Making quality work-based learning the norm across the DC region.
We are in discovery. What we build next is being shaped in these conversations — which is why yours matters now.
Real World Matters (RWM) is a new venture working with schools, universities, and their employer partners across the DC region to design programs that reach every student — not just the few who find an internship. If you run, fund, or host work-based learning, this is being built with you.
What we do
- Produce educator-employer designed projects that align with school goals and reach many students
- Publish market intelligence you can use to see gaps, find models to replicate, and get your best work recognized
- Convene leaders to share and learn from models, leverage resources, and build the ecosystem students need
- Build a hub where schools, universities, and employers can involve students in quality work experience
Built on 30 years of work-based learning
RWM’s founder, Carolyn Harris, has co-designed and co-led model career learning, embedded in the curriculum and in apprenticeship programs, with educators and leaders at NASA, Columbia University, the City University of New York, New York City schools, and DC’s Dunbar High School.
More than 100 NASA apprentices, followed for two decades — alumni of ICP, the program she directed at NASA GISS (1994–2004).
Read the independent doctoral study
Then: ICP apprentice · Now: school superintendent
“More students need to have the opportunity to see themselves in this work to believe they can do it.”
Alexandra
Superintendent, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Georgia
Then: ICP apprentice · Now: engineering professor
“I attribute my going to MIT to ICP. I knew we were trying to address an important problem, and I could describe the problem, describe what I did, describe all the analysis.”
Christine
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University
Then: ICP apprentice · Now: university director
“Everyone at ICP saw something in me that I could not see in myself. It inspires and guides my philosophy on teaching, learning, and mentoring.”
Marquise
Director, Master’s in Public Policy, American University
How we work with leaders building work-based learning.
Two things are planned now. Two more are the vision.
The DC region work-based learning scan
Nobody holds a map of who runs work-based learning across the DC region — for which students, at what scale, with which employers. We are building one: the programs, the practices they use, and the leaders to learn from.
A searchable dashboard of named programs across DC, Maryland, and Virginia, with the regional lens you need rather than national averages. Alongside it, leaders explain their models and gain recognition by being profiled.
How leaders take part. A 30-minute conversation, three open questions. You shape what the Scan covers and what would make it useful to someone in your seat.
Free to take part · Free to read · The ask is 30 minutes
The signature work-based learning program
Bring us one employer you already know — a parent, an alum, a board member, a community partner — and your teachers design your school’s program around goals you already have, in a two-day workshop with that employer in the room for one of them.
You receive a project dossier: the employer’s briefing that launches the work, the source material, the project plan, and the reflections, check-ins, and assessments to run it. Your faculty coach the project; students upload work to the RWM hub for the employer to see. We do the heavy lift, so one employer relationship reaches a whole cohort instead of a handful of interns.
Employer co-designed · authentic work · structured learning · strategic mentorship · a resume-worthy deliverable
Two days of faculty time, employer present for one · Shared cost on the first two pilot workshops
A regional coalition and summit
Turning the Scan into a standing coalition, and a convening where leaders and young people set one shared regional goal in the room.
A virtual apprenticeship platform
Employer- and university-led apprenticeships delivered through game-engine technology and AI mentors trained by working professionals — built for students who cannot reach an in-person placement, not as a replacement for one.
Work-based learning is becoming the must-have experience on a student’s resume. It is also hard to scale, and even harder to ensure it’s accessible to all students.
Colleges and employers value it, institutions are under pressure to expand access, and students know it makes them more capable and more competitive. The trouble is supply and staff time: recruiting an employer, designing projects that give students real roles, and structuring learning that works for different learners.
RWM wants to be the trusted partner that removes two persistent barriers: the staff capacity to design and build a program, and the systems that keep employer-designed work out of reach for most students.
Employers are more likely to hire a graduate who has completed an applied learning experience. Internships and apprenticeships top the list.
AAC&U, How College Contributes to Workforce Success, 2021 · reported by Inside Higher EdStudents report that their college does not offer enough access to industry projects.
Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions, National Survey of College Internships, 2021 · reportStudents in the top half of their high school class who finish no postsecondary credential each year. Work exposure is one of the three interventions Georgetown names as the fix.
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 2018 · reportWhy DC
Those numbers are national. Nobody holds them for this region yet.
The DC region is a one-of-a-kind work landscape, with federal agencies, research institutions, universities, and national headquarters within reach of the same students. What the region has not built is the shared capacity to turn that access into experiences students can actually get.
Your RWM team
Carolyn A. Harris · RWM Founder and Chief Learning Officer
Three decades designing and funding work-based learning, most of it at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University: more than $3M in federal grants raised and managed, and a 20+ year ICP study that led to a Boston College doctoral thesis. NASA Public Service Medal.
Game Genius
A Maryland nonprofit using play for professional development and civic learning. Runs community education and team-building programs using play-based methods. RWM’s 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, and a co-designer of the signature program.
Ryan R. Goble, EdD · Mindblue Education
Lead co-designer and facilitator. He built classroom-ready climate curriculum with Carolyn at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and co-led model educator-scientist design workshops to integrate NASA student researchers into schools across five states. He was a lead collaborator on Rhode Island’s statewide AI guidance for schools. Chief Learning Officer at Irrational Labs.
The four models informing our work
Institute on Climate and Planets — NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Ten years of high school and college students working on real climate research teams alongside NASA and Columbia scientists, across 25 New York schools and CUNY colleges. What carried forward: a tested apprenticeship model, with the outcomes followed for two decades.
Read the ICP case study: the numbers and the record
Read the independent doctoral study of ICP alumni · Lloyd, C. R. (2021), Boston College
Climate Change in the Classroom Workshop
A professional learning model bringing current climate research and research practice into teachers' own classrooms. What carried forward: the workshop and curriculum package educators endorsed for employer-connected, co-designed work.
Space Science and Technology Program — Dunbar High School, Washington DC
A pre-engineering program built with NASA that embedded active space and earth missions across core courses, rather than running alongside them. What carried forward: a recognized framework for embedding work-based learning across the curriculum.
The President's Youth Leadership Forum — White House Office of National Service
The first national forum connecting young people to public service leadership, later used as a template for forums around the country. What carried forward: a model for building school–employer partnerships around real work.
Work-based learning is a complement to a strong academic core, never a replacement — and STEM, the humanities, and the arts stand on equal footing in preparing students for work in the age of AI.
Three ways in.
Talk to Carolyn
Thirty minutes. Whether you run a program, fund one, employ students, or want your program in the scan — this is the way in.
Book a conversationRead the blog
Monthly and free. Longitudinal reflections from apprentices, and what they tell us about designing work-based learning that lasts.
Read on SubstackSupport the work
A gift pays for two things: publishing the regional research free to the field, and convening the region's leaders.
DonateDonations go to our nonprofit sponsor, Game Genius, and are tax-deductible.