What We Do
Rise Together increases limited-income college-bound high school students’ post-secondary school enrollment and college graduation rate by bolstering academic engagement, financial literacy, personal leadership skills and emotional wellness practices. We assemble teams of college mentors who work individually and in small groups alongside 11-12th grade students to build relationships that bridge economic and cultural divides. Rise Together's Pathways program cultivates empowered leaders and stewards for equity in education. The Pathways Program is remote and therefore accessible to students and college mentors around the country.
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Rise Together's Community Engagement Programs foster connection, growth and shared responsibility. Rise Together partners with high schools, colleges and universities to implement a community engagement program. Teams of college mentors meet with 20-30 high school students every week for 1-2 hours at a time. Rise Together programming facilitates students in brainstorming, planning and implementing a community project. Students and mentors are position at the forefront of programming to develop leadership and collaboration skills. Many high school and college students write/ talk about their community projects in college applications and interviews.
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Rise Together collaborates with educators, individuals/families, businesses, institutions, and fellow-non profits to provide targeted consulting in the form of sessions, workshops, curriculum development/ alignment, and webinars/ presentations. Topics include: 1) Supporting students with learning differences through college admissions, 2) Aspiring student athlete NCAA requirements, 3) College Admissions knowledge and support, 4) Identification of financial Aid/ Scholarships, 5) Near-peer mentoring, 6) Adaptive social and emotional learning. Additionally, Rise Together works with universities, districts, and organizations striving to better implement their existing programming efforts.
Four Main Pillars
Rise Together program directors and mentors provide intensive guidance that walks students through the competitive and overwhelming admissions process. In our Pathways and Community Engagement programs, near-peer mentors assist high school students in creating a comprehensive college list, editing essays/ resumes, interview preparation, and QuestBridge and Posse applications. Since finances often influence a low-income student's college choice, we focus on financial literacy, how to apply for financial aid, scholarship searches and financial aid package evaluations. College attainment is a student's immediate goal but a student's college graduation is the goal of our guidance program.
Mentoring Sessions
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Mentor Training
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Guest Speakers
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Student-Led Service ProjectsRise Together mentors-inspires-leads all participants toward lasting change. Civic engagement is a core value for Rise Together because our efforts exponentially grow when students realize their power to influence their community. Rise Together offers an additional service learning project that empowers high school students to work together to create, design, and implement a full service day/ community project. Through collaboration and careful project management, students learn first-hand about civic accountability and the power of the Pay-it-Forward mentality. Students often choose to implement a program for feeder elementary/middle schools because they want to instill the values learned from mentors on the younger versions of themselves.
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