The WashU Brown School’s Social System Design Lab has received a $75,000 Spencer Foundation grant to study pathways from high school to careers in St. Louis.
This collaborative vision planning grant will support a new research initiative focused on improving diverse education-to-career pathways for students in St. Louis.
Principal investigator Saras Chung, a research associate professor and director of the Social System Design Lab, is leading this work in close partnership with diverse St. Louis community partners, including educators, business leaders and community nonprofits.
This grant is a first step toward a potential larger award — up to $3.5 million — through the Spencer Foundation’s Transformative Research Grant program, which supports ambitious efforts to advance equity in education systems.
The project will examine how students in St. Louis schools make decisions about life after high school, including college, careers and other postsecondary options. Researchers will work with local teens to better understand the factors guiding those choices. The study also will incorporate insights from regional employers and educators to identify where pathways to stable, viable careers may be limited or unclear.
Read more on the Brown School news website.
