Our partnerships are expanding! This fall marks our third cohort of students who are recruited from the Steppingstone Foundation and our first cohort of students from the Student Support Services Program (SSSP) at Brandeis University. We are now interviewing the Brandeis students and, based on their interests and preferences, the students will be selecting their coaches in the next few weeks. We look forward to working with all of our new students while continuing to support our second cohort of Steppingstone Scholars who are now in their senior year of college at UMass Boston, UMass Amherst, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern University, and Case Western Reserve University.
Thanks to our partnership with Encore Boston Network (EBN) as well as personal and professional networks, we’ve recruited some wonderful new coaches. EBN organized and facilitated a panel discussion in late July for their members and the interested public on coaching opportunities available with FirstGen Ahead. Many thanks to EBN’s Board Vice Chair, Pat Chadwick, for facilitating the session and Coach Viola Morse and BU Senior Selina Li for sharing their FirstGen Ahead experiences. You’ll be reading about our new coaches in future issues of FirstGen Ahead’s newsletter.
After two years of testing our one-on-one coaching, peer support, and project-based learning model, we are ready to expand to help meet the need for comprehensive career support for first-generation college students. Our growth plan is through partnerships with colleges and universities in the Greater Boston area as well as foundations and not-for-profits in Massachusetts advancing educational equity. FirstGen Ahead is most thankful for Steppingstone Foundation’s fiscal sponsorship until we receive our 501(c)3 status. We will soon begin forming our Board and will report out on developments in future newsletters.
In the meantime, we’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish by supporting first-generation students to transition from college to career. We’re also excited to positively impact more first-generation students through our growing partnerships.
Susan Gershenfeld, PhD
