First-Gen U needed to work as self-paced SCORM modules any campus could adopt. The workshops ran monthly across New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and California — each with different teams, venues, resources, and styles.
I was building curriculum for teams that would execute it independently. The question wasn't "is this good content?" It was "can I trust this will be delivered well by people I'm not standing next to?" That meant building in accountability without surveillance — clear frameworks, strong facilitation guides, and enough structure that teams could make it their own without drifting from the intent.
The content itself was harder. We were teaching professional norms to students who might have never been taught the unspoken rules of the workplace. The tension was doing that honestly — without asking students to perform a version of professionalism that erased who they actually are.
I started by listening. Empathy interviews with facilitators, mentors, and program alumni. The curriculum I built was deliberately experiential: mock interviews, resume workshops, courageous conversations about identity and professional culture, discussion protocols that pushed both scholars and mentors beyond surface-level interaction. Many mentors found themselves bringing frameworks back into their own organizations after being reminded of things they'd stopped thinking about.
America Needs You · Learning Design
