Mentoring Students to College and Career
CPE 2016 Annual Report
Guiding low-income students to bachelor's degrees and preparing them for the workforce.
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Guiding low-income students to bachelor's degrees and preparing them for the workforce.
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The annual income of a typical CPE student's family is $32,000, placing them in the lowest income quartile.
Read More About Income Quartiles
Percentage of adults who have earned a bachelor’s degree by age 24:
The odds are stacked against low-income students who seek to earn a college degree to improve their life trajectory.
Children from less affluent backgrounds, even high ability children, lack the ‘road maps’ necessary to access college. Their networks fail to provide them and their families with the information they need to find a good, affordable school along with the financial aid for which they are eligible.
White House Task Force on Middle Class Families STAFF REPORT: Barriers to Higher Education
This is where mentoring comes in.
“Growing up, my home was robbed nine times. The robberies further compounded my father’s inability to maintain financial stability. I was shot during an armed robbery as an innocent bystander in my own home in 2010. As a 12-year old, I became despondent.”
Myiah's Henry D. Owen Scholarship Recipient Speech
CPE paired Myiah with her mentor, Ellen Gee, when Myiah was a high school freshman in 2012.
During the time span of Myiah and Ellen’s relationship, CPE has grown from 112 to 333 students.
“CPE allowed me to meet Ellen Gee, a brilliantly beautiful and educated woman. Ellen has read and edited endless essays for me over the years. She’s given me advice and has helped me in ways that I could only seek to return… Ellen has been a friend when I needed one during my most critical growth period.”
Myiah on her mentor, Ellen Gee
This year, Myiah graduated from the SEED School of Washington D.C., and enrolled in Georgetown University. She is one of 92 CPE high school graduates who enrolled in college for the first time in 2016. But our work isn’t done after enrollment.
Ellen will continue to mentor Myiah through her college years at Georgetown.
Even after they enroll in college, CPE students face many barriers in their quest to earn a degree.
“I Had No Idea How Lucky I Was”
Completing college is key to leveling the playing field in an economy where three-quarters of the fastest-growing jobs require postsecondary education or training. Dropping out of college could also leave students saddled with debt, but without the advantage of a degree that could help them get higher-paying jobs, researchers say.
Jessica Mendoza, “College supply list for low-income students: Books, financial aid ... and a mentor”
CPE expanded its 1:1 mentoring program to college students in 2012 to address this gap in college completion.
Since 2013 the Transformers program has grown from 12 students to 155.
“Over the years, I have watched Jaushai grow and mature. During college, we talked at length about what would be best for her, especially with respect to financial aid and job perspectives. I was able to review and comment on her application essays and provide letters of recommendation for school and scholarships.”
Stacia Johnson
“When we talked, it was always focused on academics instead of just socializing over lunch. When I was figuring out how to stay on track in college, Stacia gave realistic options for me on what to do. Stacia knew about it because she went to college herself.”
Jaushai on her mentor Stacia
“Stacia was always a supporter, and we’ve been through a lot, so now that I’m in college, I can’t forget her. She’s just family now.”
CPE has established a Network of Success to support our students through every step of their journey from high school to a bachelor’s degree and into a career.
At the core of CPE is a dedicated group of mentors who are determined to help students succeed.
“My fiancé forwarded me an e-mail about mentoring to see if I wanted to volunteer. The e-mail made me reflect on how mentors have helped me at different points in my life. As a teenager, my home life was difficult and at times lonely. My youth pastor made a particularly strong impression on me. He was cool, smart, and did things that most folks in my family were not doing.”
Damien Savage
Damien helped his mentee Chaz, a high school sophomore, land a summer internship at Microsoft. Now, Chaz is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers and is dreaming about studying video game design at UCLA.
“Chaz is a talented visual artist and loves video games. We are talking about him majoring in engineering. Chaz has the talent, he just needs the push.”
Damien Savage
Mentoring works.
Careful, independent evaluations have shown that formal mentoring can help at-risk kids to develop healthy relations with adults, and in turn to achieve significant gains in academic and psycho-social outcomes…. These measureable effects are strongest when the mentoring relationship is long-term, and strongest for at-risk kids. (Upper class kids already have informal mentors in their lives, so adding a formal mentor does not add so much to their achievement). Measurably, mentoring matters.
Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids (2015)
To make it work, mentoring takes expert staff with experience in education, youth development, and social work.
“I know all too well the disparities our students face in opportunity and support systems, because I faced them too. My mentors at Prep for Prep and Wellesley encouraged and supported me when I needed it most. After six years as a classroom teacher and another eight leading CPE’s programming, I continue to see the magic of mentoring at work every day. It doesn’t just fill in the gaps, it helps our students soar.”
Regina Leslie, CPE Chief Program Officer
Enabling our mentors and staff are partners and funders who make our work possible.
“Our students have too many reasons and life conditions that hinder and pull them down. CPE helps lift our students to see their potential. When you see your potential you can see your future.”
Dr. Louise Jones
Principal
McKinley Technology High School
“Our partnership is based on a mutual passion and commitment to equip the community’s future workforce with the skills to succeed.”
Skills to Succeed at Accenture
Our partners helped us maintain strong program and financial performance in 2016.
And individual donors like you.
333 Students CPE served in 2016, with a goal of serving 400 by 2017.
155 Students enrolled in CPE college program heading into 2017, double the number served last year.
388 Mentors actively engaged with CPE, and we are recruiting more every day.
How will we do all this?
This academic year, CPE began to update our program model with the guidance of research scientists at Child Trends to clearly define our target outcomes and the data collection and evaluation instruments required to ensure our effectiveness.
CPE is fielding more interest from mentors than ever, and we need all of them to help multiply our efforts.
Booz Allen Hamilton will help CPE update our strategic plan to chart a course enabling CPE to serve 1,000 students annually.
CPE will activate a professional network with resources that will deepen exposure to high demand, high wage careers and the skills needed to get there.
Accenture, IBM, and Microsoft are standardizing our case management and digital communications platforms to improve our ability to recruit, manage, track, and communicate with our student-mentor pairs.
CPE is implementing tools and methodologies to better enable our mentors and staff to provide the highest quality programming to our students.
This academic year, CPE began to update our program model with the guidance of research scientists at Child Trends to clearly define our target outcomes and the data collection and evaluation instruments required to ensure our effectiveness.
CPE is fielding more interest from mentors than ever, and we need all of them to help multiply our efforts.
Booz Allen Hamilton will help CPE update our strategic plan to chart a course enabling CPE to serve 1,000 students annually.
CPE will activate a professional network with resources that will deepen exposure to high demand, high wage careers and the skills needed to get there.
Accenture, IBM, and Microsoft are standardizing our case management and digital communications platforms to improve our ability to recruit, manage, track, and communicate with our student-mentor pairs.
CPE is implementing tools and methodologies to better enable our mentors and staff to provide the highest quality programming to our students.
There is much to be done. We cannot do it alone. Our work is…
Our students need more than information to earn college degrees. They need people like you who care about them and their futures.
Join the CPE Network of Success.
Thank you for your support!
