Michael Carter

  • Strive for College

  • 2011 Global Fellow

Michael Carter
  • Strive for College

  • 2011 Global Fellow

bold idea

Break the cycle of poverty by helping low-income students get into and attend a four-year college using an affordable, scalable network of “near-peer” mentors—well-trained undergraduate students with similar backgrounds.

Personal Bio

Michael Carter founded Strive for College in his freshman year of college, and since then has grown Strive into a national movement with chapters at college campuses across the country. Michael raised over $200,000 during the recession and hired his first full-time employee for Strive while he was a junior in college. He also studied at Oxford University in England, and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.. While in college, Michael taught at-risk middle school youth during the summer, ran the initial Strive model at his university, interned for a venture capital firm and Google, and did public policy research and analysis at American Enterprise Institute. He wrote his senior honors thesis on a history of admissions to elite universities in the US and UK. He received a full-tuition merit scholarship to attend Washington University in St. Louis as an Annika Rodriguez Scholar. Michael graduated cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in May, 2010. Michael’s work with Strive has been featured widely in the media, including Forbes, and he has spoken on various panels, including at the Brookings Institution.Michael strives for a day when college students across the country mobilize to ensure that all qualified, underserved high school students who have earned the right to go to college and achieve their dreams.

  • Organization/Fellow Location ?

    Our most recent information as to where the Fellow primarily resides.

    Austin, United States

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    Nonprofit

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