WINTER 2015
EVERY DAY WHEN YOU COME TO WORK, YOU DO A LOT MORE THAN JUST “COME TO.. ..WORK.”
You help a young woman be the first in her family to earn a college degree.
You prevent a student from dropping out of school due to a financial emergency.
You help an at-risk high school kid realize he can make his life better through higher education.
Maybe you don’t think about it every day, but the work we all do contributes to making Great Lakes one of the largest education philanthropies in the country.
for success in life. What’s more, we all know those who don’t graduate are the ones most likely to struggle in repaying their student loans.
Your work helps remove barriers t hat otherwise would prevent thousands of students from attending and completing college each year. Thanks to you we can fund grants, research and scholarships that create brighter futures for low-income students, students of color and students who are the first in their families to attend college.
Through this first edition of Good Works, we want to start showing you how the results of your good work are put to work—for the benefit of students across the nation.
Seeing more students graduate is our top priority because it sets people up
Look for future issues to follow every quarter. And we invite you to share them with family and friends, so they can join in celebrating our collective good works.
WHAT IF ONLY $25 YOU AND THE DREAM
Having to choose between paying tuition or replacing broken eyeglasses is
AND TOO OFTEN, STUDENTS HAVE
0 STOOD BETWEEN M OF A BETTER LIFE?
and fixing a flat tire, h aving a root canal, a reality for many college students.
NO CHOICE BUT TO DROP OUT...
THAT’S WHEN
EMERGENCY GRANTS COME TO THE RESCUE The stress Jason Wolfgram felt when he unexpectedly lost his job was compounded by worrying that he might not be able to make his car payments. And without a car he couldn’t get to his classes and would have to drop out of college. Those thoughts were overwhelming to him. Fortunately, our Emergency Grant program was able to come to the rescue. Jason heard about it through his advisor at Wausau’s Northcentral Technical College. He applied for the grant and had his car payment two days later. That kept his schooling on track and shortly thereafter he found a new and better-paying job.
That was back in 2014 during the trial run for our emergency grant program at 16 technical colleges in Wisconsin. Starting in January 2016, we’re expanding the program to 31 colleges in four states— Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and Iowa. With $1.5 million in funding we expect to help 4,000 students over two-and-a-half years. The plan is for colleges to get it rolling and then contribute their own funds to continue the program into the future.
Visit our DASH EMERGENCY GRANT WEB PAGE to learn more
EMERGENCY GRANTS
Jason Wolfgram Great Lakes Emergency Grant recipient
COACHING
IT’S NOT JUST FOR ATHLETES
With a small army of AmeriCorps volunteer mentors (that are just like coaches), College Possible starts working with high school juniors and stays with them all the way through college graduation. So when a student thinks they’re not college material, the coach is there to show them they are. Not sure which classes to take? The coach helps them make the right choices. Exams coming up? The coach gets them prepared, just like for game day. Because for College Possible—to paraphrase Vince Lombardi—graduating isn’t the only thing. It’s everything. Because of their good work over the past 15 years, we recently announced a three-year grant to help College Possible expand their service in Milwaukee and across Minnesota.
Just awarded in November, our $2.2 million grant means over 6,000 students will receive coaching to help them get into and through college. That’s quite a coaching staff you help support. Visit our COLLEGE POSSIBLE GRANT WEB PAGE to learn more
Robbinsdale Cooper High School student Mai Thao tackles her college admission essay with help from College Possible’s Jiksa Tafara.
COLLEGE POSSIBLE GRANTS
We know most superstar athletes rely on coaches to help them achieve their peak performance. So, why not apply that idea to getting into and through college? That’s what College Possible does.
FUNDING FAST FACTS
SINGLE STOP
IF YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT WHERE YOU’LL SLEEP AT NIGHT, YOU CAN’T FOCUS ON YOUR STUDIES DURING THE DAY. Single Stop gets homeless students i nto housing— and much more!
Single Stop Think of Single Stop as the “Google of social services” for low-income students. You type in what you need, and Single Stop connects you to existing programs for shelter, food, healthcare and other necessities these students can’t afford. We’ve just made a grant to Single Stop so they can expand and simplify their services—so more students can get help and stay on track to graduation.
So far, Single Stop has helped nearly
150,000 students at over 30 colleges in 8 states AND NOW WE’LL HELP THEM DO EVEN MORE!
COLLEGE ACCESS ADVISING
194,000+
CARNEGIE MATH PATHWAYS
3X
HIGH SCHOOLERS SERVED!
THE SUCCESS IN 1/2 THE TIME
Great Lakes has 12 College
Students who fail college math
Access Advisors who go into
often drop out. And students
low-income schools across
who drop out often default on
Wisconsin and South Dakota
their loans. We’ve made a grant
with one mission: Getting kids
to the Carnegie Foundation
into college. We help students
to help change the way math
select and apply to colleges—
is taught—by making it more
and find ways to pay for it!
“real world” focused—so more students are set up for success.
TOPS: TEENS OF PROMISE Promising low-income high school students often don’t go to college because no one encourages them. Thanks to grants from Great Lakes, the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County works in Madison high schools to boost grades and confidence! And it works.
95% OF TOPS STUDENTS GO ON TO COLLEGE!
Apprentices don’t make much money, but are still required to buy expensive gear. And if you don’t have money for steel-toed boots you can’t work— or complete training that leads to a good salary. So we give $1,000 scholarships to outfit aspiring carpenters, pipefitters, electricians and more with tools for success.
7,000
REASONS TO PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK 2015-2018 Career Ready Internship grants totaling $12.2 million were awarded to 33 colleges in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Ohio in October. Now those schools will work with area employers to create 7,000 paid internships for low-income students over the next three years. Internships are proven to help students complete their degrees and be better prepared to get a job after graduation.
But many are unpaid. And low-income students can’t afford to work for nothing. Career Ready grants connect colleges with businesses and businesses with low-income students. It’s a win-win-win scenario that helps students get real-world experience (and a paycheck!), colleges improve their graduate placement rates and businesses get a direct pipeline to talented candidates.
Career Ready Internship Grant CAREER READY INTERNSHIP GRANTS
Colleges connect with local businesses and give them money to pay interns COLLEGES
Businesses develop internship programs in various disciplines BUSINESSES
Students get paid to gain valuable experience that boosts their employment potential after graduation
STUDENTS
OF INTERNSHIP RECIPIENTS GO ON TO GRADUATE Another cool thing about this grant: it’s something we tested twice before, so we know it works. We started with a $2.5 million grant to 19 Wisconsin colleges in 2013-2014. Expanded it in 2014-2015 to $5.2 million at 40 colleges in four states. With our latest grant, we’ve extended the time period to run from 2015 to 2018 to give the schools and businesses
time to see how valuable these internships are and develop a plan to fund the program themselves after the grant period ends. That’s how we really like to work. Plant the seeds, nurture what starts to take hold, then let it thrive on its own.
Visit our CAREER READY INTERNSHIP GRANT WEB PAGE to learn more
IT REALLY DOES WORK. April Opatik is a perfect example of an internship’s benefits. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and North Central Conservancy Trust offered a 10-week internship that gave her the credits she needed to meet her Land Use Planning degree requirements and the money to help cover her senior year tuition. After graduation, the Wood County Planning and Zoning Department saw her experience and quickly hired her, plus she still volunteers for the NCCT to keep her hand in land conservancy work.
A perfect example of the Good Works our grants and your work does.
CAREER READY INTERNSHIP GRANTS
April Opatik Great Lakes Career Ready Internship Grant recipient
GOOD WORKS WINTER 2015
YOU’RE HELPING TRANSFORM YOUNG LIVES, SO KEEP UP THE
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