Mission and History | CPE Values | Board | Staff | Jobs with CPE

Mission
For the last fifteen years, Capital Partners for Education (CPE) has been effectively improving the futures of low-income, high achieving youth by helping them receive a quality education, graduate from high school, and attend college. CPE is the only youth organization in the Washington Metropolitan area that provides students with a combination of private high school scholarships, adult mentors, and academic support and enrichment opportunities. CPE students come from families with average incomes of $28,000 per year.  The majority of CPE students live in the District of Columbia; 96% are students of color and 80% live with just one parent. 

History
Capital Partners for Education (CPE) began in 1993 as the vision of its founders, Ambassador Henry D. Owen and Theodore A. Schwab. Owen and Schwab sought to help low-income youth in the Washington, DC area gain greater access to a quality education. In that first year, Owen, then a senior advisor to Smith Barney, and Schwab, a financial consultant with Smith Barney provided six students with partial scholarships to private high schools. Since then, CPE has grown and evolved into a dynamic college preparatory scholarship and mentoring program that has established itself firmly in the Washington, DC area.

To date, CPE has provided nearly 400 students with viable alternatives to low-performing public schools.  Seventy-four percent of CPE students graduate from their high school in four years and enroll in college, compared to 29% of D.C. public school students.  For the past three years, 100% of CPE’s graduating seniors have gone on to college.  Currently, CPE is serving 132 students in 20 partner private high schools over the 2009-2010 school year.