Expanding College Access

Students in our Network Schools are graduating at incredible rates, 12 percentage points higher than the citywide average. But we know that high school graduation is just one step on the path to success.  Getting our graduates enrolled in good fit colleges is just as critical, and we’ve been working tirelessly to improve college acceptance, enrollment, and persistence rates over the past several years.

This year, our college access work will be supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who chose us as one of only twenty To & Through Advising Challenge award recipients. Equity in education has long been a priority of the Gates Foundation, and our track record of success in advising low-income black and Latino students made us a perfect fit for this award. In fact, we are one of only 20 grant recipients nationwide, and the only NYC-based organization to earn the award.

As part of our To & Through College program, we work to match all students to good fit colleges, and then we support them in applying to and enrolling in those schools. With this grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we’ll be able to accelerate and deepen our focus on high quality and targeted college advisement for all of our students.

Thanks to this grant, we will

• Participate in a year-long community of practice made up of the other 19 grant recipients, leaders in their own rights;
• Receive individualized coaching and technical assistance from experts in the field;
• Expand our ability to collect and analyze data

To be selected by what is arguably the most well-known and influential foundation in the country as one of twenty grant recipients nationwide is a powerful form of recognition of our To & Through work and a powerful vote of confidence in the effectiveness of that work.

We can’t wait to get started, and will continue to share our progress, our challenges, and our findings as we strive to ensure that all of our students have access to college and are supported in succeeding.

More information about To & Through College programs.