Michael Carter

2011

Michael Carter

Strive for College

http://www.striveforcollege.org/

Education & Youth Leadership

The Bold Idea:

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.

Organization: Strive’s vision is to build a movement of college students dedicated to creating opportunities for and maximizing the potential of high school students from low-income communities. Strive pairs high school students with trained undergraduates to provide one-on-one support through every step of the college application process. This innovative and cost-effective approach has proven to be both scalable and effective, helping low-income students break out of the cycle of poverty.

Biography:

Moment of Obligation: I transferred from a private to a public high school my junior year, and saw firsthand a lack of resources for college admissions guidance. I helped advise some friends on the process, and started a college counseling mentoring program upon reaching college. The results were tremendous, and upon further research, I found that there were 400,000 low-income students a year who qualified for four-year college, but didn't attend. I sought to change this statistic through expanding the mentoring model to other universities.

Books every social entrepreneur should read: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Favorite Quotes: "Do or do not, there is no try." -Yoda

Related Media:

The Chronicle of Higher Education - Strive for College