Several community partners are working closely with Cincinnati Public Schools to help assure that all students are prepared to navigate the ins and outs of getting into college.
Goal No. 2 of CPS’ new strategic plan) — “Building Futures…Every student…Every school…Every day” — calls for all students to graduate and be prepared for postsecondary education. Backing up the in-the-classroom efforts to reach this goal is the use of community resources to help all students with the work of getting accepted into colleges and universities.
Talks with parents and students showed that many sought more detailed information about how to apply to colleges and how to figure out the complicated financial-aid processes, said William Russell, vice president for college access with the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (CYC), one of the partners working with CPS.
CYC joins numerous other community partners such as GearUp and Project GRAD in the goal of providing college-access services to all CPS students. The partners plan to establish one-stop college-access offices on all high school campuses, providing such services as academic and career advising, application assistance, tours of college campuses, financial-aid application assistance, scholarship searches and preparation for college-entrance tests. Two pilot offices have been opened, on the Shroder and Western Hills campuses.
The GearUp program, which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, serves about 3,900 students in grades 6-11 at 25 Cincinnati Public Schools. It provides such assistance as tutoring, after-school Homework Clubs and summer camps to help students be prepared for academic success.
CYC also provides the Educational Talent Search (ETS) to link students starting at age 11 with college, career and financial-aid information, and the College COACH program, which brings college students into CPS’ high schools to talk with juniors and seniors about how to be successful in college, financial-aid options and more.