June 6, 2019 New York, NY –– Today, iMentor announced its expansion to Baltimore, Maryland in partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools. This fall, iMentor, which supports first-generation college students, will launch with Baltimore Design School and the Academy for College and Career Exploration. The growth represents the fourth national site for the college-access program, founded in New York City in 1999. Baltimore non-profit leader Laura Green was tapped to lead the partnership with City Schools.
“We’re honored to partner with Baltimore City Public Schools and take part in the promise of Baltimore. Through conversations with stakeholders across the city, we’ve come to believe that our model will be a powerful addition to the supports for first-generation college goers in Baltimore,” said Mike O’Brien, CEO of iMentor. “We’re thrilled to join the community of organizations supporting talented young people in Baltimore, and I can’t think of a better person to lead us on this next step than Laura Green.”
With over 20 years of corporate, government, and nonprofit experience, Green has created and executed successful comprehensive strategic plans – of which the last nine years have been specifically dedicated to funding, growing, and expanding programmatic support aimed at empowering youth in Baltimore City charter and public schools.
Most recently, as a Project Manager for Convergent NonProfit Solutions, Green has conducted charter school feasibility studies on a national level for clients such as Advance Auto Parts. Laura holds an MPA in Public Administration from Baruch College, NYC and her BS in Political Science from Frostburg State University, Maryland. As a rising philanthropist, she was one of the 2015 Rising Stars honorees recognized by Living Classrooms Foundation and The Baltimore Business Journal.
“I look forward to partnering with corporations, foundations and other civic organizations across Baltimore in providing every young person at our partner schools with a champion for their success. At iMentor, we firmly believe the more people that have positive and high impact experiences with mentoring, the more these people will recruit others and become stronger advocates of all mentoring programs. This work is fulfilling our contract as citizens of this city by directly answering the rallying call to support our young people.” Laura Green, Executive Director, iMentor Baltimore.
iMentor uses a “whole school” approach, pairing every student in partner schools with an adult mentor for at least three years, supporting students from low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions.
“A personal relationship with a mentor can be incredibly powerful for high school students and make an enormous difference in their lives,” said Rachel Pfeifer, City Schools’ executive director for college and career readiness. “Our students deserve the support of a community of champions. We are excited about our partnership with iMentor and look forward to implementing their mentorship model in an initial two schools in the coming school year.”
Between 1973 and 2018, U.S. jobs requiring some college education increased from 28% to 63%. At the same time, the U.S. education system is not adequately resourced to provide the personalized support that students need to build the necessary non-academic skills for success in college and the workforce. Baltimore City Public School’s student-to-counselor ratio is currently at 340 to 1, which makes it incredibly challenging for schools to provide every student with personalized support.
By harnessing the power of mentorship to augment counseling support in schools, iMentor has a track record of dramatically improving college graduation rates among students who are the first in their families to attend post-secondary institution:
- 91% of iMentor students applied to at least one college
- 90% of iMentor students who applied to college were accepted
- 73% of iMentor students enroll in college, compared to 54 percent of their peers from similar schools
- iMentor students are 80 percent more likely to complete college than their peers
About iMentor
iMentor builds mentoring relationships that empower students from low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions. Launched in 1999 with 49 students in a single school in the South Bronx, today iMentor serves more than 9,600 students in 20 cities across the U.S., partnering with public high schools in communities in which a majority of students will be first-generation college graduates. Since 1999, we have matched more than 33,000 students with mentors.
PRESS CONTACT:
Cynthia Olson
Tel: 646-573-9987
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