A College Program for Disadvantaged Teens Could Shake Up Elite Admissions

Students who are new to America or lack college-educated parents often don’t know their options. Increasing transparency about financial aid systems and encouraging students to strive for competitive schools are some of the ways that first-generation citizens can get a university education.

Amy Edelstein thought that if high school students knew how to meditate they could learn how to focus, stay on track, and regulate negative self-talk. They could become better. So, in 2014 she started the Inner Strength Foundation to provide public schools with research-backed mindfulness curriculum. The curriculum has become a 12-week program, with instructors visiting classrooms in 19 schools across the city once a week.

Ethnic Azeri students face disproportionate barriers in achieving university education compared to Georgians. One of those reasons is due to language barriers. Isolated from Georgian society, it's not uncommon for Azeri communities to not speak Georgian fluently. The center has now expanded into a network of multiple centers. One center serves as many as 160 children. It’s working. Some of the centers had a 100% success rate in helping Azeri students enter college.

The ecosystem of D.C. charter schools that has evolved over the last two decades represents a cornucopia of creative and nontraditional approaches to education, in addition to fairly traditional college-prep schools, and is now producing some of the highest graduation rates, college acceptance rates, and average test scores in public schools in the nation.

Yonkers Partners in Education offers free SAT test prep and college guidance counselors in Yonker's high schools. The program aims to increase college enrollment rates for low-income students who lack the same access to expensive tutors and courses as their afluent peers.

Educational nonprofit OneGoal has proven that its model of education helps provide low-income students in Chicago and Houston with the tools needed to pursue a college degree. Now, the nonprofit hopes to improve the college graduation rate in New York City by assisting high school students in understanding the basic techniques to achieve success.

Under the Obama administration, the Promise Neighborhoods initiative was launched. It granted over $430 million in multiyear grants to nonprofits across 17 cities. The success of these grants have been difficult to measure. Two of the programs that were awarded grants highlight the differences in communities, and how success can’t be measured one way, but across a spectrum. “These first five years are like finding yourself,” said Lepore. “It’s an opportunity to find out what’s working, what isn’t and what we need to invest in.”

Students at Provine High School will soon be able to open up accounts with Hope Credit Union, right in their own hallway. The partnership is helping students realize that having a relationship with a financial institution can create a more stable financial future, breaking the cycle of poverty.

Community colleges were originally designed to be affordable and accessible, yet the myriad pressures on students means that the best intentions often don’t lead to positive results. But the University of Central Florida and its partners are proving a new model called DirectConnect—heavy on individual attention and clear academic goals—that paves a surer path.

A nonprofit organization, the Internationals Network for Public Schools, delivers a first-class education to the children of illegal immigrants, helping to break the cycle of poverty and provide them a path to advance in life.