Our Impact
Career exposure is one of the most powerful tools we have to help teens break the cycle of poverty.
We have the data. Here is what it shows.
The Problem
The gap is not ambition. It is access.
Teens from low-income communities graduate knowing academic subjects — not how to navigate a workforce that is changing faster than any curriculum can keep up with. Career exposure is a proven pathway toward economic mobility. And right now, it is not equally distributed.
Career uncertainty by 16 predicts disconnection.
Teens who cannot picture a career by age 16 are statistically more likely to be unemployed or disconnected from education and work by their mid-20s.
OECD Career Readiness Research · 2021
Traditional programs never reach them.
Only 11% of teens attend after-school programming. The systems built to help them have never been able to reach them at scale.
After School Matters · National Survey Data
How We Respond
01
The Phone
95% of teens own a smartphone and spend 8 hours a day on it. We stopped fighting that and started building for it. The Ambition App lives where teens already live.
02
Real Career Exposure
30-day simulated internships in real careers. 15 minutes a day. Students pick their path, build real skills, and see what a career actually feels like before they have to choose one.
03
A Trusted Adult in the Room
The teens who shift their career thinking are almost always connected to an adult who knows they are doing it. We equip parents, counselors, and mentors to be that person — even if no one ever did it for them.
Our Results
Increase in Action Orientation — the highest-gain dimension within our Future Orientation Score (FOS).
Pre and post · 1,000+ teens
Teens do not just feel better about the future. They act on it.
The Future Orientation Score (FOS) tracks how teens think about and move toward their futures across multiple dimensions. We measure before and after every program cycle.
Action Orientation — one element within the FOS — measures whether a teen is actually taking steps toward a career, not just imagining one. Across 1,000+ teens, it showed the biggest improvement of any dimension we track.
Career exposure alone does not break the cycle of poverty. But teens who can see a path — and start walking it — have a meaningfully better shot.
From the Students
What action looks like.
I never knew what I wanted to do. After the entrepreneurship internship, I started selling custom bracelets at school. I make $200 a month now.
The wealth management track changed how I think about money. I taught my mom what I learned and I am starting to think I might have a future here.
I did the nursing internship and it clicked. I know exactly what I'm doing after high school. No one in my family has ever worked in healthcare.
The Evidence Base
We did not invent the link between career exposure and economic mobility. We built a program to help deliver it at scale.
Longitudinal studies found teens with early career exposure had better adult employment outcomes, with wage gains of 5 to 10% not uncommon, even after controlling for academic achievement and social background.
OECD Career Readiness Review · 2021
Wage boost in adulthood tied specifically to early career exposure. Even career conversations, job shadowing, and simulated experience showed measurable long-term impact on earnings.
OECD, From Classroom to Career · 2025
Career conversations with a trusted adult by age 15 are one of the strongest independent predictors of adult employment outcomes. We are making it possible for any parent or mentor to have that conversation well.
OECD Career Readiness Research · 2021
Our Evaluation Framework
What we track.
Two areas. One question: does this program put teens on a different economic trajectory?
Future Orientation
Can a teen envision a future for themselves? Do they believe they have choices? Do they feel agency over where their life goes?
Action Orientation
One element within the FOS and our strongest result. Is a teen taking concrete steps toward a future they can see? Measured across 1,000+ teens, this is where we saw our biggest gain.
Exploration Breadth
How many fields and roles has a teen meaningfully engaged with? Broader exploration earlier leads to better decisions later.
Career Conversation Quality
Are teens talking to adults about their futures? Mentorship and career conversations are independently proven to improve labor market outcomes.