Meridian brings executives and students together in person, by field.
Three Parts of Meridian
The Conference
November 14 at UCLA. Executives from every field come to get to know you.
Hackathon-Style Events
Executives from one field and student teams working the same challenge side by side.
Matching Software
Software that connects each student with opportunities nearby that fit their circumstances, values, and goals.
Every event brings executives from one field together with students, and everyone who attends joins the Meridian network. Each event adds to the next.
College and networking were supposed to open doors, and instead the goalposts keep moving further out. Meridian exists to reverse gatekeeping. We bring students into the same room as the people in their field, in person, and make that an ongoing part of what we do.
Jaxton Wright
Founder. Junior, Honors Economics, UC Berkeley.
Jaxton Wright is from Oxnard, California, and studies Honors Economics and Political Science at UC Berkeley. In July 2025, he gave a speech at Harvard, and afterward he created Meridian, which brings executives and students together in person, by field. Meridian starts with a conference on November 14, where executives get to know students and each one is looking to help with opportunities they manage. The day includes a demo day for student founders and researchers and a design lab led by NASA engineers. Starting November 14, Meridian creates hackathon-style events by field, beginning with engineering, pre-med, and business. Each brings executives from that field together with students from across Los Angeles campuses, with student teams working the same challenge side by side, and everyone who attends joins the Meridian network.
A team across UCLA, USC, and UC Berkeley.
Carisa Gonzales
USC Lead Coordinator
USC
Senior
Business, USC Marshall, emphasis in Leadership and Innovation
George Leis
Chairman, YMCA of the USA, and President, CalPrivate Bank
George was the first person to believe in this conference and in the student building it. He put in the first $1,000, which is what made the first event possible at all.
He has never treated it as a donation and walked away. Every time Jaxton is in town they meet, without exception, and he was there at his high school graduation.
The General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation funds Meridian and the aerospace design lab.