Grantee Spotlight Archive

Summer Search Helps Today’s Low-Income Students Become Tomorrow’s Leaders

Today, low-income students with straight A’s apply and are accepted to college at the same rate as wealthier students with D averages. This inequality is partly due to low-income students’ continuing underestimation of themselves, their talents and their right to an education, says Jay Jacobs, CEO of Summer Search, a College Access Foundation of California grantee working to change that perspective/pattern.

Summer Search is a leadership development program targeting low-income high school students in seven cities across the nation and cultivating in them the qualities of resilience, altruism and performance. High school teachers and guidance counselors identify high school sophomores already demonstrating these qualities and refer them to Summer Search, at which point they embark on a comprehensive process geared toward helping them understand themselves, their goals and how to acheive them.

The summer after their sophomore and junior years, Summer Search students receive full scholarships to summer educational programs in the U.S. and abroad, including the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program, Summer Philosophy Discovery Institute, Amigos de las Americas, The Global Education and Action Network, Marine Military Academy, Idyllwild Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, National Outdoor Leadership School, Outward Bound Wilderness, Global Leadership Adventures and many more. Throughout the school year, the students attend weekly mentoring sessions with Summer Search staff that help them to prepare for and reflect upon these life-changing experiences.

As they prepare to apply for college, Summer Search students receive guidance every step of the way, from researching schools to writing essays to filling out scholarship paperwork. Beyond that, Summer Search helps students understand how college fits into their lives through a support system that includes program staff, students and alumni who host college visits.

“Isolation is a major factor in students dropping out of the college application process,” says Jacobs. “By building a community that reaffirms their aspirations and talents, Summer Search is keeping these students in the game.” This community continues to support Summer Search students into college and as they transition into the workforce with professional development and networking opportunities.

Summer Search is growing rapidly, having doubled the numbers of students currently enrolled to 800 and tripled their revenues in the past five years. Approximately 93% of its graduates are attending four-year colleges, and 89% are currently on track to graduate with a degree.

The program is also meeting challenges that were not part of Summer Search’s original plan, including financial aid and planning support. “Low-income students today are being asked to contribute too much to their own education funding,” says Jacobs, “and they are not going to the schools they should – or getting the most out of what educational experience they do have – because of financial hardship.

“College Access Foundation’s grant has helped us alleviate that hardship, cutting these students’ unmet need in half for nearly 100 students in California, on average. This transforms the process of college application, taking the financial issues off the table and allows the students to put their dreams first.”

For more information on College Access Foundation grants visit our Grants page. To read more College Access Foundation grantee spotlights, visit our Spotlight Archive.

To learn more about Summer Search programs, visit SummerSearch.org.