$12,443 of $200,000 raised.
Things hadn’t quite clicked at Coolidge. We know that culture gets built when a core group of tutors buys into our programs. And, as important, it gets built when tutors make friends from other Reach schools. When teens start opting into the full Reach community, good things happen. We had some promising tutors at Coolidge, but we didn’t yet have a true cohort.
Then, Arieanna signed up for our Summer Leadership Academy (SLA). During the summer of 2018, we had zero tutors from Coolidge. But, in 2019, five of fifty SLA participants were from Coolidge. None of them dove more fully into the Reach community than Arieanna. And, something clicked.
This year, at Coolidge, we’ve seen increased enrollment and improved retention. We had only two tutors earn promotions in our first two years at Coolidge. In our first three months of this third year, three tutors have earned promotions (including Arieanna) and four more are eligible next month.
Something’s different at Coolidge.
And now, when Arieanna is offered an opportunity to prepare for her future, she is #AlwaysThere. She’s got a professional head shot, she’s practiced interview skills, and she attended a professional development session on professional communications.
And then, we saw her Q1 report card.
Once Arieanna saw her future, she began to work harder toward it! During the first quarter of 11th grade, her GPA was a full point above her GPA from her first two years of high school (on a four-point scale!). She’s putting herself in position to succeed in high school and beyond.
Arieanna took a leap last summer. And, because she was #AlwaysThere for every opportunity presented, we have seen cohort-level improvements in our work at Coolidge. Her success is just beginning.
All this month, we will be sharing stories about members of the Reach community that are #AlwaysThere for the organization and those we serve. Arieanna is an 11th grade student at Coolidge Senior High School.
Make a gift here to support our 2020 #AlwaysThere campaign.