HighView AI Career Lab Launch Fund

HighView is developing AI Career Labs, a new model that brings real employer work into the college experience, helping students build the business judgment, practical experience, and AI fluency that companies increasingly expect from new graduates.

For six years, HighView has helped first-generation and low-income students turn academic talent into strong careers. Our College-to-Career Accelerator has helped students achieve a 95% college persistence rate and 100% career placement rate, with recent graduates earning an average starting salary of $73,000 in high-mobility fields like tech, business, and financial services.

Now, HighView is taking what works and making it available to far more students.

Through AI Career Labs, employers contribute real business projects, expertise, and feedback. HighView turns these into structured, technology-enabled experiences where students use AI, apply judgment, solve problems, and produce professional-quality work they can showcase to prospective employers.

In Spring/Summer 2027, HighView will develop the first AI Career Labs with employer partners and test them with an initial cohort of 20 college students. Insights from the pilot will guide the official launch in Fall 2027.

Our longer-term goal is to reach 2,000+ college students annually across Colorado by the 2029-30 school year and to expand nationally through a model designed to scale efficiently.

The traditional entry-level career ladder is breaking.

For decades, companies hired inexperienced college graduates into junior roles where they learned by doing. That work provided the foundation for future managers and leaders. Young professionals developed business judgment, learned how organizations operate, received feedback, and gained experience over time.

AI is changing that model. As technology takes on more of the work traditionally assigned to junior employees, companies may need fewer entry-level hires, even as they continue to need experienced professionals and future leaders. Yet those future leaders still need somewhere to develop their skills.

At the same time, the expectations for new graduates are rising. According to the 2026 Lumina Foundation-Gallup Employer Survey, nearly 7 in 10 employers say recent college graduates require significant additional training to perform effectively.

If entry-level opportunities are shrinking, where will the next generation of professionals gain the experience employers expect?

This challenge is particularly significant for first-generation and low-income students, who often lack the family connections, professional networks, and access to internships that help their peers gain an early advantage.

HighView's AI Career Labs are designed to address this emerging gap. By working with employers to bring authentic business projects into a structured learning environment, students can develop the capabilities that entry-level jobs historically helped build, before they ever enter the workforce.

This is about more than teaching students to use AI. It is about creating new opportunities to gain the experience, judgment, and professional credibility that the changing labor market demands.

The $200,000 Launch Fund will support the design, development, and first pilot of HighView AI Career Labs, establishing the foundation for a broader Fall 2027 launch.

Funding will support the people, technology, and employer collaboration required to bring the model to market, including:

• A dedicated project lead to oversee development, employer coordination, and pilot delivery (4-6 month contractor)
• Co-development of the first AI Career Labs with employer partners, using authentic business challenges. Target projects include risk management, finance, product, and technology
• Technology and AI infrastructure to deliver interactive, repeatable student experiences
• A Spring/Summer 2027 pilot with 20 college students, including professional feedback and structured evaluation
• Refinement of the curriculum, delivery model, technology, and operating plan ahead of the Fall 2027 launch

HighView will use pilot to determine which experiences deliver the most value to students and employers, how much support participants need, and what it costs to deliver each Lab.

Once developed, employer-designed projects can be reused across larger cohorts, with technology allowing students to complete much of the experience independently.

Our goal is to build a model where student participation can grow substantially without requiring a comparable increase in staffing and operating costs.

By the end of the Spring/Summer 2027 pilot, HighView expects to have:

• Developed and tested the first AI Career Labs with employer partners
• Engaged an initial cohort of 20 Colorado college students
• Provided students with real employer-designed projects, applied AI experience, and professional feedback
• Produced student work products that demonstrate practical skills and business judgment
• Measured student participation, completion, skill development, and quality of work
• Gathered employer feedback on student performance and the value of the experience
• Assessed technology performance, staffing requirements, and delivery costs
• Identified the improvements needed for a broader Fall 2027 launch

Success will be measured from both sides. For students, HighView will evaluate whether the Labs build practical capabilities and produce credible evidence of their skills. For employers, we will assess whether the experience provides meaningful insight into students' potential and can be delivered efficiently across larger cohorts.

The result will be more than a new curriculum. HighView will have a tested approach to giving students real professional experience while helping employers identify capable, emerging talent.

HighView is seeking $200,000 in philanthropic support to help develop, test, and launch the first AI Career Labs.

This is an opportunity to support a practical response to a significant shift in the workforce. As AI reshapes entry-level hiring, HighView is working with employers to create new ways for talented students to develop the experience and judgment that traditionally came from their first jobs.

Support from early philanthropic partners will make it possible to test this approach thoughtfully, measure its effectiveness, and build the foundation for a much broader program.

The model also offers the potential for meaningful leverage. Employer partners contribute real business challenges, industry knowledge, and professional feedback. HighView develops the infrastructure to turn those contributions into learning experiences that can be delivered repeatedly to students across Colorado.

Early supporters will receive updates on the pilot's progress, student outcomes, employer participation, and the lessons informing the Fall 2027 launch. We also anticipate opportunities for lead supporters to see the Labs in action, review student work, and engage with HighView leadership and participating employers.

For donors focused on economic mobility, higher education, talent & workforce development, or the impact of AI on the next generation, this is an opportunity to help build a new pathway into high-opportunity careers, with the potential to reach thousands of Colorado students.