Model and Strategy
The value of a four-year college degree has never been higher, offering assurances of increased earning potential, lower unemployment rates and greater job satisfaction and security. Further, college graduates are offered better career opportunities leading to more meaningful employment and greater upward mobility.
College Track’s Bay Area College Completion Project will empower more than 1,300 students with the tools, resources and skills necessary to be the first in their families to earn a four-year college degree. Students will be provided with college exposure opportunities, best-fit college application support, FAFSA and scholarship application assistance and 1:1 academic advising and mentoring through graduation.
With the Bay Area College Completion Project, College Track will offer comprehensive programming to systematically remove the barriers facing low-income students, preparing them for the academic, financial, and social demands of college, and the workforce of the future.
Impact
College Track’s theory of change is simple: dramatically increasing the numbers of college graduates in underserved communities will create a culture in which college completion becomes the expectation, rather than the exception, thereby maximizing economic opportunity and promoting upward social mobility.
Beginning with 27 students at a single site in East Palo Alto, College Track now serves 2,482 students across nine communities. Building upon the 10-year commitment, our entire network of college graduates and alumni continues to grow exponentially. In 2018 College Track anticipates serving 3,282 students, and by 2020, the organization will empower 4,006 students and celebrate more than 750 total college graduates.
The performance outcomes of our program are proof that, when given the resources, students from all communities are capable of completing a four-year degree. Over the next 10 years, our strategic focus will be to continue to increase our college completion rate, utilizing new and strategic initiatives to ensure we can continue to increase our scale and impact, reach even more communities and students in the Bay.
College Track students are extraordinary, not in spite of their backgrounds, but because they confront unique and distinct challenges that mold them into determined, dynamic agents of change. By providing students with holistic resources and unique opportunities, College Track enables students to identify their purpose and earn their way in to the colleges and careers they deserve.
Leadership
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Elissa Salas
CEO