Welcome!

Welcome to the "Opening Doors and Paving the Way" Web Site

On November 9-10, 2006, the Princeton University Preparatory Program and The Goldman Sachs Foundation hosted "Opening Doors and Paving the Way," an exciting national working forum for leaders striving to increase college accessibility and success for promising low-income youth.

The "Opening Doors and Paving the Way" forum is made possible by a grant from The Goldman Sachs Foundation. We also acknowledge the planning and implementation support from our co-sponsors, the Princeton University's Program in Teacher Preparation, Conference and Event Services, Office of Development, and the Educational Research Section, an interdisciplinary unit within Princeton University's Industrial Relation Section and the Woodrow Wilson School.

The goals of our forum were to:

• Explore the complex challenges of college access and preparation efforts for low-income youth
• Discover the best practices of programs working in this field
• Create a national network of programs that are working to prepare promising students from economically disadvantaged families for success at selective colleges and universities

The forum brought together experts and practitioners from the nation's leading education programs, high schools, colleges, and universities that are working to address the enormous gap between the rich and poor in college admissions. The first written product from the forum is "Opening Doors and Paving the Way: Increasing College Access and Success for Talented Low Income Students," a white paper report. The intent of the white paper, as well as of the "Opening Doors and Paving the Way" forum, is to promote sustained investments in college preparation initiatives that work in partnership with schools and communities to provide access and education to talented students from low-income families.

The participants attending the "Opening Doors and Paving the Way" forum offered a wealth of best practices and innovative solutions for any community, organization, or university that is seeking to develop, improve, or evaluate their own college access and preparation program. We are currently compiling this wealth of knowledge along with existing research in college access practices into a forthcoming "how-to" manual. We believe that colleges, universities, and community-based organizations that are anxious to address the issue of college access will benefit greatly from this manual. After the manual is completed, information on how to obtain a copy will be posted on this site.

We invite you to peruse our web site to learn more about increasing college access and success for all of our students.

Warm regards,

Jason R. Klugman, Ph.D. PUPP Director jklugman@princeton.edu