LYNN — Two Lynn English High School seniors have created a website that helps Lynn English students discover internships, pre-college programs, and scholarships that align with their interests.
Bulldog Pathways came about when Ayan Safe and Tahmidul Islam realized they needed to research and apply to their external career programs independently. They then had the idea to help out their peers by storing relevant career resources in one database for a more streamlined application process.
Safe is in charge of the coding aspect of Bulldog Pathways, building the website, digging through programs, and adding filters for field, location, age range, and pay. Meanwhile, Islam is tackling the marketing and social media aspect of the website. While the selected opportunities are mainly within the STEM field, Bulldog Pathways plans to list resources for trade and vocational options as well.
Safe said that Lynn English offers foundational classes such as math and science, but not “external or career pathway classes,” such as engineering, creating the need for Bulldog Pathways.
“I wanted to find a way around this and help students get an early foot into the doorway of what they want to do,” Safe said.
Safe added, “This has made a real big impact on resources that are available to students. Kids in our district now have the support they need.”
Lynn English physics teacher Jeff Bigler said that while guidance counselors help students with their academic pursuits, basic information regarding external internships and scholarships are typically sent to the student body in a mass email, which can often be difficult to track and manage.
“There’s a lot of not knowing where to go to find these things. Figuring out where to go to find something is not easy unless somebody has done something like Bulldog Pathways,” Bigler said.
Bigler added, “There’s definitely a need for it, and there wasn’t anything I was aware of beforehand that filled that niche in this local area that is relevant to students at Lynn English.”
Bigler said that spreading awareness about internships and scholarships is a crucial first step when it comes to sparking students’ interest in these opportunities.
“If kids don’t know the first thing about how to find something, a lot of them will get discouraged and give up. Bulldog Pathways removes a lot of the barriers,” Bigler said.
Islam said that competitive career programs are often oversaturated with students from “advantaged schools with a lot of resources,” and that Bulldog Pathways “offers a lot of potential to fill the gap.”
“A lot of Lynn English students are interested in STEM fields, but we don’t necessarily have the same access to the same experiences that other schools have. A lot of students don’t always realize what’s possible because they don’t even know about the opportunities in the first place,” Islam said.
Safe said, “Bulldog Pathways helps students build confidence in what they want to do regardless of background or income.”
