About Us

The Braven Fellowship experience starts with the UNVS 101 Leadership and Career Accelerator Course and provides 2-4 years of personalized leadership and career-development support after the course.

Brief History of UNVS 101

• The first SJSU-Braven connection was in 2014 when Braven ran a pilot program with support from the Career Center Director and SJSU University President.
• Science, business and engineering faculty became excited about the model, and in Fall 2015 Braven signed an MOU with SJSU to develop and pilot the Leadership and Career Accelerator course for the first time.
• In 2017 the SJSU-Braven model was recognized in several ways - a Harvard researcher validated the impact on sense of belonging and social capital. SJSU-Braven won two awards - one from the CSU/UC/California Community College system and the John N. Gardner Institutional Excellence for Students in Transition Award from the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.
• Over the next few years the SJSU-Braven team continued the Leadership and Career Accelerator course and found that students who complete the course persist, graduate, and secure jobs above their peer group. 
  In Fall 2019 the course became UNVS 101, reflecting the multidisciplinary content and student enrollment
• In 2020 the pandemic and the shrunken labor market called on the SJSU-Braven team to innovate, effectively transitioning the course online. The staff and attention that SJSU and Braven put onto the course kept the students engaged while they were dealing with the challenges of shelter in place and transitioning to a new learning mode. In the spirit of helping all students, Braven developed a 2-week Booster program for job seekers, which was offered for free starting in summer 2020.
• Since 2016 more than 1100 SJSU students benefited from mentoring and the Braven Fellowship experience through the Leadership and Career Accelerator course.