04/18/23 1www.collegenowgc.org

Mentoring Students Where They Are: Using E-Mentoring as a Retention Tool

www.collegenowgc.org

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WHO IS COLLEGE NOW?

College Now’s mission is to increase college attainment through college access and

success advising, financial aid counseling, and scholarship and retention services.

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WHO IS COLLEGE NOW?• College Now was established in 1966 as Cleveland Scholarship Programs, Inc.

• College Now, our name since 2011, has awarded $62 million in scholarship dollars since our inception 48 years ago.

• Providing college access and success advising, financial aid counseling and scholarship services in 200 schools and community-based venues across Northeast Ohio through outreach and collaboration and at our Resource Center in the Terminal Tower.

• Awarding $2.6 million in renewable scholarships annually to approximately 1,350 students pursuing postsecondary education .

• Offering effective retention services for our scholarship recipients, including a recently launched innovative mentoring program that pairs individuals from the community with our recipients through an interactive online initiative.

College Now does all this on a $9 million budget!

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Increase postsecondary attainment through our layered approach

College Attainment

WHO IS COLLEGE NOW?

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COLLEGE NOW’S SUCCESS

• Our scholarship recipients have a 90% retention rate, compared to 60% nationally for students from low-income backgrounds (retention refers to freshmen returning for their sophomore year).

• Our scholarship recipients have a 63% college graduation rate, which is nearly eight times higher than the 8% national college graduation rate for students from low-income backgrounds (based on six-year graduation rates).

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COLLEGE NOW MENTORING PROGRAM

• Historical overview, past attempts at mentoring programs• Need for a mentoring program for our scholarship

recipients• Start up funding

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• Pilot year– Build out– Goals (increase graduation rates)– Scale up

• Programmatic needs:– Platform (research)

– Budget

– Infrastructure

– Staffing

– Curriculum

– Volunteer and student management

– Expectations for both students (mentees) and mentors

• Goals and Outcomes

COLLEGE NOW MENTORING PROGRAM

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PROGRAM GROWTH PLAN

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Data taken (or estimated*) in first semester of each academic year

* Projected totals

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MENTORING PROGRAM BUDGET

# of pairs 43 187 449 750* 975* 1,100*

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* Projected totals

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SCALING UP, DECREASING COSTS

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* Projected totals

# of pairs 43 187 449 750* 975* 1,100*

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MENTORS AND MENTEES

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PROGRAM STRUCTURE

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PROGRAM STRUCTURE

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ONLINE MENTORING MODEL

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PRELIMINARY RESULTS2011/2012

Cohort2012/2013

Cohort2013/2014

Cohort2014/2015

Cohort

Students in Cohort 43 151 335 310*

Retention Rate (freshman to sophomore) 100% 93%Data

forthcomingData

forthcoming

Persistence Rate (sophomore to junior) 88%Data

forthcomingData

forthcomingData

forthcoming

Percent of Pairs Who Successfully Completed First Year of Mentoring Program

84% 77% 91%Data

forthcoming

Percent of Pairs Who Successfully Completed Second Year of Program

65% 75%Data

forthcomingData

forthcoming

* Projected total

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LESSONS LEARNED & BEST PRACTICES

• Manage volunteer mentor recruitment• Improve continuously on program model • Develop a sustainable funding model• Evaluate to assess impact

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• New partnerships with Cleveland’s business community– Mentors are drawn from over 250 companies

• Engagement opportunities with young professionals– 47% of our mentors are under 35

• Continued engagement with scholarship recipients– 51 of our current mentors are former scholarship recipients

• Expanding board engagement– 14 board members are mentors, and over 240 mentors are from

board companies

• Broadens brand awareness• Attracts new funders and opportunities to collaborate

MANY ADDITIONAL ORGANIZATION BENEFITS

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• AIG

• American Greetings

• Deloitte

• Eaton Corporation

• Ernst & Young

• Key Bank

• Lubrizol Corporation

• Medical Mutual

• Nordson Corporation

• PriceWaterhouseCoopers

• Progressive Insurance

• Sherwin Williams

• University Hospitals

+200 more, and growing!

ENGAGING CORPORATE CLEVELAND

“One of the greatest challenges we face as an employer in this region is attracting and retaining a qualified workforce. College Now continues to work aggressively to close our community’s education gap and prepare students for today’s workforce by increasing the number of Northeast Ohio students who graduate from college. The Mentoring Program is a key component of this effort.”

- Fiona Chambers, Managing Tax Partner at Deloitte, and College Now Board Member

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