CollegeSummit :: Partnerships

Partnerships

We would like to acknowledge the continued support of our partner schools, agencies and colleges that help make our accomplishments possible.

Accomplishments

• 4,300+ Metro Denver low-income youth served, to date.
• Over the last two years, College Summit high schools across the country have raised their school-wide college enrollment rates by more than 15% over their own baselines, while the college enrollment rate for low-income students nationwide rose by only 4%.

Substantiation of Need

The educational challenges facing disadvantaged youth are of grave concern in Colorado – only six states have worse high school dropout rates in the nation according to the U.S. Census. Approximately 10% of teens ages 16-19 in the state are neither enrolled in school nor high school graduates, and almost half of these youth are unemployed. This college access gap is often closely associated with intergenerational cycles of poverty and its myriad consequences:

Colorado’s high dropout rate equals at least $3.4 billion in lost earning potential each year. A Bachelor’s degree will net an individual 40% more in earnings versus a high school diploma. [Institute for Higher Education and the Economy]
Poverty in households headed by college graduates is one-tenth that of households headed by high school dropouts.
Teen dropouts are more likely to experience substance abuse, delinquency, injury, and unintended pregnancy; Adult dropouts face under- or unemployment, poverty, and poor health [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People 2010 report, 2007]
29% of children live in poverty in the Denver area (compared with the national average of 18%).
68% of imprisoned Americans do not complete high school and 86% have no college experience.
Children from families with annual incomes below $15,000 are over 25 times more likely to experience abuse/neglect than children from families with annual incomes above $30,000.

Many College Summit-Colorado student participants live in communities with high rates of poverty and low levels of educational attainment. Most college-capable students in these communities do not believe they are “college material” because they lack a culture with the inherent expectation of college attendance. And, with college counselor-to-student ratios at 580:1 (far exceeding the 250:1 U.S. Dept. of Education recommendation) in Colorado’s large public high schools, the guidance for youth who could thrive in college is virtually nonexistent. Such circumstances perpetuate poverty and create barriers to college enrollment.

According to the Colorado Children Campaign’s most recent Children At Risk study:

Despite positive economic statistics, 30 percent of Colorado’s children are at-risk of failing to achieve their academic potential, dropping out of school, and/or being unprepared for college and the workplace.
Colorado’s high dropout rate translates into at least $3.4 billion in lost earning potential each year.
Of this year’s high school freshmen only one in five will go on to earn a postsecondary credential within six years.
Students of color across our state are actually more likely to drop out of high school than they are to graduate—only six other states have higher secondary school dropout rates.
Colorado ranks 48th in the nation in terms of college access for minorities.
Fewer than one in three of Colorado’s young adults (ages 18 to 24) pursue education and training beyond high school.
Fewer still complete a postsecondary degree.
The gap in college participation between whites and minority ethnic groups has widened over the past several years.

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Colorado Children’s Campaign, 2007 Kids Count.
Institute for Higher Education and the Economy
Kids Count 2008
U.S. Department of Justice
The Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect

List of Supporters

Phil Gonring, Senior Program Officer, Rose Community Foundation: “In my 11 years as a program officer, I have had the privilege of working with a number of nonprofits that on a daily basis make the lives of children and youth better than they might otherwise be. College Summit is no exception. College Summit is unique, however, because it not only transforms the lives of the individuals with whom it works with, it also transforms school systems, making College Summit the ideal nonprofit for savvy investors who not only want to touch individual lives but also change entire systems.

Jeff Peierls, The Peierls Foundation, Inc.: "Seeing and hearing from the students at the Let Talent Shine banquet in July was truly moving. After overcoming more than their share of challenges already, here they were rising to the new challenge of pursuing a college education. Although for some of these students, that night may have been the first time to be honored and recognized, I have to believe that for many of them, it will mark but the first of a series
of such honors throughout their lives."

College Summit-Colorado is grateful to the following corporations and foundations who support our work in Colorado.