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Mentoring Students to College and Career

CPE 2016 Annual Report

Guiding low-income students to bachelor's degrees and preparing them for the workforce.

Our Mission & Impact

The Challenge

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:

9% Lowest Income Quartile
vs
77% Highest Income Quartile

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

Read the Report

This is where mentoring comes in.

A group of students

Meet Myiah

“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

Read Myiah's Full Speech

97% of CPE high school graduates enroll in college immediately after high school
Myiah
Myiah at Georgetown
Ellen
Myiah's Mentor, Ellen Gee

CPE paired Myiah with her mentor, Ellen Gee, when Myiah was a high school freshman in 2012.

Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person
Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person
Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person Person
2016: 333 Students

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.

Myiah

We All Know College Matters

65% Percentage of jobs in the Washington D.C. region that will require a post-secondary credential by 2020
21% Percentage of first-generation to college students in the lowest income quartile who will earn a bachelor’s degree within six years of enrolling
but
10% Percentage of all bachelor’s degrees awarded to students in the lowest income quartile.

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”

Read the Article

CPE expanded its 1:1 mentoring program to college students in 2012 to address this gap in college completion.

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Meet Jaushai

Person Person Person Person Person
Person Person Person Person Person
Person Person Person Person Person
2016: 155 Students

Since 2013 the Transformers program has grown from 12 students to 155.

74 colleges and universities attended by 155 current Transformer students

“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

Learn More About What Our Mentors Do

“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

Read More of Jaushai's Story

“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.”

Jaushai and Stacia
Jaushai and Stacia
80% of students enrolled in CPE’s college mentoring program remain on-track to graduate on time

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.

Student and mentor

Our Network of Success

At the core of CPE is a dedicated group of mentors who are determined to help students succeed.

Mentor and student
Dipti (mentor) & Deborah (student)
Mentor and student
Terence (mentor) & Rudy (student)
Mentor and student
Alex (mentor) & Chloe (student)
Mentor and student
Phillip (student) & Torren (mentor)
Student and mentor

Meet Damien

Damien and Chaz
Chaz & Damien at CPE’s Cap & Gown Celebration

“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

Read More of Damien's Story

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

Learn How to Become a Mentor

2 Minimum number of years volunteer, college-educated mentors commit to mentoring a CPE student
85% Percentage of CPE mentor / mentee relationships that last more than two years
1998 Cumulative hours volunteered each month by all CPE mentors, who agree to weekly contact with CPE students
388 Number of available mentors for 333 CPE students

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)

Read about Robert Putnam

To make it work, mentoring takes expert staff with experience in education, youth development, and social work.

Student and mentor

Staff

Khari Brown Chief Executive Officer
Regina Leslie Chief Program Officer
Joe Figini Chief Operating Officer
Olga Berzina Office Manager
Emma Bloksberg-Fireovid Operations & Partnerships Manager
Demetrius Daniel Program Coordinator
Christopher Lockwood Program Coordinator
Hunter Douglas Development & Communications Coordinator
Isha Tohill Program Coordinator
Justine Quintana Program Coordinator
Jordan Alexander Admissions Associate
Yuanyuan Gong Evaluation Associate
Rianne Bonner Volunteer Associate

Board

Theodore A. Schwab
Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus
Founding Partner & Managing Director Steward Partners Global Advisory
The Honorable Mary K. Bush
Board Chair
President & Founder Bush International, LLC
Carol Adelman, Ph.D. Director The Hudson Institute Center for Global Prosperity
John A. Bates Partner Potomac Equity Partners
Mary Ellen Callahan Partner Jenner & Block, LLP
Gina Coburn
Renee DeVigne Associate Dean The George Washington University Law School
Bill Dodge
Elliott L. Ferguson, II CEO Destination, DC
J. Warren Gorrell, Jr. CEO Emeritus and Partner Hogan Lovells
Wanda Hill
Lloyd Howell, Jr. Executive Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer Booz Allen Hamilton
Marijke Jurgens-Dupree
Stacey Martin Group Vice President, Human Resources Travelport
Sandy Meredith President The Meredith Group
Dora Richardson
Charles O. Rossotti Senior Advisor The Carlyle Group
Ambassador Michael M. Wood Chairman Redwood Investments, LLC
CPE staff

Meet Regina

Regina
Chief Program Officer Regina Leslie with mentee Wynter
85 years of total staff experience in mentoring, youth development, education, 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.

Students

Meet Our Partners

Dr. Jones
Dr. Louise Jones of McKinley Tech

“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
Accenture
Ernie Cordova & Tyler Frederick of Accenture

Our partners helped us maintain strong program and financial performance in 2016.

School Partners
Foundations
Corporate Funders
In-kind Donors

D.C. Public Schools

Benjamin Banneker Academic High School
Eastern High School
McKinley Technology High School
Ron Brown College Preparatory High School
Woodrow Wilson High School

D.C. Public Charter Schools

Capital City Public Charter School
E.L. Haynes Public Charter School
KIPP DC: College Preparatory
Paul Public Charter School

D.C.-Area Private Schools

Academy of the Holy Cross
Bishop McNamara High School
Bishop O’Connell High School
DeMatha Catholic High School
Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School
Elizabeth Seton High School
Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School
Gonzaga College High School
Our Lady of Good Counsel High School
The Assyst Fund
The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
The Ceres Foundation
Clark Charitable Foundation
The Community Foundation of the National
Capital Region
Deerbrook Charitable Trust
The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation
The Hanley Foundation
Harman Family Foundation
Hattie M. Strong Foundation
The Herb Block Foundation
Corina Higginson Trust
Hillsdale Fund, Inc.
International Monetary Fund Civic Program
Invest in Others Charitable Foundation
The Ruth H Kemp Memorial Foundation
Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod Family
Foundation
Mary and Daniel Loughran Foundation, Inc.
The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation
Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation
Pitney Bowes Foundation
Scheidel Foundation
Select Equity Group
The Sunrise Foundation
The Volgenau Foundation
Webber Family Foundation
Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Bloomberg L.P.
The Boeing Company
Booz Allen Hamilton
The Boston Consulting Group
CGI Group, Inc.
CITI Community Development
Clark Construction
Crowell and Moring Foundation
Elevate
EY
Five Star Quality Care Inc.
GEICO Philanthropic Foundation
Genetech, Inc.
Hanley Wood
Host Hotels and Resorts
ICF International
The Merck Foundation
Science Applications International Corporation
T. Rowe Price Foundation, Inc.
United Business Technologies
The Walmart Foundation State Giving Program
Winston Partners
Xanthus Design
Accenture has led the effort to design and build CPE’s case management system and online applications in Salesforce, all on a pro bono basis.
Bloomberg counsels CPE students on careers through its Bloomberg StartUp program.
Booz Allen Hamilton donates consulting services to CPE to update CPE’s strategic plan to include analysis of work performed by peer organizations.
Deloitte donates the time of their consultants to provide CPE students with free SAT preparation classes.
Hogan Lovells provides CPE with pro bono legal services on a range of issues, including governance, employment, non-profit compliance, and privacy.
IBM donates consulting services to CPE to help CPE diagnose communications issues with mentors and students and develop a digital communications roadmap.
OPX donated architecture and design services to CPE to help redesign CPE’s existing office space to accommodate more staff and students.
Microsoft donates enterprise software to CPE and consulting services to help CPE migrate its office IT infrastructure to Office365
Savills Studley represents CPE in all real estate matters on a pro bono basis, facilitating discussions with CPE’s landlord on all office space issues.

And individual donors like you.

Career fair

Upping Our Game in 2017

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?

1

Refining Our Program Design

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.

2

Recruiting More Mentors Than Ever Before

CPE is fielding more interest from mentors than ever, and we need all of them to help multiply our efforts.

3

Renewing our Strategic Plan

Booz Allen Hamilton will help CPE update our strategic plan to chart a course enabling CPE to serve 1,000 students annually.

4

Reinforcing Career Preparation

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.

5

Enhancing our Technology Infrastructure

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.

6

Retooling Our Staff And Mentors

CPE is implementing tools and methodologies to better enable our mentors and staff to provide the highest quality programming to our students.

1

Refining Our Program Design

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.

2

Recruiting More Mentors Than Ever Before

CPE is fielding more interest from mentors than ever, and we need all of them to help multiply our efforts.

3

Renewing our Strategic Plan

Booz Allen Hamilton will help CPE update our strategic plan to chart a course enabling CPE to serve 1,000 students annually.

4

Reinforcing Career Preparation

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.

5

Enhancing our Technology Infrastructure

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.

6

Retooling Our Staff And Mentors

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…

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Rooted In Relationships

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!

Student and mentor