Springboard Fellowship accelerates student success

When London Irwin’s post-grad job offer fell through, she didn’t panic. She activated the tools she’d built through Fort Lewis College’s Springboard Fellowship and landed on her feet. 

“I didn’t know anything about networking or navigating the job market,” said Irwin, a first-generation college graduate. “Springboard changed that.” 

Now housed in FLC’s Career Services office, the yearlong fellowship equips seniors with career launch tools. Each fellow receives a $3,000 award, attends weekly finance and professional readiness workshops, and is matched with a community mentor. 

The program’s signature experience is a Denver career immersion trip, during which students must cold-email professionals and schedule interviews independently, often for the first time. 

“It was terrifying,” said Marisa Gutierrez, a computer information systems major with a science communication concentration and a Native American Indigenous Studies minor, “But it made me feel like a professional.” 

Some students leave Springboard with job offers, others with critical connections. All leave with tools they didn’t have before: financial literacy, resilience, and a clearer path forward. The Springboard Fellowship program is supported by philanthropic grants and generous individual donors to the FLC Foundation.