It seems too good to be true—getting paid to take calculus. But that’s reality for a group of Boston students this summer. “You’re not only getting experience with the math course you’re taking next year, you’re getting paid for it,” Daniel Imasuen, 17, says. “It’s really nice.”
The class is called Bridge to Calculus and empowers young people from underserved communities to succeed in advanced math classes. It is part of Northeastern University’s Summer Youth Employment Program, a partnership with the SuccessLinks Youth Jobs program of the city of Boston and its Learn and Earn program.
The effort is part of an initiative by Mayor Michelle Wu to invest an unprecedented $18.7 million in support of 7,000 youth jobs. Five thousand of those opportunities are being generated in partnership with community organizations and nonprofits, including Northeastern. The collaboration will bring 130 Boston youth ages 14 to 18 on campus for six weeks this summer. Eighty-five or so of the participants are Boston Public Schools students who will be part of the Bridge to Calculus program—a longstanding program at Northeastern, but a program that has never before offered to pay students to participate.
