We are pleased to announce that Venture Philanthropy Partners (VPP) has entered into an investment partnership with College Summit, a dynamic organization whose mission is to increase the college enrollment rate of low-income students by ensuring that every student who can make it in college makes it to college, and by putting college access “know-how” and support within the reach of every student.
During the first phase of this investment partnership, VPP will provide up to $450,000 in funding and strategic assistance to help College Summit address the college access needs of high school students from low-income families throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area. While College Summit is a national organization, VPP’s support will be focused on the College Summit DC Metro organization, enabling them to build out their leadership and fully develop their organizational capacity. Later investment phases will help College Summit prepare and implement an outcomes-driven, regionally-based business plan, develop the operating capacity to manage rapid scaling throughout the region to increase annual student enrollment 12-fold over four years (from 250 to 3,000), facilitate the building of partnerships with local school systems (including charter schools) and college and universities, and leverage other college access assets in support of College Summit’s aspirations.
College Summit was founded in 1993 by J.B. Schramm, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Divinity School who was directing a teen center in the basement of a low-income housing project in Washington, DC. J.B. was alarmed by the large number of talented, motivated, and college-capable teens not enrolling in college. As he worked to solve this problem he was reminded of his own inner-city high school in Denver where many talented students from low-income families did not go to college because they lacked parental or school-based support to manage the many pieces of the college transition process. Having worked as a freshman advisor while in graduate school, J.B. knew that college admissions officers throughout the country were aggressively searching and competing for talented low-income and diverse students to enter their freshman classes. Mobilizing the support of a Harvard University writing instructor and a community youth worker, J.B designed a college transition system to help all capable talent in a low-income school make the transition to college, the first step toward a brighter future for students who are often the first in their families to do so. This led to the creation of College Summit, a national organization headquartered in Washington, DC with significant operations in the District, California, Illinois, Colorado, and West Virginia. As it refines and grows its programmatic reach in these existing regions, serving thousands more students, College Summit is also in the midst of a new round of site expansion into prospective communities across the country.
The results are remarkable. College Summit is helping close the college enrollment gap, making access to post-secondary education a reality in communities nationwide. Since 1993, College Summit has trained more than 700 teachers from more than 100 public high schools, held more than 120 summer workshops on college campuses serving over 5,000 students from ten states and DC, and its participants have earned in excess of $40 million in college scholarships. College Summit was identified by the US Department of Education (Office of Civil Rights), as one of only a small number of innovative approaches nationwide to effectively address diversity issues in post-secondary education. Historically, College Summit participants are 50% African American, 35% Latino, 10% Native American and 2% Caucasian with an average high school GPA of 2.8.
College Summit provides a combination of tools and approaches aimed at changing the culture of high schools and creating new norms among students so that they value a college degree, and truly believe it is within their reach. These resources include the College Summit proprietary on-line application management tool, CSNet; teacher training to fill the role that college-experienced parents play for their children in middle-class communities; the “Navigator” curriculum for high school seniors; an “Educator’s Navigator” manual for teachers; intensive 4-day college application and transition workshops; a peer leader and alumni development program; youth facilitators; and an ever expanding network of school district and college/university partners.
Sending a child to college is one of the surest ways to end the cycle of poverty within a family. The college graduate will make $1 million more over a lifetime, and his or her children will be nearly twice as likely to go to college themselves. College Summit is demonstrating that this solution is not only possible, but also sustainable and scalable. The impact of the College Summit model also provides the foundation to change the conversation in this country about who does and doesn’t go to college—and opens up a system whose doors have been long closed to many talented youth in the Washington, DC area and all over the nation.
Excited about working with VPP, J.B. said “partnering with VPP will allow College Summit to achieve its long held aspiration of helping the many capable students in Washington metropolitan area high schools realize their dream of attending college. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to benefit from the experience and support of the VPP team, and to expand our efforts to reach 3,000 students each year in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.”
College Summit has very strong leadership in J.B., who is highly regarded for his committed and effective management, and whose track record at the national level has led to considerable long-term investments from New Profit, Inc., the Skoll Foundation, and the Samberg Family Foundation. For his skill in conceiving the College Summit solution and creating an effective organization to implement it, J.B. was one of the first four North Americans named to the Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurs (2000), and received the highest award in the field of college access from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (2001). And for the second year in a row, Fast Company Magazine (with Monitor Group) has named College Summit one of the “Top 25 Organizations Changing the World.” In addition, the organization has an impressive Board of Directors, chaired by Dean Furbush, the CEO of FreshDirect, LLC. We are excited to work with J.B., Dean and the rest of the Board, as well as the dedicated management team and passionate staff of College Summit.
Please join me in congratulating VPP team members Steve Seleznow, Shirley Marcus Allen, and Eleanor Rutland, and College Summit’s board and leadership team for making this partnership a reality. Please visit the VPP and College Summit websites to learn more about College Summit.
VPP board and investors can access private documents on the VPP partnership with College Summit, including the Investment Agreement, in the secure area of the VPP website. If you need assistance accessing the secure area, please contact Suzy Twohig at stwohig@morino.org.
My best, Mario
VPP is a nonprofit philanthropic investment organization that provides growth capital and strategic assistance to high potential community-based organizations serving the core developmental, learning, and educational needs of children of low-income families in the National Capital Region. VPP is incorporated as a nonprofit public charity and operates as a support organization to the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region.