BHCC Receives $250,000 Grant from JPMorgan Chase Focusing on Career Pathways
Thursday, August 13, 2020
With a generous $250,000 investment from JPMorgan Chase, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) launched the Career Pathways Impact Project (CPIP) this past year.
CPIP seeks to equip traditionally underserved students with the tangible skills required to navigate the labor market, workplace culture, and develop a better understanding of career pathways.
“JPMorgan Chase recognizes that too many people are left out of the opportunities to understand how the world of work is structured, or unsure for how maximize their potential in it,” said Abby Marquand, Program Officer, JPMorgan Chase. “Bunker Hill Community College is helping to solve this problem by driving equity in opportunity, and positioning students, through the CPIP, to become more agile and opportunistic for how to approach specific jobs and future careers. We excited to be joined by the team from Harvard in supporting this important work.”
The newly developed Ethnographies of Work (EoW) curriculum is being integrated into a pilot of courses at BHCC with a goal of offering an ethnographic and sociological approach to career development. From Sociology to Computer Science to Art to Economics and Learning Community courses, students use ethnographic and sociological research methods to find clarity in their potential career path. These skills will be even more important to prepare BHCC students to be competitive during the pandemic-induced downturn.
“We are so grateful to JPMorgan Chase for their support,” said BHCC President Pam Eddinger. “The Ethnographies of Work framework advances the social mobility and equity for our students.”
With support from the Harvard Project on Workforce, three graduate fellows from Harvard’s business and policy programs worked at BHCC this summer to accelerate the career pathways agenda. The Harvard team focused on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ career planning and post-graduation job opportunities, and how this might shift the college’s career preparedness strategies. Working with BHCC’s CPIP Career Navigator, Denise Mytko, the fellows collated findings from interviews with students, faculty, staff and employers to help guide BHCC’s future career offerings, including tools that facilitate career planning in a remote service delivery model. This work will guide the CPIP program to provide integrated career guidance to more BHCC students and additional BHCC programs.
Ethnographies of Work originated at Guttmann Community College (CUNY) as a year-long social science course and adapted for community colleges and high schools.
JPMorgan Chase Media Contact
Carolyn Evert, 617-223-9224, Carolyn.Evert@chase.com
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About Bunker Hill Community College
Celebrating 50 years of excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).