San Joaquin A+ and Lodi USD: Creating accelerated and subsidized credentialing pathways to good jobs in local industries

This large Central Valley rural district with an 80% BIPOC student population is collaborating with local nonprofits, a community college, and the winegrape commission to address students’ needs to get through credentialing programs quickly and at minimal cost while qualifying for good local jobs.


Project profile: We are partnering with Lodi Unified School District, Delta College, and the Lodi Winegrape Commission to design a new, innovative high school program that allows students to take high school and college courses concurrently and pursue a Career Technical Education (CTE) curriculum. They will also be supported by a partnership structure that provides student internships and mentoring within the winegrowing and hospitality industries. This program will allow students to attain a post-secondary CTE credential and/or Associate degree and become employable in local industries within 4-5 years of entering 9th grade - at no cost to students or families.

“The Reach for the Upside process gave our team the opportunity to start to break down silos and tap into the collective expertise and brilliance of our community -- giving us tools and resources to better meet our student and community needs.”

— Kai Kung, COO, San Joaquin A+

Design is an iterative process where we share work in progress. Over the course of two months, San Joaquin A+ and Lodi USD practiced design thinking and created a prototype. See below for a video of this early prototype.

Year 1 Update


Our objectives were to not only develop and implement new academic courses of study aligned with career pathways in partnership with higher education partners, but to also develop a continuum of work-based learning opportunities that would give students the professional skills and social capital they needed to prepare them for careers. We successfully met those objectives and in doing so, learned both how difficult and rewarding it can be to work across educational silos (e.g., K-12 and Higher Education) in the service of students.

We scaled back our prototype ambitions a bit, and focused on starting small with our work-based learning opportunities. We felt doing so would allow us to meaningfully engage local employers while giving the school team what they needed to execute well on the new academic programming - while also creating space for learning and continuous improvement before we scaled out work-based learning to all grades.

To learn more about this project contact Kai Kung at kai@sjaplus.org

“Our career pathway idea will provide ‘social and economic mobility,’ specifically for first generation Black and Latino students. Thank you, d.school and Genentech, for helping to bring our team together to develop this opportunity for our students.”

— Jessie Garza-Roderick, Dean of South Campus, San Joaquin Delta College

"The Reach for the Upside process brought together members from our community whom I hadn't previously connected with to help propel our grand vision forward. For example, I met our Career Technical Education partner, Julie, who contributed greatly by breaking down funding and insurance-related barriers that were huge concerns to our industry for fostering meaningful internships. The experience has opened our minds and hearts to listen and look for more opportunities than we imagined were possible before we started, and we cannot wait to realize this dream - helping both students and our family farms reach new heights, starting with internships this summer!"

— Stephanie Bolton, PhD., Research & Education Director and Sustainable Winegrowing Director, Lodi Winegrape Commission