Celebrating CareerBridge Summer 2026: A Summer of Growth, Opportunity, and Possibility

This summer, 50 young people from Oakland and the East Bay stepped into workplaces, explored careers, built new skills, and experienced what it feels like to have someone invest in their future.

Through CareerBridge, our interns spent eight weeks learning through six different internship tracks: Caltrans, Entrepreneurship Lab, Innovation Lab, ChildrenRising, Student Ambassador, and Legal Fellowship through a partnership with CYDL. They worked alongside mentors, took on real projects, and gained hands-on experience that helped them see new possibilities for their future.

For many of our interns, this summer was more than about gaining work experience. It was about discovering new interests, building confidence, asking questions, and beginning to imagine what might be possible for their future.

Celebrating Their Summer

We recently celebrated our interns at the 2026 Summer Showcase, where students had the opportunity to share what they learned and reflect on their experiences throughout the summer.

The Showcase was a meaningful opportunity to recognize their hard work, growth, and accomplishments. It was also a reminder of why programs like CareerBridge matter: young people deserve opportunities to explore their potential, develop new skills, and see themselves in spaces they may not have previously imagined.

From their first days on the job to their final presentations at the Showcase, our interns showed up, took on challenges, and made the most of the opportunities in front of them.

We are incredibly proud of what they accomplished this summer.

One Piece of the Summer Is Still Unfinished

But there’s one piece of the summer we’re still working to finish.

We’re continuing to raise funds to cover the stipends for this year’s interns. These young people showed up, put in the work, and made the most of this opportunity. We want to make sure we can fully honor the financial commitment we made to them.

If you’re able, would you consider making a gift this August to help us finish funding this summer’s internships?

Every contribution brings us closer to fully covering our interns’ stipends.

Support Our 2026 Interns

Thank you for believing that young people deserve access to opportunities that help them see what’s possible for their future.

And thank you to everyone who helped make this summer happen. Whether you gave, mentored, hosted an intern, partnered with us, or showed up to celebrate our students at the Showcase, you were part of this work.

Together, we are investing in Oakland youth and helping create pathways toward their futures.