Find Your Grind Earns ESSA Tier 2 Validation, Expands Future-Ready Learning Nationwide

Career-Planning Platform Celebrates Three Major Milestones This Back-to-School Season

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As the top learning solution for future readiness, Find Your Grind, an all-in-one career planning platform, has helped thousands of middle and high school students nationwide design their professional pathways and boost their 21^st-century skills. Now, as an ESSA Tier 2 validated program, Find Your Grind will be more accessible to schools, enabling districts to access federal and state funding to support evidence-based career exploration curriculum.

The Find Your Grind validation was based on a rigorous quasi-experimental study conducted by WestEd, a nationally-recognized education research organization. Researchers identified several significant positive gains for students who engaged with Find Your Grind compared to those who did not, including increased student self-awareness, advanced career readiness and enhanced social-emotional growth. Find Your Grind participants also outperformed their peers by up to 22 percentile points in key areas of future planning, communication and collaboration.

"WestEd's conclusion that Find Your Grind significantly improves student engagement was vital in ensuring we achieved ESSA Tier 2 status," said Nick Gross, founder and CEO of Find Your Grind. "This validation provides assurance to educators and administrators that they can confidently implement Find Your Grind for their students and elevate career programs centered on project-based, competency-driven learning."

In addition to achieving ESSA Tier 2 validation, Find Your Grind is rapidly expanding its programs in schools across the country. In Ohio, Find Your Grind has partnered with districts state-wide to implement its Lifestyle Fairs – immersive, future-ready events designed to introduce students to real-world career experiences, industry mentors and interactive learning grounded in self-discovery. Its most recent Lifestyle Fair with Hilliard City Schools in May welcomed more than 1,200 seventh-grade students who explored their identities, interests and potential career paths through hands-on, future-focused experiences.

Finally, Find Your Grind is proud to announce two exciting state collaborations to redefine readiness for students. In Georgia, the partnership between Find Your Grind and the Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) Resource Network is empowering educators through professional development and expanded implementation of the curriculum.

"This partnership represents a powerful step forward in supporting Georgia students as they explore their futures," remarked Lynne Wilson, executive director of the CTAE Resource Network. "Through engaging online career inventory tools, we are helping middle and high school students uncover their strengths, clarify their goals, and connect with the CTAE pathways that will guide them toward meaningful and rewarding careers. Together, we are opening doors to opportunity and shaping the next generation of Georgia's workforce."

More than 4,500 miles away, the Hawai'i Department of Education has selected Find Your Grind for a state-wide pilot rollout, expected to reach one-fourth of the state's middle school students in its first year. Aligned to Hawai'i's 13 CTE pathway courses, Find Your Grind will empower students to explore, prepare for and choose careers that fit their purpose and passions.

"I am pleased to know that Find Your Grind will be expanding to high schools and middle schools on our different islands in Hawai'i," said Margaret Pearlman, CTE resource teacher. "Find Your Grind sets up a foundational and curated experience to meet our students' diverse needs and prepare them for their amazing future in our global community."

For more information on Find Your Grind and its latest efforts in transforming student engagement, visit www.findyourgrind.com.

About Find Your Grind – Find Your Grind is a future-ready learning platform that empowers students to discover who they are, where they're going, and how to get there. Through research-based instructional content and professional learning, Find Your Grind reimagines the way students prepare for life beyond the classroom. Find Your Grind helps students build purpose-driven futures in a rapidly changing world by focusing on self-discovery, personalized pathways, and real-world skill development.

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SOURCE Find Your Grind