Hi, I’m Nick Carney.
I’m a PhD student and former teacher. Boundless is a passion project rooted in my own experience—where the careers I could imagine were limited to what I saw around me. Through Boundless, I hope to expand what’s possible for students by helping them discover pathways they may not have known were accessible.
Our Board of Directors
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Nick Carney is the Founder, Program Director, and President of the Board for Boundless. He is a classroom educator at heart, with experience teaching science in Missouri, Florida, and Colorado. Nick is currently completing his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Denver, where his work focuses on equitable access to learning opportunities and student agency.
Nick’s vision for Boundless is grounded in his own experience growing up in rural Missouri, where access to educational opportunity was often limited by geography and circumstance. These experiences continue to shape his commitment to expanding what students believe is possible for their futures.
Through Boundless, Nick works to design programs that broaden students’ awareness of post-secondary pathways and strengthen their confidence in pursuing them. He believes that meaningful exposure, reflection, and mentorship can help ensure that a student’s background does not define the boundaries of their ambition.
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Jesse Wood serves as Deputy Juvenile Officer for the 27th Judicial Circuit of Missouri, where he works with youth, families, schools, and community partners to promote accountability, improve outcomes for at-risk youth, and strengthen family stability. With nearly 10 years in social services and public safety, Jesse has led and supported initiatives that have expanded collaboration between schools, mental health providers, juvenile justice agencies, and community organizations to improve access to services and educational opportunities for rural youth.
He brings expertise in juvenile justice, youth advocacy, and community collaboration to Boundless’s Board. Active in the West Central Crisis Intervention Team Council, where he served as Vice Chair and currently as Treasurer, Jesse also serves on a legislative committee with the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association, focused on juvenile justice and child welfare related legislative matters.
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Melinda Becker grew up in Northwest Kansas and attended a small rural high school. She completed undergraduate at Yale after matching through a non-profit program called Questbridge and is now an Internal Medicine resident physician at the University of Colorado. Through working with Boundless, she hopes to help current rural high schoolers gain exposure to similar career paths at an earlier age.
Our Approach
We are currently working in our first year of the program. Our goal is to gather data, refine our program, and achieve formal non-profit status. Our program was shaped by the work of several researchers and educational theorists such as Sonja Ardoin, Alexander Thomas, and Paulo Freire.
Core Principals
Our program is designed with three interconnecting principals:
1. Generate Awareness
2. Facilitate Reflection
3. Guide Action
