Pioneers of Progress: Aimée Eubanks Davis
Can one mentor change the life of one student forever? Pioneer Aimée Eubanks Davis founded Braven to empower graduates to find a strong first job.
The "Power of One"
Creating economic mobility and opportunities
Aimée Eubanks Davis strongly believes in the "Power of One” – the positive impact one person can have on another’s life. “What I’ve seen,” she says, “is that one person can meet one of our students and open up their network in a way that allows our students to come out of college and have economic success that will last a lifetime." That belief led her to set up Braven in 2013.
Across the world, education is one of the strongest predictors of life outcomes. However, access to education is uneven, and the opportunities it affords are not equally available to all. The disadvantages some students face follow them into the world of work.
Aimée strives to provide others with the opportunities afforded to her simply because of where she grew up. As a young girl, she benefited from the success of her parents’ business, which enabled her family to move to a more affluent neighborhood and have pivotal academic and enrichment experiences as a result. This opened doors for her, and so, she is acutely aware of the power of economic mobility. Her experience was reinforced when she started working as a teacher and saw first-hand how her students struggled to find their way in the world of work.
Closing the gap between education and employment
With Braven, Aimée is attempting to close the gap between education and employment. "Aimée is an incredible leader in the education space – and a pioneer," says Laura Hemrika, Global Head of Corporate Citizenship & Foundations at Credit Suisse. "She was able to take a complex systemic issue and design tangible, implementable solutions that lead to measurable impact."
Braven fellows outpace the national average for strong job attainment. Within six months of graduation, 71% of fellows secure quality full-time jobs – 22 percentage points more than their peers.
Nurturing skills, confidence, experience and networks
To create that impact, Braven is providing promising but underrepresented students in the US – including first-generation students, students from low-income backgrounds, and students of color – with the skills, confidence, experience, and networks needed to secure strong jobs upon graduation. Braven partners with large public colleges and universities to provide career education as part of the undergraduate experience.
Through online content, mentoring, and internship opportunities with partner organizations, it helps ensure that graduates are job-ready and that universities are enabling a diverse next generation of future leaders.
To date, Braven has served nearly 4,500 students at five partner universities. Aimée has ambitions to reach 40,000 young people over the next ten years, creating a 40%-50% uplift in their economic mobility and outcomes. With support from the Credit Suisse Americas Foundation, Braven took a major step towards realizing that goal in 2021 by expanding into New York City.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Here are three ways how Braven contributes to the the targets set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals:
1. Promoting crucial skills to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all (UN SDG 4)
For many disadvantaged students, a lack of access can hamper them in seeking advice and launching their career.
Some 75% of college graduates who go through the Braven program secure at least one internship during college, compared to 63% of all college graduates. This not only builds their network and confidence, but it also gives them the practical experience and crucial soft skills relevant for career-accelerating, high-quality employment that leads to economic mobility.
"By closing the gaps and by overcoming some of the systemic challenges that exist within the educational landscape, we know that we are creating a much more balanced and a much more fair and equitable playing field that's not only going to advance the careers of college students, but is also going to create meaningful economic advances for the country," says David Cohen, Vice President North America, Talent Solutions, LinkedIn, who also serves on Braven's Chicago board.
2. Providing opportunities for worthy employment to promote decent work and economic growth (UN SDG 8)
"People with better networks," Aimée says, "have access to better opportunities." However, a person's background can determine the strength of their network – according to research from LinkedIn, a person is up to 12 times more likely to have a strong network if they live in an affluent area, went to a top school and work for a prestigious company.
Braven is therefore partnering with large employers to provide training and connections. This helps to bridge the gap between education and employment so graduates from underrepresented backgrounds can secure strong positions, and turn their education into productive employment. Credit Suisse, being one such employer, has designated volunteers to provide mock interviews and training to help students prepare for their career start. Other Credit Suisse employees serve as leadership coaches who support students in building their networks and enhancing their problem-solving and career-readiness skills.
3. Closing the pay gap to reduce inequality within countries (UN SDG 10)
Education is supposed to be the great equalizer. But all too often the value of a college degree depends on the person attaining it. Among workers with a college degree, Black Americans make 78 cents and Latino Americans make 85 cents for every dollar their white peers make. First-generation graduates earn less than their fellow students with a college-educated parent.
"I really want to ensure that, regardless of your starting point, regardless of the neighborhood you grew up in people could see the promise and potential we all have in us," Aimée
says.
Aimée Eubanks Davis
- 1995: Graduation.
- 1995-1997: Corps member at Teach for America Corps Member (New Orleans).
- 1997-2020: Director of Summerbridge New Orleans and Program Officer of the Breakthrough Collaborative.
- 2002-2015: Vice President of New Site Development, Chief People Officer, Executive Vice President of People, Community, and Diversity and Head of Public Affairs and Communications at Teach for America.
- 2013: Founder / CEO at Braven.
Braven
- A US non-profit organization, founded in 2013.
- Focused on ensuring that underrepresented college students are able to utilize their education to work and land strong first jobs upon graduation.
- Providing a systemic, sustainable diverse talent strategy in partnership with university and employer partners.
- To date, Braven has served more than 3'700 college students in Chicago, San Francisco, Newark, New Jersey and New York City.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.
With its work, Braven specifically contributes to three SDGs:
- No. 4: Quality education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
- No. 8: Decent work and economic growth: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
- No. 10: Reduced inequalities: Reduce income inequality within and among countries.
Sustainability at Credit Suisse: We're on it
Future Skills: Our commitment to young people
The future skills program aspires to provide young people the opportunity to fulfill their potential in their lives as adults. By supporting access to education and skills we hope to ensure that a young person's success is not determined by their socioeconomic status. We aim to impact the lives of young people, especially those who are disadvantaged, to close the educational/employment gap as they enter adulthood. We support partners and interventions that make a difference at key points in a young person's life.
Global key figures 2021
- 74 Future Skills partner organizations.
- 82 Future Skills programs funded benefiting approx. 45’000 young people.
- Over 8'900 hours of skills-based and hands-on volunteering invested to support Future Skills partner organizations.
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