From left:
Dana Malman ’03, Rishi Jaitly ’04, Melissa Galvez
’05, Alex Stege ’05, and Katharine Mullen ’03
at College Summit’s office in Washington, D.C. (courtesy
College Summit)
January 25, 2006:
ALUMNI
CONNECTIONS Getting low-income students
to apply to college — and succeed
College Summit: Five young alumni have ended
up at the same nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that tries to increase
the college enrollment rate for low-income students.
Rishi Jaitly ’04, a history major and a member of Princeton’s
Board of Trustees, found out about College Summit through Project
55, a nonprofit founded by the Class of 1955 that places alumni
and students in public-service organizations. Having served on the
New Jersey State Commission on Higher Education in his senior year,
Jaitly knew he wanted to be involved in education. When he interviewed
at College Summit, he realized he had found his niche. The organization
aims to create a process for students from low-income communities
to move successfully from high school to college. Many of those
students today are left behind because their parents didn’t
attend college, and they don’t know how to navigate the college-admission
process.
Colleges are interested in admitting a diverse student body, but
they only become aware of low-income students who score well on
standardized tests, says Jaitly, coordinator of public policy and
government affairs. “After bidding wars among colleges end
for this pool of high-testing students, the students with numbers
in the middle remain invisible,” he says.
That’s where College Summit comes in. The organization focuses
on low-income students who are better than their test scores and
grades indicate — students who could succeed in college if
they enrolled, says Dana Malman ’03, a Woodrow Wilson School
major. Like Jaitly and Project 55 fellow Melissa Galvez ’05,
Malman learned about College Summit through Project 55. Also working
at College Summit are Katharine Mullen ’03 and Alex Stege
’05.
Founded in 1993, College Summit partners with 98 high schools
and 30 colleges in six states, including Colorado and California.
Teachers in those schools identify 20 percent of upcoming seniors
to attend four-day summer workshops on college campuses, where they
learn about the college-admission process and craft personal essays.
Those students return to high school in the fall as peer leaders
to spread a message to classmates that getting into college is possible.
All seniors in the schools take a for-credit course, designed by
College Summit, in which teachers make sure students have completed
applications on time and submitted recommendations and financial
aid information. College Summit then offers colleges it partners
with previews of its student applications.
Of the students who have attended College Summit summer workshops,
79 percent have gone to college, says Malman, who raises funds and
works with pilot school systems. She would like to see the College
Summit model spread to more school districts. “We leverage
student talent that is overlooked,” says Malman. “Going
to college can end poverty in a family line forever.”
