UP Academy Dorchester expands career-connected learning for middle school students

At UP Academy Dorchester, middle-school students are learning to see their future beyond the classroom walls. Through a career-connected learning initiative, sixth through eighth graders are stepping into Boston-area workplaces, engaging with professionals and completing projects designed to link academics to real-world careers.

About 300 students across UP Academy Dorchester and UP Academy Holland (both located in Dorchester), are taking part in the program this year. The initiative, known as Imagine Your Future, pairs lessons in school with hands-on “expeditions” in industries including technology, construction, media, food service and life sciences.

Unlike traditional field trips, the program emphasizes preparation and reflection.

“We intentionally do not call them visits or trips. We refer to them as learning expeditions or experiences, because that is what they are,” said Mike Bower, chief operations officer of UP Education Network. He noted that last year, each middle school homeroom participated in an on-site expedition in the spring, preceded by two to six classroom lessons designed to enhance the experience.

UP Academy students take notes during
a discussion with a software designer at PTC. PHOTO: UP ACADEMY

According to UP Education Network materials, the long-term structure is designed to expand by grade: Sixth graders complete one immersive expedition in the spring; seventh graders participate in two, one each semester; and eighth graders partner with a company for a full year, meeting professionals multiple times and presenting a capstone project before the year ends.

School leaders describe the initiative as central to their mission. “We have a mission to ensure our students are prepared in every way for their next chapter, and that includes building skills and knowledge about things that will help them in the long term,” said Hillary Casson, chief executive officer of UP Academy Dorchester, in a press release. “What that looks like in practice is a set of dynamic, real-world experiences that give students in Grades 6–8 meaningful exposure to the world of work.”

15 company partners

This year UP partnered with 15 organizations that tailored learning activities to their industries:

• Bitsight: Introduced key tenets of cybersecurity and the importance of building networks

• Toast: Guided students through designing and marketing a food truck concept for their community

• Freightplus: Highlighted logistics, planning and execution in transportation

• Celera, a Novanta Company: Taught robotics coding and precision engineering

• Dell: Explored uses of artificial intelligence to improve communities

• Pillar VC: Showed what it takes to become an entrepreneur and build a successful business

• Rapid7: Demonstrated how cybersecurity tools apply to daily life

• PTC: Explained how software improves products and services globally

• Shake Shack: Walked students through strategies to increase revenue and manage costs

• Spark FM: Helped students produce and record a radio commercial about their own school

• Kraft Analytics Group: Taught how to “know your customer” and design targeted promotional packages

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals: Introduced design and testing pill release capsules with a partner under the constraints of time and accuracy

• Bioversity: Showed the importance of accuracy in chemical compounds for medicine

• Suffolk Construction: Led students in designing a classroom space, incorporating scale and community needs

• Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute (GMGI): Demonstrated the importance of preserving ocean health

These experiences, school officials say, are intended to give students practical insight while also strengthening skills such as teamwork, collaboration, problem-solving and communication.

While long-term data is still being developed in partnership with the national education nonprofit TNTP, school leaders say they have already observed anecdotal improvements. UP is working with TNTP, which helps schools nationwide design and measure programs, to build formal metrics for evaluating the initiative’s impact. Students have shown greater engagement in class, stronger attendance and growth in social-emotional learning skills such as self-efficacy.

Administrators emphasize that the program is not only about awareness of specific jobs but also about instilling confidence and showing students a wider range of possibilities at an early age.

The Imagine Your Future program will continue this year with an expanded structure for eighth grade. Students will meet their partner organization in the fall, visit the company later in the semester, return to school for project development in the spring and present a capstone project back at the company before the school year ends.

UP Education Network, the nonprofit that manages UP Academy Dorchester and UP Academy Holland, describes the initiative as part of its broader mission to address inequities in public education. The organization partners with districts and the state to provide differentiated support to historically under-resourced schools.

Career-connected learning has often been reserved for high school students through internships or job shadowing. By shifting that exposure earlier, UP Academy is positioning its middle schoolers to enter high school with greater awareness of how academic choices can shape future opportunities.

Through projects as varied as coding robots, producing radio ads and envisioning sustainable buildings, students are not only learning what professionals do but also practicing the problem-solving and collaboration skills that employers increasingly value.

For UP Academy Dorchester, the goal is simple: to give students the chance to imagine their futures while they still have time to shape them.