Case study
Activate Your Career Plan
Cohort funnel
Half of admitted scholars met the 1,000‑point certificate threshold. The bar was set deliberately above the median completion threshold of comparable programs, to anchor the certificate as a credential rather than a participation marker. Top performers exceeded it by 100%, clearing 2,000 points through optional work.
Curriculum architecture
Five sections. One living thesis.
The spine of the program is the Career Strategy Thesis: a strategy document students build iteratively across five sections, each pairing reflection with market evidence. Students leave with a decision architecture, not a stack of assignments.
Section 01
Define Your Direction
Strengths, interests and long‑term goals translated into a working career hypothesis.
Section 02
Positioning
From experience to communicated value. Resume, LinkedIn and narrative as one system.
Section 03
Market Reality and Narrative Alignment
How the U.S. labor market actually works, and how to align positioning to it.
Section 04
Strategic Decision‑Making
Plan A, B and C as parallel architecture, not fallback thinking.
Section 05
Ethically Leveraging AI and Timeline
AI as a strategic instrument, integrated with Last Responsible Moment timeline mapping.
Capstone
Career Strategy Thesis
A complete, living strategy document. A decision architecture students leave with.
The program ships with its own tooling: three self‑paced courses and two student decision systems, built alongside the curriculum. They have their own page →
Co‑design in practice
Session 6: the students rebuild the course.
The final session opened with a live deconstruction. Students named what worked, what failed and what required redesign, and their feedback became the structural input for the next iteration. Most programs shield their seams. This one opens them, because students learning to think strategically about their own careers benefit from seeing how strategy is built and revised in real time.
01 / Pacing
Which weeks felt right, which compressed too much, and which deserved more time, especially the bridge between Sections 03 and 04.
02 / Tooling
Which embedded systems were used most and which needed clearer onboarding. The Decision Tracker drew the most direct usage feedback.
03 / Scaffolding
Where the program assumed prior knowledge it should not have, and where it explained things students already knew. The most actionable redesign signals.
04 / Connection points
Where synchronous sessions, self‑paced modules and decision systems should connect more tightly to compound impact.
Documented outcomes
01
First‑interview activation within weeks of completion. Cohort members reported initial U.S. job interviews within two weeks of the program, including students who had previously cycled through extended rejection patterns.
02
Resume reformatting at scale. Multi‑page international CVs converted into recruiter‑readable, ATS‑aligned U.S. resumes, with LinkedIn optimized in parallel as one positioning system.
03
Behavioral shift from reactive to strategic. Students publicly reframed their search from applying to building a career strategy, and documented the shift in their own LinkedIn narratives.
04
Networking redefined as a developable practice. From passive presence to active outreach: networking treated as research and relationship‑building rather than transactional contact.
05
Public visibility of program impact. Cohort members independently published reflections, certificate posts and testimonials across professional networks.
In their own words
“Two weeks after the program, I received my first job interview. This program was not just any class. It was the pathway for international students.”
Lamin Fatty · MPA Class of 2027 · cohort member
“The American job market has its own unwritten rule book and nobody hands it to you at the door. That is exactly what Aki helped change.”
Cassandra Decoteau · MSBA · cohort member
From public LinkedIn reflections and full statements in the program's annual documentation. Delivered with guest lectures from Viviana, Designated School Official at ISSO, and Alfredo Serrano, Suffolk alum. Riddhi Bhavvya Patel anchored cohort operations as Graduate Fellow and TA.
A cohort defined by range
The Spring 2026 cohort spanned multiple continents, several degree programs and a wide experience range, from undergraduates entering their first formal U.S. job search to a former United Nations program lead returning to graduate school. That range was a design feature: a curriculum with that much variance in the room has to hold up under different starting points, and it did. The live programming built around the cohort continues on its own page: Career Lab and Events Series →