Northeastern's Burlington Campus Celebrates Innovative Career Development Program

Learners from all around the state were celebrated yesterday at the Northeastern University Innovation Campus in Burlington, Massachusetts, at an event held to recognize participants in the Pathmaker program.

The program, which has graduated 74 learners in three eight-week cohorts since its inception in late 2024, was created in part by Dr. Jared Auclair, Dean of the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern, and brought to life with partnerships from Bridgewater State University, Mass Life Sciences Center, and other industry partners.

The life sciences industry is rapidly expanding in Massachusetts, as Burlington has seen with the opening of the Broad Institute and Vericel Corporation in the Blue Sky Drive complex in the last year alone. Pathmaker was designed as a way to match an industry need for a workforce pipeline with a population of people eager to enter the workforce but in need of training in practical skills that can be applied in a variety of life science settings.

The goal is not to replace the four-year college experience, Auclair said, but to add another model of learning for students that need a different access point – and one ultimate metric of success is that graduates of the program are able to secure interviews and, ultimately, jobs in the life sciences industry.

"Fundamentally this program is the cornerstone of my own beliefs of the way higher education needs to evolve and operate as we move forward," said Auclair in his keynote, adding that he believes in establishing "articulated and actualized learning pathways for all learners that are skill-based, work-integrated, credentialed, and stackable." The days of working for the same company in the same role for an entire career are largely a thing of the past, said Auclair, "and that means we have to upskill and reskill along the way."

Auclair looks at learning and career as interconnected and continuous, rather than discrete phases of life; he encouraged learners to continue progressing, using microcredentialing and short-term programs like this that offer real-world industry skill development.

Dr. Kirk Taylor, President and CEO of Mass Life Sciences Center, congratulated students and encouraged them to maintain connection with each other and build in-person and virtual networks to support their further career growth. He also commented on the diversity of the program in a space that often lacks racial diversity. "As a black guy," he said, "we didn't always have access to the table. You now have access to a group of people like yourselves... Draw on your network." Sixty-eight percent of learners in the program identified as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).

Tejaswini Vasireddy and Pavan Kumar Murarishetti were students in the first Pathmaker cohort, which ran from December 2024 through February 2025. after receiving their undergraduate degrees in India and pursuing their masters’ at Northeastern, they both saw the program as an essential bridge between theoretical learning and practical experience — one that differentiates them from their classmates.

The two are encouraged about their preparedness to enter the workforce. They're applying for jobs now that their Masters program is over, and though it's still early days, they're already getting interviews and hope to land a job soon.

Tejaswini wants to be a professional auditor in life sciences manufacturing, and Pavan would like to form a consulting firm that supports small startups in setting up their businesses and ensuring they comply with industry regulations. "My dream is that I can help someone through the process rather than them struggling alone," said Pavan.

"I'm fortunate to join this program and to have great connections," said Tejaswini, who is eager to continue building her network. She says she highlights her Pathmaker experience on her resume and thinks it will make her stand out as a candidate. "We clearly see the difference," she said, between them and their classmates who did not complete the Pathmaker program.

Twenty Pathmaker alumni – more than 25% of the participants – already have jobs lined up, including Jonathan Kibigire, who completed the most recent eight-week program in June. Jonathan, whose background is in logistics, joined Pathmaker because he was motivated to shift his career focus to the life sciences. He, like his colleagues, is grateful for the opportunity to participate.

A new cohort of the Pathmaker program has not yet been announced, but Auclair said they're committed to continuing the work. The university and professional partners are still discussing the details of how the next iteration of the program will look.