A new nonprofit in formation
Preparing youth to become researchers.
We empower first-generation, low-income, and immigrant young people to design and lead original research on the challenges facing their own communities.
Get involved
Partner with us
For schools, community organizations, and researchers who can host, mentor, or co-design.
Explore a partnershipFund the pilot
For funders and fiscal sponsors who want community-led research to exist.
Start a conversationWhy we exist
Research is gatekept.
Original research experience opens doors to higher ed and careers. Access to it still runs through well-resourced schools and personal networks.
The questions go unasked.
The communities most affected by a policy are rarely the ones designing the studies about it. The result is research that describes people instead of serving them.
Work outcompetes study.
Many low-income young people choose paid work over unpaid opportunity, because they have to. A program that does not pay is a program many of our young people cannot afford to join.
The talent is already here.
First-generation, low-income, and immigrant young people bring the context, the urgency, and the questions that good community research depends on.
Our approach
One pathway, four stages.
Research access is not one program. It is a pathway young people move along at their own pace, starting as a community and growing toward independence.
Explore
Start research as a community, not alone. Through youth participatory action research, first-time researchers learn their own context and build a study together.
Deepen
Go further with real research: an independent project under a mentor, or a seat on an existing research team.
Practice
Put the skills to work. Research feeds many roads: higher ed, advocacy, and entrepreneurship among them.
Return
Come back as a mentor and research leader, paid to guide the next cohort down the pathway.
Planned for summer 2027
What the pilot looks like
Our first cohort is in design. Details below reflect our current plan, not a published program.
The pilot focuses on the Explore stage: youth participatory action research in small groups.
- Who
- first-generation and low-income young people; one high school group and one college-age group, run separately
- When
- summer 2027, about six to seven weeks
- Applications
- open December 2026, due January 2027, decisions by March 2027
- Cohort size
- 20 to 30 participants, supported by 4 to 5 research leaders
- Format
- a paid summer research program. Participants are paid for their research work, so joining never means giving up a summer income
- Where
- Massachusetts-based, recruiting from anchor communities first (greater Boston and California's Central Valley among them)
- Mentorship
- a mentor circle covering writing, publishing, and coaching
- What you leave with
- a completed research project, published work, real pay, and a network that continues past the program
Get paid to do research.
Applications are not open yet. Join the interest list
Who this is for
First-generation and low-income young people, from high school through college age, who are curious about higher ed, research, or organizing. We welcome immigrant youth regardless of immigration status, and we design around the realities they navigate.
Immigration status is never a barrier to participation, and we never ask for it.
What we stand for
Our values
Dignity
Community
Curiosity
Lived experience
Who is building this
Pathway to Research was started in 2026 by four people working at the intersection of education, immigrant organizing, and youth research.
Jaein Lee Herrick
Curriculum and facilitation.
Educator at the Harvard Graduate School of Education whose practice centers evidence-based facilitation and curriculum design.
Sabrina Barroso
Community partnerships.
Former Executive Director of the Student Immigrant Movement, a youth-led Massachusetts organization built by and for undocumented young people. Studies at Tufts University.
Dr. Gustavo Luna
Operations and strategy.
Educational entrepreneur and public narrative coach who has founded and run his own education ventures.
Neil Nguyen
Programs and organizational development.
Founded an international youth research conference and built after-school programming for immigrant and low-income young people.
Institutional affiliations are listed for identification only and do not represent endorsement by those institutions.
Get involved
Partner with us
For schools, community organizations, and researchers who can host, mentor, or co-design.
Explore a partnershipFund the pilot
For funders and fiscal sponsors who want community-led research to exist.
Start a conversation