Explore your dream, experience what’s possible, and connect to real opportunity. Every journey starts with you, not a job listing, and people walk beside you the whole way.
Explore
Discover your values, interests, and curiosity.
Connect
Meet mentors and peers who’ve walked the path.
Experience
Visits, challenges, and hands-on workshops.
Grow
Build skills, confidence, and clarity.
Achieve
Reach milestones you can show and share.
See the future through a student’s eyes.
Every dream begins with a possibility. Enter a dream and discover the people, experiences, and opportunities that could help bring it to life.
Attendance is not impact. We track what actually changes for a young person, and publish numbers only when they are verified.
Students reached
Who took part, counted once and honestly.
Mentor connections
Conversations that actually happened with screened mentors.
Projects completed
Portfolios, prototypes, and work students can show.
Skills gained
Measured before and after each program.
Opportunity access
Internships, training, and applications submitted.
Six-month progress
Where students are half a year later.
An established nonprofit, opening more doors.
Watering Hope is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 93-2219503) that has shown up for young people in San Diego for years. Dream Big is how that work grows: from meeting everyday needs to connecting people with mentors, experiences, and real pathways forward.
WATERING HOPE DREAM BIG
A nonprofit connecting dreams to opportunities
DREAM BIG INSTITUTE
The flagship initiative that turns aspirations into real-world pathways
Mentorship
Meet people who have built the life you’re imagining.
We connect dreams to the people, experiences, and opportunities that make them possible.
We help people discover who they are and connect them with the resources to shape their future.
Why we exist
Talent is everywhere. Access is not. A young person can dream of becoming an engineer, a pilot, or an architect and still never meet one, never step inside the building, never learn the first step. We close that gap by bringing the people and places to them.
Watering Hope Dream Big starts with the individual, not the job opening. We are human-first, use AI as a helpful tool, and stay focused on real opportunity.
What guides every decision
Does it improve a person’s life?
Does it respect individuality, consent, and choice?
Does it create real opportunity, not only inspiration?
Can we measure progress credibly?
Can it last without compromising the first four?
How we’re organized
Watering Hope Dream Big
The nonprofit, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Dream Big Institute
Our flagship program, built on four pillars: Mentorship, Exposure, Opportunity, and Partnerships.
Dream Paths
Focused pathways such as Design Futures and Global Access.
Proposed
Dream Big Campus
How universities and schools bring Dream Big to their students.
Future concept
Dream Big Frontiers
Ambitious pathways in emerging fields.
Future concept
Dream Big OS
A possible software platform, built only after our programs prove demand.
Dream Big. Connect Bigger.
Five steps, with people beside you the whole way.
AI can help you see options. People help you choose. Here’s the journey.
Explore
Use the Dream Explorer to look at roles, skills, and experiences connected to what you care about. No tests that decide for you.
Connect
Meet screened mentors in supervised, structured settings. We help you prepare questions first.
Experience
Site visits, design challenges, and workshops where you see the work up close.
Grow
Build skills and confidence you can measure, with feedback from real professionals.
Achieve
Reach milestones you can show, and take your next real step.
Safety comes first
Many of the people we serve are under 18. Our safeguards are part of the program, not an add-on.
Parent or guardian consent where required
Screened mentors and supervised settings
No private one-to-one messaging between adults and minors
We collect only the information we truly need
Accessible participation for every student
AI informs. People decide.
Pick a direction. You can always change course.
Dream Paths group mentors, experiences, and next steps around the fields students ask about most.
For students who look up every time a plane goes over.
Pilot pathways
Aviation engineering and maintenance
Airline operations and leadership
Focused support for students underrepresented in aviation
Hospitality Futures
For students who light up making people feel welcome.
Hotel management
Interior design for hospitality
Culinary arts
Hospitality technology
Leadership
Global Experiences
For students ready to see more of the world.
Educational travel
Cultural exposure and exchange
Sponsored travel only where it is safe, feasible, and approved
Our promise on travel
We never promise free flights, hotel stays, or placements. Any sponsored experience exists to serve students, with consent, supervision, and clear eligibility.
Interested in supporting Global Access?
We welcome conversations with airlines, hotel groups, and hospitality leaders who want to open doors for students.
Streets, parks, and neighborhoods that work for everyone.
Hospitality design
Hotels, restaurants, and places built around guests.
Sustainable design
Materials and systems that respect the planet.
Community development
Designing with neighbors, not just for them.
The journey
Discover
Site visits to studios, buildings, and public spaces.
Connect
Conversations with working designers and architects.
Create
A team design challenge on a real place.
Launch
A portfolio piece and a clear next career step.
Proposed program
Eight weeks, 15 to 20 students
We are designing a first Design Futures cohort with defined safety, consent, and accessibility standards, mentor feedback, and portfolio outcomes. Dates and partners will be shared once confirmed.
In development
Dream Big: Behind the Doors
Curated, supervised visits that let students see how architects, chefs, designers, and founders actually work. Inspired by the idea that people remember how you made them feel.
Bring Dream Big to your campus.
Host a program that connects your students with mentors, real-world experiences, and progress you can measure. Sponsors and funders cover the program, so your campus brings the students and the space.
Guided career exploration grounded in their interests
Structured, supervised mentor conversations
Site visits and a team challenge
A portfolio of milestones and work they can show
A concrete next step: an application, project, or introduction
What you get
Baseline and end-of-program skills measures
Participation and completion data, privacy-protected
Student work samples, shared with consent
A short outcomes report and renewal options
An example eight-week format
Week 1Kickoff and Dream Explorer session
Week 2Values, interests, and pathway mapping
Week 3Mentor conversation one
Week 4Site visit or industry panel
Week 5Team challenge begins
Week 6Mentor feedback on challenge work
Week 7Presentations and portfolio pieces
Week 8Next-step plans and outcomes review
Scope and schedule are shaped with each campus.
Co-branded for your institution
Your institution’s logopresented withWATERING HOPE DREAM BIG
What we need from you
A campus lead and a regular meeting space
Help reaching interested students
Agreement on consent, data, and safeguarding
Bring Dream Big to your campus
Tell us a little about your campus. We’ll follow up to schedule a call.
For employers
Build the workforce you’ll need next.
Dream Big is designed to prepare young people for the careers shaping San Diego’s future, with your people as mentors and your real challenges as their training ground.
The people who will run your hotels, care for your patients, build your products, and fly your routes are in school right now. Meet them early.
Earlier connections
Get to know motivated young people years before they apply, and help them see your industry as a real option.
Skills that show up on day one
Communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and practical AI literacy, built through real projects rather than lectures.
Engagement your team will feel
Employees mentor, host visits, and share their craft, the kind of volunteering people remember.
Results you can report
Participation, before-and-after skills, work products, and mentor feedback, summarized in an outcomes report for your team.
Careers shaping San Diego’s future
Eight growing fields, one story. Each has its own talent challenge. Here’s how Dream Big is designed to help.
In development
Aviation
The challenge:Pilot and maintenance careers take years of training, and many students never learn where to start or how to pay for it. Women and people of color remain underrepresented in the cockpit.
How we help:We help students understand the routes, the scholarships, and the people in the field, early, with a dedicated focus on women and pilots of color.
The challenge:Health systems and life sciences companies need people across nursing, allied health, lab, and manufacturing roles, yet many students know only a few health careers.
How we help:We introduce the full range of health and biotech careers, the training routes into each, and the people doing the work.
The challenge:Employers need people who can build, secure, and use technology responsibly, and too few students from underserved communities get early exposure.
How we help:Hands-on projects, practical AI literacy, and mentors who show what the work really looks like.
The challenge:Entry-level roles are hard to fill and keep, and many young people see hospitality as a stopgap instead of a career.
How we help:We show students the full career ladder, from the front desk to the general manager’s office, and build the guest-service and teamwork skills employers look for.
The challenge:Design firms need new talent, and few young people from underserved communities ever meet an architect or see how a building comes to life.
How we help:Studio visits, design mentors, and hands-on challenges that build a first portfolio through Design Futures.
The challenge:California’s shift to clean energy and advanced manufacturing needs skilled technicians and engineers, and too few young people know these careers exist or how to start.
How we help:Site visits to plants and labs, hands-on building challenges, and mentors who show the routes into skilled technical work, from certificates to engineering degrees.
We’re exploring collaboration with workforce boards, schools, and public programs that fund youth career preparation, including WIOA-related partnerships. Eligibility and terms vary and are confirmed case by case.
Fund the pathways into your industry, and meet the people you’ll need next. Three ways to work with us, each built around student benefit and measured outcomes.
Fund a named pathway for a year, like an aviation pathway focused on women and pilots of color, or an ocean and maritime pathway for San Diego’s waterfront.
Your industry, your mentors, your site visits
An outcomes report at the end of the year
Built to renew as students move forward
Workforce training contracts
For workforce boards, agencies, and schools
Partner with us to deliver career exploration and job readiness for young adults through public workforce programs.
Career exposure in San Diego’s growing fields
Mentors and hands-on experiences
Clear reporting on participation and progress
Eligibility and terms vary by program and are confirmed case by case.
Employer programs
For hiring teams and HR
Engage your team through things you already budget for: employee mentoring, career days, Behind the Doors visits, and custom training groups.
Volunteering your people remember
Early connections with motivated young people
Community impact you can report
Let’s Connect.
Four quick fields. We’ll follow up to set up a conversation.
Partnerships serve students first. We don’t sell placements or access to young people.
We report outcomes honestly, including what didn’t work.
We name partners publicly only with written permission.
Tax treatment of any sponsorship depends on its terms. Please consult your own advisor.
Dream Big Institute
Our flagship program, where career discovery, AI literacy, mentorship, and real-world experience come together.
Proposed
AI Academy
Workshops that teach students to use AI tools well: asking good questions, checking answers, and building small projects. AI is a tool for their goals, not a replacement for their judgment.
Proposed
Innovation Labs
Team challenges grounded in real problems, with professionals giving feedback and students leaving with work they can show.
Supervised visits to the places where dream careers happen.
Future concept
Dream Big Frontiers
A future home for pathways into fields that are still being invented. This is a direction we’re exploring, not an operating lab or research institute.
Artificial intelligence
Building and governing the tools that will shape work.
Engineering
Robotics, materials, and next-generation infrastructure.
Health innovation
Careers at the edge of care and technology.
Creative technology
Where art, media, and code meet.
Climate
Energy, oceans, and resilient communities.
Stories, told with care.
Student stories will appear here as our programs grow. We share them only with permission, and with a parent or guardian’s consent for anyone under 18.
Have a story to share?
Are you a former Watering Hope participant, mentor, educator, or family member? We’d love to hear how things went.
Watering Hope Dream Big is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in San Diego, California. EIN 93-2219503.
Privacy
Plain language about what this site collects, and what it doesn’t.
What we collect
When you use our contact or campus forms, we ask for your name, email, and your message. We use this only to respond to you. Submissions are processed by our website host, Netlify, and routed to our team.
The Dream Explorer
The Dream Explorer does not require an account, and nothing you type into it is sent to us. If you choose to contact us about a pathway, only the information you enter in the contact form is sent.
Young people
We don’t ask young people for their date of birth, precise location, health information, or other sensitive details. Programs involving minors require appropriate parent or guardian consent.
Sharing
We don’t sell personal information. We never share student information with companies or sponsors without consent.
Accessibility
Everyone deserves to explore their dream. This site should work for you.
We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA. This site is designed to work with keyboards and screen readers, respects reduced-motion settings, adapts to light and dark mode, and uses readable contrast and large touch targets.
If something doesn’t work for you, please tell us, and we’ll fix it or help you another way. Our programs also offer accommodations; ask us anytime.
What’s your dream?
Type what you want to do, or pick a few interests. You’ll see an example pathway you can edit and make your own.
This is a demo with example pathways, not personalized advice or live mentor matching. A real person reviews every step with students in our programs. No account needed, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Explore Design Futures
Explore Global Access
