OUR STORY

Although Career Launch was founded in 2018, the substance and origins of our programs were founded in the lived experiences of Sean, Marieli, La'Tonya and Stephen. Sean attended Diablo Valley Community College and transferred to University of California, Santa Barbara. With the advice of a professor, he began using the “Student Card” to proactively and strategically create social capital from scratch. These efforts enabled him to tap into the hidden job and internship market and earn three highly competitive internships and then a job upon graduation — despite not having pre-existing connections in his desired industry nor having the best grades.

Feeling fortunate and grateful, in 2010, Sean began paying it forward by teaching at Santa Clara University. In 2016, Sean was asked to design and teach a class for students in the university’s first-generation student program. Thereafter, he met La'Tonya at conference where she gave a keynote about first-generation student success. La'Tonya helped Sean refine the methodology to optimize effectiveness. The results were remarkable and Dr. Erin Kimura-Walsh, Director of the First-Generation Student Program, urged the creation of Career Launch.

In 2018, the Career Launch social enterprise was born. Marieli, who as a sophomore Civil Engineering first-generation student, followed the Career Launch Method to create relationships with professionals from scratch, and earned a paid civil engineering internship after her sophomore year. The internship was never posted online; she accessed it by proactively tapping into the hidden job and internship market. The internship was a great experience that boosted Marieli's self-confidence and propelled her to receive multiple internship offers and then multiple job offers prior to graduation.

During spring and fall of 2019, Sean and Marieli were invited to speak at conferences and provide keynotes to share about their methods, frameworks, programs, partnerships and success stories. Then, in summer 2019, Career Launch received encouragement and funding from Santa Clara University to scale impact. In late 2020, The Career Leadership Collective teamed up with Career Launch to help more colleges amplify their efforts and impact more students.

Career Launch is proud to have partnerships with 2-year and 4-year colleges, public and private universities, non-profit organizations, high schools, high school districts, county offices of education, and government agencies.