MESA Charter High School Alumni Lab

In early 2025, I was invited to write a case study of MESA Charter High School's Alumni Lab initiative, a six-week intervention for young adults who had graduated high school but subsequently struggled to stay enrolled in higher education or gain traction in the labor market. The program arose from the understanding of MESA's founding co-principals that while their school was succeeding brilliantly on the expected measures of high school gradua

tion and college enrollment, their students were not well prepared to thrive at the next step. Many would come back two or three years after their triumphant graduation day, shaken by their struggles in college or at work and unsure what to do next.

Alumni Lab gets them back on track through 14 sessions that feature a three-part curriculum of personal support featuring growth mindset and combatting imposter syndrome, development of professional skills from building a resume and managing social media presence to nailing job interviews, and identification of a new postsecondary plan to return to college or seek advanced skills training. Following program completion, the team stays in close touch, effectively functioning as case managers for the graduates.

One indication of Alumni Lab's striking early success is that within four years it expanded from serving alumni of MESA to dozens of high schools across New York City whose graduates were facing similar headwinds. In two decades of looking at interventions for out-of-school/out-of-work or "marginally connected" young people, this is the single most exciting model I've encountered. It was a total blast to write this and I'm deeply grateful to the team at MESA then led by Pagee Cheung and Art Samuels, with Alumni Lab mastermind Julie Kwong.