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BridgeYear: Turning Donations into Bright Futures

Bridging the Gap: How BridgeYear Helps Students Build Bright Futures (and How Your Tax-Deductible Gift Makes It Possible)

At BridgeYear, we believe every student deserves a clear path to success, whether that means pursuing college, earning workforce certifications, or starting a fulfilling career. We connect students with employers to bridge the gap between education and real-world jobs. Thanks to our supporters’ donations, we can continue helping students explore hands-on, rewarding careers that lead to long-term economic stability.

Bridging the Gap: How BridgeYear Helps Students Build Bright Futures

Your Tax-Deductible Donation Changes Lives

When you give to BridgeYear, you’re doing more than donating money — you’re creating opportunities. Your support helps us reach students across Greater Houston, providing career exploration, training, and guidance that can change their futures.

Each donation helps us:

  • Run Career Test Drive® Fairs, where students get hands-on experience with real jobs in high-demand industries.
  • Offer free Career Cohorts, helping students earn credentials that qualify them for good-paying jobs without requiring a four-year degree.
  • Connect educators and local training programs at our Postsecondary Pathways Conference, helping schools and workforce programs work together to prepare students for the real world.
  • Provide apprenticeship opportunities right here in Houston.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, your contribution is 100% tax-deductible. That means your generous support not only helps students but can also benefit you during tax season.

Hands-On Experiences for Lasting Impact

BridgeYear’s Career Test Drive® Program gives students a chance to explore jobs up close, from electricians to surgical technologists, helping them discover what truly sparks their interest.

BridgeYear’s Career Test Drive® Program gives students a chance to explore jobs up close

BridgeYear Success Story

In October 2025, 23 BridgeYear students graduated from Texas Technical Trade School and are ready to step confidently into new roles as electrical apprentices. 

Graduating students from BridgeYear's Career Test Drive® Program celebrating with certificates and mentors at a graduation ceremony in Houston, showcasing successful workforce preparation.

Through this partnership, students gained real-world skills, such as reading blueprints to installing fixtures, turning classroom learning into lasting career opportunities.

Visit our LinkedIn post to read more about the cohort’s graduation celebration.

Growing Opportunities Through Corporate Partnerships

BridgeYear works with local corporations that want to make a difference. Through industry-aligned partnerships, companies help shape the future workforce in Houston, while students gain real-world insights into high-demand careers.

Corporate sponsors can sponsor Career Test Drive® Fairs, create their own career simulations, offer apprenticeships, and provide matching gifts — amplifying the impact of every donation.

Students in Action: BridgeYear’s Career Test Drive® Fair

In 2025, BridgeYear hosted its first Visitor Day of the 2025–2026 school year, giving supporters a firsthand look at our Career Test Drive® Fair.

Three BridgeYear representatives smiling together at a Career Test Drive® Fair, showcasing the organization's commitment to student career exploration and community engagement.

Visitors saw Houston students explore high-growth careers — wiring circuits, preparing surgical trays, and gaining hands-on experience that builds skills and confidence for economic mobility.

Visit our LinkedIn post to learn more.

Programs That Change the Future

Here’s how we’re expanding the ways students can explore and succeed:

  • Career Cohort Program – Now in its second year, this program offers access to free training for students, leading to workforce certifications and job readiness.
  • MorePathways® Social Media Campaign – A large-scale campaign helping more students learn about the many paths to success after high school.
  • Postsecondary Pathways Conference (Year 5!) – Connects educators with local training programs and highlights well-paying, middle-skill careers in the Houston region.

Every program shares one mission: helping students find clear, achievable paths to success with the right training, partners, and support.

More Ways to Support BridgeYear

BridgeYear is a 4-star nonprofit on Charity Navigator, recognized for trust, transparency, and impact.

Other Ways to Give

  • Give Online – Fast, secure, and immediately impactful.
  • Give by Check – Mail your support directly to BridgeYear.
  • Matching Gifts – Many employers match donations, doubling or even tripling your impact!
  • Sponsor a BridgeYear Event – Support student experiences while showcasing your company’s community commitment.
  • Sponsorship Opportunities for the Career Test Drive® Fair– Bring hands-on career simulations to more schools, giving students real-world practice and confidence.

Let’s Build More Pathways — Together
Donate now and make a tax-deductible gift that changes lives. 

Together, we’re bridging the gap between education and opportunity — one student, one career, and one pathway at a time.

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learn MORE ABOUT the careers we offer

BridgeYear exposes youth to affordable and accessible careers that provide youth economic stability and independence. 

All careers we highlight:

  • Require less than a 4-year degree
  • Are in-demand by employers 
  • Provide a living wage
  • Offer career ladders/opportunities for advancement

Why non 4-year degree pathways?:

Traditional education has long placed great emphasis on four-year degrees, forcing many students – like those who cannot afford college, those with GPAs at or below 2.5 and those who simply aren’t interested in a four-year degree – to disengage from planning their future after high school. This has caused many to feel their only options are unskilled jobs, like in retail or food service, which often offer unstable wages, zero benefits and slim opportunities for advancement.

How do you know employers are in need of BridgeYear’s careers?

Instead of relying solely on workforce data, we partner directly with employers and corporate sponsors to learn what labor gaps they are facing now and in the future so we can help them recruit for their most immediate needs. Currently, we have partnerships with Gulf States Toyota, to promote the career of automotive technician, and the National Kitchen and Bath Association, to promote trade careers in the kitchen and bath industry including Electrician, Finish Carpenter, and Kitchen and Bath Designer.  

How our program impacts advanced youth

Graduating high schoolers from low-income communities are part of the most vulnerable populations affected by the current crisis. COVID-19 has made their transition to college and the workforce less secure than ever, compromising crucial employment years that impact opportunities to escape poverty. 

According to a national survey conducted by Equitable Futures early in the pandemic, the coronavirus crisis has caused young people to feel great uncertainty about their future. Among a sample of “Black and Hispanic youth and white young people from households with lower incomes,” the percent of those who reported feeling very clear about their future job or career dropped from 43% in 2019 to 27% in 2020. The report also showed that a majority of youth value college differently with nearly 1 in 3 claiming they now think college is not worth pursuing compared to pre-pandemic. Today, this situation is expected to be worse due to plunging community college enrollment (NSCRC) and a 102% increase in student debt over the last decade (US Federal Reserve). These shifts all point to an important reality: youth need help forging non 4-year pathways that won’t trap them in a cycle of poverty.

Advanced youth, especially high school seniors and opportunity youth, have been BridgeYear’s primary programming focus since 2016. Our Career Test Drive® program helps youth plan their path out of high school by exposing them to affordable, in-demand pathways they can pursue immediately.

How our program impacts intermediate youth

To better prepare all students for opportunities after high school, BridgeYear offers our Career Test Drive® program to 7th-9th graders to increase awareness and strengthen career choice.

For 7th through 9th graders, our program was designed to help students make informed decisions that will prepare them for viable career paths after high school. As a result of House Bill 5, 8th grade students in Texas are asked to select an endorsement area for their high school studies. Selecting an endorsement – and specifically, selecting a Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway within an endorsement – offers students the opportunity to earn a free, industry-recognized credential. Yet when so few students receive these industry recognized certificates in the greater Houston area, too many students are missing this opportunity to become competitive in today’s workforce. 

By exposing youth to in-demand careers they can get obtain accreditation for during high school, our Career Test Drive® program helps students decide what CTE pathway aligns with their skills and interests and inspires them to optimize their time in high school to succeed in the workforce. 

READ MORE ABOUT facilitation options

Our Career Lab program offers two facilitation options: our full-service BridgeYear Facilitation option and a Self/Teacher Facilitation option. 

BridgeYear Facilitation

  • BridgeYear manages full setup, refilling and maintenance of all materials.
  • Trained BridgeYear staff facilitate the entire experience in-person and offer students moments of critical thinking and discussion around the activity and career.
 

Available to schools and organizations located within the Greater Houston area. For those outside Houston, BridgeYear Facilitation is available for an additional cost to cover travel. 

Self/Teacher Facilitation

  • BridgeYear ships all materials to you, including extra supplies and refills. 
  • BridgeYear provides videos and an instructors manual that explain each step of the activity for use during classroom facilitation.  
 

Available to schools and organizations located outside the Greater Houston area. For those inside Houston, BridgeYear Facilitation is already factored into your quote.  

READ MORE ABOUT in-class facilitation

Via our full-service model (BridgeYear Facilitation) or through pre-recorded videos (Self/Teacher Facilitation), our Career Lab program will lead your students through in-depth career exploration all from the comfort of your classroom: 

    • Students explore one career per class period.
    • Each Career Lab activity is designed to be completed on student’s desk.
    • Career Labs can be purchased to be reused with multiple class periods. We sell extra materials and refills to ensure you have enough for each student.

This experiential learning program provides schools and teachers an accessible experience they can implement with each class period throughout an entire school day.

READ MORE ABOUT OUR HANDS-ON ACTIVITES

BridgeYear firmly believes that hands-on learning is essential to career exploration and building career identity.

All Career Test Drive® (CTD) Program simulations are designed like science labs in order to:
  • Maximize engagement: Students are more likely to enjoy career exploration if activities are engaging and fun.
  • Mimic real-life careers: By simulating real career tasks, youth are able to determine whether a career fits their interests and skills.

Students need more than just talking, they need doing.

After watching students withdraw from the monotony of career brochures, speakers and staged videos, co-founders Victoria Chen and Victoria Doan reimagined career exploration to provide an immersive, hands-on opportunity for young people to explore their options after high school.

As one student put it: “The [CTD Program] gave me more ideas on what I can become in the future and brought more light to skills I did not know I had.”