week, and tells them the truth when it would be easier not to.
- Each cohort runs six Saturdays; the Fall 2026 cohort runs September 12 to October 17
- A few hours across the program, concentrated in mentor weeks
- Fully virtual, so you can be anywhere
- Show up for the sessions you commit to, and tell us early if something changes
- Give honest feedback kindly, and let students do their own thinking
- Keep all contact inside the program, never one to one and unsupervised
- An onboarding session and a written mentor guide before you start
- The questions to ask each week, so you are never improvising
- A staff member you can reach any time something feels off
Co-facilitate a session
Own and lead one segment of our Saturday sessions, guiding students through hands-on activities rather than lecturing at them. These applications are always open.
- Six Saturdays, 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM ET, plus weekly prep
- You lead one segment, and you are never running the day alone
- We onboard and prep with you beforehand
Share your story
Spend a session with our students, telling them about your career, your work, or the path that brought you here. The unedited version is the useful one, closed businesses and career changes included.
- A single session, scheduled around you
- Founders, operators, creatives, and professionals all welcome
- We will help you shape a talk that lands with students
Intern with us
Our interns carry real organizational work, not busywork. Past interns have rebuilt our operations, run our newsletter, led partnership research, and audited our student-facing tools. You leave with something you can point to.
- Pods in operations, communications, partnerships, and program development
- Remote, project based, with weekly one-on-ones and a real deliverable
- Open to college students and early-career professionals
Advise the organization
If you have built something, funded something, or run programs before, there is a seat for you in how this organization grows. Board service, advisory roles, and short-term strategic help are all on the table.
- Governance, fundraising, education, finance, and legal backgrounds all valued
- Advisory roles can be a few conversations a year
- We will be honest with you about what we need before you commit
Lend a skill
Have design, writing, data, grant writing, or other skills you would like to put toward this work? Tell us what you would love to help with and we will find the right fit. Flexible, project based, and remote, and a good fit for skills-based corporate volunteering.
Volunteer with us →Take a seat at
the table.
Ninety minutes, about ten seats, and one honest question about how young people get ready for what comes next. Employers, educators, parents, and young people sit at the same table, and students are always in the conversation rather than in the audience. Nobody is put on the spot, and nobody is asked to pretend the evening is charity on their part. Every organization present gets time on the record to talk about their own work and how someone could support it, and you do not need to be part of a BFA program to join one.
Here on behalf of
an organization?
Schools, colleges, nonprofits, and companies partner with us differently. That work has its own page.
Tools to help you
find your footing.
Two free tools from Bold Futures Academy. One gives you language for how you work and a few directions worth exploring. The other helps you practice making your case out loud. Use them on your own, and bring what you find to a mentor or someone who knows you.
Two ways to
get started.
The Bold Futures Navigator
A short, structured assessment that reads your past, present, and future. In about fifteen minutes you get language for how you tend to lead, your top strengths, your working preferences, the direction your interests point, a few roads worth exploring, and a first draft of your personal brand. It is a starting map, not a verdict: hypotheses about yourself and a few next experiments, yours to keep and to test.
Open the Navigator →The LaunchLab Pitch Tool
A live room for practicing a pitch and getting honest, structured feedback. You make your case, reviewers respond, and you sharpen it on the spot. Built for LaunchLab sessions, and open to anyone who wants to get more comfortable telling the story of an idea.
Open the Pitch Tool →These tools are starting points, not verdicts. You do not need to decide your entire future today. You need better evidence about yourself and the possibilities you are considering, and the best version of any result is the one you talk through with someone who knows you.
Get the Bold Futures newsletter
Program news, application deadlines, and student stories, sent a few times a season. No spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime.