Helping First-Generation Students Reach College — and Build Community on the Way

The Webfala Digital Skills For All Initiative educates young entrepreneurs in digital literacy, social media, and marketing while encouraging young women to explore careers in STEM.

About “1,500 (High School) students from 75 of the nation’s poorest schools in 35 cities,” are enrolling in college courses in elite universities like Harvard and Columbia through an initiative started by a nonprofit—and succeeding. The aim of the program is to prepare underprivileged students for the rigors of college education, and give them a confidence boost before they enter college. They complete the same coursework as the college students and get a grade. “All of these schools talk this game, ‘We want diversity, but we can’t find these kids,’ and this proves they can build a pipeline."

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.

Through programs across the country, nurses, social workers, or trained mentors offer support to new or expectant parents, imparting skills to help them become better teachers for their children. Through regular home visits with the families, these programs are working to close an achievement gap between rich and poor children that starts as early as just nine months into a child's life.

Lack of reading material is not only a third-world problem – many poor families in the United States lack access to and funds for books. A program that helps get books to into the homes of low-income families can boost literacy, and help publishers, too.

Young Engineers is a STEM education program that helps children build technical skills and knowledge through hands-on activities with a focus on problem-solving. The organization is women-led, and the majority of its 800 participants are girls.

The i-Scholar Initiative is one of a growing number of individual and organizational efforts to support Nigerian students looking to study abroad. The initiative helps fund the cost of international graduate examinations, provides scholarships to fund their education, and connects students to peer mentors who can guide them through the application and admission process.

The Federation of Muslim Women’s Association of Nigeria enrolled 200 children living in Koro Afoju in a primary school near their homes. They covered the families' costs for Parents/Teachers Association levies and they provided the students with uniforms, textbooks, and other learning materials. The children live in a settlement that was established for people who are blind and have largely met their daily subsistence needs by begging on the street. Parents expressed optimism for their children’s opportunity to redefine their futures rather than joining their parents on the street.

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.”

Back in 1988, Bina Sheth Lashkar, started noticing that students who lived in Slums were dropping out at high rates because they had to work to support their families. So, Bina and her colleague created Door Step School.“If children can’t go to the school, let the school come to them.” What began as a class of 25 students has now evolved to 200 centers in Mumbai and Pune, and a schools-on-wheels project.