Student Success Center

Building Student Success

MAKE THE ROAD NEW JERSEY LAUNCHES NJ’s FIRST YOUTH LED STUDENT SUCCESS CENTER!

In September 2019, In September 2019, via an innovative partnership with the Elizabeth Public Schools (EPS), Make the Road New Jersey (MRNJ) launched New Jersey’s first youth-led Student Success Center (SSC), a peer-to-peer training and support network. The SSC has facilitated college access trainings for thousands of  EPS students district-wide, as well as for students from across the state, and raised the college application and acceptance rate by over 30% at one of Elizabeth’s lowest performing high schools.

HISTORY OF STUDENT SUCCESS CENTER

A survey by Make the Road youth found that more than 85% of EPS students wanted to go to college, but over 60% reported inadequate access to counseling and information about college. MRNJ sought to close this gap and, using as a starting point a model observed in Philadelphia, MRNJ designed the Student Success Center (SSC) to utilize the expertise of community based organizations and the power of youth leadership.

“It was May 2020 and I still hadn’t received my financial aid package. We were in the thick of the pandemic and I couldn’t get on the phone with anyone; I couldn’t commit without it. I had worked with Jason [a College Ambassador] to submit the FAFSA and NJCU’s EOF [Educational Opportunity Fund] application. I texted him and for the next month he worked with me to call through whole directories, get an extension on submitting a deposit, set-up a back-up plan, and finally get in touch with the Office of Financial Aid. Jason reassured me all the while not to give up on my dream of attending NJCU.”

– Pierre F., freshman engineering major at New Jersey City University

THE SSC MODEL

The overarching change strategy of the SSC model is to create a culture of college possibility that permeates a schools’ climate, classrooms, and activities. The SSC is a distinct space (a.k.a. a ‘Drop-in Center’) within a school and the program design is three-tiered:

Youth leaders ) are trained by MRNJ staff, so that they are equipped with the skills, knowledge and attitudes to educate and assist their peers with the college admissions process;

Youth leaders and program staff provide group workshops, trips, and college-awareness programming to all students, all interested parents, and staff/faculty through a regular program series;

Youth leaders and program staff provide 1:1 intensive college advising and financial aid assistance at the Drop-in Center.

Through this three-level approach, we increase the knowledge base, skill set and comfort-level of students, parents and school faculty and thus, raise the expectation that students will go to college. Through the SSC, we provide the key wrap-around services to engage students, faculty, parents, and alumni in transforming the schools’ culture into a college-ready environment.

OVERVIEW OF THE NEW JERSEY’S FIRST-EVER SSC

The The SSC model of putting youth at the center of the college process has generated powerful results. Since the SSC opened in September 2019:

Since its inception, the Student Success Center has provided college readiness and financial aid trainings to tens of thousands of  high school students. The SSC has supported thousands high school seniors to complete their FAFSA and HESSA applications and scholarships. High school seniors from the Elizabeth School District have cumulatively received more than $22 million in grants and scholarships. 

College Ambassadors were featured in Scholastic and NJ.com for their work during the pandemic.

Celebrated multiple college acceptances and full-tuition offers at universities throughout and outside of the state, including Howard University, Stanford University, Kean University, Rutgers University-Newark (including the Honors Living Learning Community), Stevens Institute of Technology, Union County College (including the Nursing Program), and St. Peter’s University.