Students at Achievement First (AF) University Prep high school recently took the lead in teaching their peers about the future of work at a student-run career fair, part of a growing effort to rethink how high schools prepare students for life after graduation.
The exhibition, part of the school’s 10th Grade Foundations of Leadership (FOL) course, featured sophomores presenting in-depth research on a wide range of careers, from aerospace engineering and neonatal nursing to immigration law and zoology. Designed to feel more like a science fair than a traditional presentation, the event invited students across grade levels to engage with one another’s work and explore potential career paths.
For Emmanuela Blanc, a teacher at AF University Prep and an event organizer, the goal goes beyond academics.
“I want students to tap into who they really are – their interests, their values, and their lived experiences,” Ms. Blanc said.
A former journalist and first-generation Haitian American, Ms. Blanc brings a deeply personal approach to the classroom. After several years as a kindergarten teacher, she transitioned to high school to pilot the Foundations of Leadership curriculum, drawn by the opportunity to design lessons grounded in student data and real-world application.
At the center of the project was a simple but powerful idea: start with the career, not the college.
“We have learned that career exploration has to be the lead domino,” said Tara Lim, Achievement First’s Director of FOL and SAT on Team College and Career. “When students understand the work they want to do, they make smarter decisions about college and training. And this isn’t surface-level: students are analyzing real data, researching pathways, and connecting their interests to real opportunities.”
The career fair was the culmination of months of work in the Foundations of Leadership course, where students selected a profession and conducted a comprehensive research project. Along the way, they examined required credentials, salary expectations, job outlook, and the day-to-day realities of each role, often confronting whether a dream career was truly the right fit.
AF University prep 10th-grader Kelly Hernandez used the project to explore a career as an immigration lawyer and discovered the extensive path required, including law school and the bar exam. The research ultimately strengthened her interest, driven by her passion for advocacy and supporting immigrant communities.
Armando Mexquititla, meanwhile, is exploring zoology and was surprised to learn that job growth in the field is projected to be just 2 percent over the next decade, prompting deeper reflection about the level of commitment needed to pursue such a competitive path.
“These are real conversations,” Ms. Blanc said. “Students are learning that a career is not just an idea; it’s a set of choices, tradeoffs, and commitments.”
The course is part of a broader, network-wide effort at Achievement First to strengthen college and career readiness across grades 9 through 12. While 11th and 12th grade focus more directly on postsecondary planning and applications, the 10th grade curriculum is designed to give students the tools to make those decisions with greater clarity and purpose.
The career fair, piloted this year, emphasized peer-to-peer learning.
“It creates a space where students are teaching and learning from each other,” Blanc said. “They’re asking questions, making connections, and sometimes realizing they want to change direction. And that’s a good thing.”
As schools nationwide rethink how best to prepare students for an evolving workforce, educators at University Prep see this approach as a step toward making those pathways more transparent and more personal.
“This is about giving students knowledge and agency,” Ms. Blanc said. “When they understand their options, they can make decisions that truly fit who they are and who they want to become.”
