Magnolia Project
Grant Year: 2025
Magnolia Project, in partnership with four West Marin school districts—Bolinas-Stinson, Nicasio, Shoreline Unified, and Lagunitas—are developing a semester-long Career Exploration Pathway for middle school students at four schools in West Marin. Magnolia Project’s Career Exploration pathway consists of three key phases: first, students complete 12-15 sessions of pre-work curriculum, aligned with Common Core English Language Arts standards, embedded within a core academic class such as English Language Arts. The pre-work curriculum is designed to help students know themselves better, think critically about their future plans, weigh potential options, and prepare for an immersive, off-campus experience with a mentor. After the pre-work curriculum is complete, students participate in an Interview Day, where all Career Explorations mentors come to their school campus, and interview their potential mentees. After Interview Day, students participate in a four-day, full-time on or off-campus career exploration experience with a mentor from a local business, nonprofit, or government agency.
Finally, after these immersive experiences, students engage in 8-10 sessions of post-work at their school sites, where they reflect on their time with their mentor, what they’ve learned, and how their immersive experience might fit into their future plans. Students also complete a meaningful next phase planning tool, to help them and their families think long-term about their academic and career goals.
Magnolia Project leads the recruitment, training, and vetting of mentors from the local community. As part of the implementation of our Career Exploration pathways program, Magnolia Project provides professional development for teachers across all four West Marin school sites. This training will be conducted jointly, bringing teachers together from four schools, fostering cross-school collaboration, and ensuring a unified approach to career exploration for all students in West Marin, from Bolinas to Tomales.
Karma Club
Grant Year: 2025
The Education Opportunity Fund provided Karma Club with a challenge grant to facilitate the development of a partnership with Sutter Health’s Healthcare Workforce Development Initiative and Dominican University’s strong healthcare departments that would result in a 2025 summer program to introduce high school students from Title I schools in Marin County to healthcare careers.
The inaugural Future Healers Academy exceeded all expectations. Twenty-five students had the rare opportunity to engage with Dominican faculty to explore the academic and practical pathways into healthcare professions, including occupational therapy, nursing, kinesiology, and physician assistants, through a combination of learning and hands-on experience both at Karma Club and on the Dominican campus, including sitting in on a college-level healthcare course and touring the Dominican Simulation Laboratory.
Students also received training and certification in Basic Life Support (BLS) for Healthcare Professionals, CPR, and First Aid Training, skills that they can use right away in communities for entry-level healthcare jobs.
At the conclusion of the Academy, students and their families attended a graduation ceremony hosted by Dominican University, where they received Certificate of Completion from the University and a stipend provided by Sutter Health.
Karma Club Future Healers Academy in the news:
Dominican University – Marin Advantage Program
Grant Year: 2025
Dominican University promotes educational equity across Marin County through the Marin Advantage Program (MAP). In collaboration with partner school districts and nonprofit organizations, MAP provides students with an opportunity to chart a path from high school to college with an emphasis on realizing their educational and professional goals.
MAP begins outreach when students are juniors and seniors in high school. Students have access to unit-bearing summer college courses: “Navigating College” and “Writing and Rhetoric.” In addition, the program provides leadership training, coaching and advising, and access to local internships and networking opportunities. First generation college students, with high financial need, especially benefit from experiencing time on a university campus and seeing their own peers succeed in a college environment. Participating students who elect to enroll in Dominican University are guaranteed scholarships for most areas of study.