Couth Opportunity Network™
From Campus to Career. From Athlete to Legacy Builder.
Transforming 200+ approved Handshake™ career-center relationships into a national career, leadership, mentorship, NIL, workforce development, service, and opportunity network — unified across America's leading institutions.
Three institutions. One founder journey.
The Couth Opportunity Network™ is anchored by three institutions tied to the founder's lived journey — Flint origin, Tennessee State leadership, and federal / capital service. Historical connections, not endorsements or formal partnerships unless explicitly approved.
Tennessee State University × Couth
The flagship founder-legacy anchor — undergraduate, graduate, athletic, and leadership home of the founder.
Founder Connection
1 founderDr. Michael D. Johnson Jr. — TSU alumnus, NCAA Division I student-athlete, Mr. Tennessee State University, SAAC President, Magna Cum Laude, master's graduate, former graduate assistant in Student Affairs & Athletics.
Student-Athlete Leadership
16 sportsSAAC leadership, athletic excellence, and the foundation for the athlete-to-leader pathway that defines the Couth Standard.
HBCU Excellence
112 yrsAnchor institution within the HBCU Excellence Network™ — pride, scholarship, and legacy since 1912.
Nashville Ecosystem
12+ TNCentral node of the Tennessee Institutional Corridor™ and the national launch corridor for Couth.
NIL Education Opportunities
All sportsCouth Shield™ NIL policy education tailored to TSU student-athletes.
CHIEF Programming Opportunities
4 tracksFellowships, cohorts, and leadership development through the CHIEF Foundation.
Couth Education Pathways
8 tracksContinuing education, graduate prep, and credentialing aligned with TSU programs.
Couth Careers Opportunities
1,400+ employersInternships, fellowships, and employer pipelines via Handshake™ and Couth Careers™.
Couth Cares Service Initiatives
Year-roundCommunity service projects rooted in Nashville and beyond.
Couth Passport™ Credentials
StackableLifelong leadership credentials for TSU athletes, students, and alumni.
Couth Voice Survey Potential
QuarterlyAthlete-voice data to inform institutional decision-making.
Couth Shield NIL Policy Education
TN-specificJurisdiction-aware NIL guidance for Tennessee student-athletes.
Couth Sports Group Partnership Potential
Future-stateFuture-state collaboration aligned with TSU athletics goals.
Origin, capital, conference, and pro — the full arc.
University of Michigan–Flint
Anchors the founder's Flint origin corridor — the city, community, and education system that shaped the Couth Standard before TSU, the NFL, and federal service.
Howard University
Represents the founder's federal workforce development and higher-education administration chapter — Washington as the policy, capital, and HBCU leadership backdrop.
University of Michigan — Ann Arbor
The Big Ten flagship that completes the founder's home-state corridor — pairing Flint origin with Ann Arbor's national research, athletics, and leadership infrastructure.
NFL Player Engagement
Anchors the founder's NFL chapter — the professional athlete development arc that connects collegiate excellence to lifelong leadership, financial literacy, and post-career identity.
Companion founder anchors reflect personal and professional chapters of the founder's journey. No endorsement, sponsorship, employment, or formal institutional partnership is implied without explicit written approval from the named institution.
Institutional Credibility
Connected across America's leading institutions.
200+ approved career-center relationships across every Power conference, every region, and every type of institution that develops American student-athletes and leaders.
Representative National Anchors
Logo tiles are visual placeholders representing institutional categories within the Handshake™ approved network. Conference affiliations reflect publicly known memberships. No endorsement or formal partnership is implied unless explicitly confirmed.
HBCU Excellence Network™
A dedicated institutional layer for Historically Black Colleges & Universities — leadership, NIL, careers, entrepreneurship, mentorship, scholarship, voice, protection, and storytelling.
Tennessee Institutional Corridor™
Nashville and Tennessee as the launch corridor for Couth's national platform — public, private, faith-based, HBCU, R1, and regional anchors unified into one corridor.
Handshake Integration Layer™
The connective tissue between Couth and the 200+ approved Handshake career centers — sync, import, and webhook-ready architecture with real-time status visibility.
Sync Features
Connection Status · 200 Institutions
Live API or webhook handshake confirmed
Awaiting credential exchange or admin approval
CSV / direct ingest while API is provisioned
Institutional IT review required
Auto-retry queued; ops review in progress
Status indicators reflect institutional integration states. Full live sync activates upon Handshake API credentials being provisioned per institution.
Couth Opportunity Engine™
One feed for every opportunity — matched by Couth AI™ across school, sport, major, and journey stage. Over 16,800+ live opportunities aggregated across the network.
Opportunity Types
AI Match Signals
Couth AI™ combines all 10 signals into a personalized ranking and surfaces the top matches across every opportunity type — refreshed as your Couth Passport™ grows.
Opportunity Coach™
A dedicated AI mode that helps athletes and leaders find, prepare for, and pursue the right next step — without overpromising.
- 01Recommends jobs, internships, fellowships
- 02Recommends mentors and graduate programs
- 03Recommends employers and leadership pathways
- 04Recommends service and NIL opportunities
- 05Explains how to use Handshake
- 06Helps prepare applications
- 07Drafts outreach and follow-up messages
- 08Prepares interview plans
Every connected school has a profile.
A consistent institutional profile structure — 22 fields — applied across all 200+ Handshake-connected career centers.
Official institutional name as registered with the U.S. Department of Education.
Licensed institutional mark rendered per each school's brand guidelines and clear-space rules.
Primary campus city, state, and metro region for geographic search and matching.
Carnegie classification: R1, R2, Liberal Arts, Community, Graduate / Professional, Specialty.
U.S. Census region — Northeast, Midwest, South, West — plus sub-region for corridor mapping.
Funding designation; flags state-system access, tuition tier, and governance model.
Federal MSI status — HBCU, HSI, TCU, AANAPISI, PBI — surfaced as a first-class filter.
NCAA / NAIA division, conference, and sport sponsorship for athlete-specific matching.
Operational state of the institution's career center: active, restructuring, or new build.
Date Couth's Handshake™ relationship was approved for the institution.
Member-controlled flag pinning an institution to dashboards, alerts, and feed priority.
Live jobs, internships, fellowships, NIL, service, and scholarship listings tied to the school.
Alumni and approved mentors in Couth Connect™ associated with the institution.
Employers actively recruiting from the school via Handshake™ or Couth Careers™ pipelines.
Career fairs, info sessions, summits, and Couth Events™ scheduled on or for the campus.
Courses, certifications, and learning paths aligned to the school's majors and programs.
Athlete-voice and student-voice survey instruments active at the institution.
Jurisdiction-aware NIL, safety, and rights-education materials for the school's state and conference.
Stackable badges, hours, and verified credentials earned by members at the institution.
CHIEF fellowships, Couth College™ cohorts, and partnership initiatives hosted with the school.
Active service initiatives, hour tracking, and nonprofit partnerships tied to the campus community.
Athletic-department-facing engagements, branded content, and athlete-development collaborations.
Built From Lived Experience.
The Couth Opportunity Network™ is built by someone who has lived the athlete-to-leader-to-executive pathway — across 9 stages and 3 decades.
Not a job board. National infrastructure.
From campus to career. From athlete to legacy builder.