Rosie McCorkle, the daughter of Exie Briggs, a Blackfoot Native American born on a very poor reservation in Little Burn, Missouri. Rosie’s aunt Hazel Harris left the reservation and started businesses in the south side of Chicago to earn enough to move the Harris family to a better place. Once moved Rosie was born. Hazel befriended the likes of the Puyallup Tribal Nation in its infancy, involved the family in the Community Gardens and Social Programs of the local Black Panther Party and worked diligently to advise and consult members of the community on the power of “Self Determination”, which she also instilled in all of her  family.

Rosie, and all of her first born off the reservation generation, went on to earn college degrees, most Master degrees. All of the family members sought to better themselves and the community with Hazel’s message of Self Determination. This why Upper Pathways was formed by Rosie to help bring gang members, drug dealers and teen mom’s back to being good citizens within the community from the infamous Crack Epidemic in Tacoma, Washington. Her son, James assisted her in establishing this program while at the same time launching his own version of Self Determination at UC Berkeley with the Young Entrepreneurs At Haas (YEAH) Program as its first Student Executive Director while earning his Bachelors Degree in International Risk Management.

Our Mission is to only continue the message of Hazel Harris who was beloved for the many people she touched and give back by assisting those who come from economically deprived neighborhoods or tribal reservations as Hazel instilled in her family.

The decline of the economy has devastated many local economies.

• Chronic unemployment creates family, social, substance abuse and safety issues. People lose hope.
• Businesses have no incentive to build or relocate to that area.
• Children have few and see no local career opportunities.
• Bring in initially simple, but increasingly technical industries with
• Simultaneously build an increasingly educated, trained and skilled

Our Mission is to enable communities to become economically self-sufficient by simultaneously developing new businesses while training local resources to support those specific areas of growth.  It is better to teach one to fish than to just give one fish.  Communities, adult, youth and children are all intrinsically linked to each other for our communities to thrive and survive.  To this end UP^ aims to be a platform driven by innovation in education to keep our students abreast of the global world around us all which is ever evolving so that our education is one of proactive exploration and not stuck in steep traditions which in some cases are not effective.

The UP^ is a comprehensive solution addressing economic challenges in by simply following this criteria:

• Identify and address local youth, adult and community needs.
• Bring in businesses to meet those needs.
• Train local community members to become successful in these new and increasingly technical – businesses.

Our community resource assessment determines the level of UP^ involvement in current economic and social service programs. Our comprehensive individual initial assessment is designed to enable community members to decide for themselves: What is Success tor me? We guide them to identify their needs, strengths and vocational desire. Our three Success Tracks are designed to support the success

• Second Chance Programs – provide remedial social, vocational and basic educational services, including drug and alcohol treatment and judicial monitoring, mental
• Special Skills Training (SST) Program – provides a basic curriculum of accredited courses, as well as vocational counseling and a diversified set of workforce development training tracks and apprenticeships to meet the needs of the individual, as well as the new and technologically advancing local industries and businesses.
• Entrepreneurs Academy – has a Youth, a Managerial and an Entrepreneurial track to challenge and train potential leaders.

We provide a Business Basics, and a more advanced Business Management and Development curriculum – as well as guidance and support to our new business leaders. We enable our students to build and start their own businesses with the assistance of the UP^ program and community mentors.