Deliver Individualized, Comprehensive Support
Low-income, high-achieving students are underrepresented at the nation’s most selective colleges and universities, diminishing these students’ opportunities to succeed in college and in life. Leaven works to close this gap, one local student at a time.
How?
We help these extraordinary students overcome challenging circumstances by providing them with the guidance and resources needed to: navigate college admissions and financial aid, transition to college, and graduate with little or no debt, prepared to succeed.
To maximize the probability Leaven Scholars will achieve their goals, we guide them to schools that fit them well academically, socially, financially, and pre-professionally. We believe college is a match to be made, not a prize to be won. So we focus on those highly selective colleges and universities that meet the student’s financial needs, offer rigorous academics, provide comprehensive support, and have excellent post-graduation outcomes.
Our goal is to help each Leaven Scholar attain a high-caliber education despite his or her economic circumstances.
“Raised in a household limited by circumstance and educated on a campus of privilege, I am thankful for life between both ends of the spectrum. Belonging to two worlds, here is where I find myself, undefined by preconceived notions of where I come from determining where I will go.”
— Suzanne, Yale University
Carefully Select Scholars
Students are typically referred to Leaven in 10th or 11th grade by high school guidance counselors, teachers, and other individuals who work with teens. Many, but not all, Leaven students attend Pine View School, a public, college preparatory school in Osprey, FL. Pine View is a full-time gifted magnet program for students in grades 2 through 12, and is consistently ranked number one in Florida and within the top ten public high schools in the nation.
Before a referred student is invited to be a Leaven Scholar, we meet with the student several times. We also meet with the student’s parent(s), and we visit the student’s home. We spend considerable time reviewing the student’s academic record and extra-curricular accomplishments. We look for students who not only score in the 98th percentile in the nation on standardized tests and have unweighted GPA’s of 3.8 or above, but who also exhibit personal traits like grit (perseverance + passion), curiosity, and self-advocacy. And like the best colleges in the country, we seek students who care about improving their community, and who demonstrate this through engagement and action.
Understand the Distance Traveled
While Leaven Scholars perform academically in the top 2% of America’s high school students, they come from households with adjusted gross incomes at or below the U.S. poverty line. These students are frequently the first generation in their families to attend a 4-year college. Often, they live with a single custodial parent. Scholars likely work substantial hours during the school year to support their families. Some are minority students, for some English is not their first language, and some are first-generation American. All Leaven Scholars are U.S. citizens.
Given their backgrounds and life experiences, these high-achieving students have not had the benefit of the same academic enrichment, standardized test prep, and college guidance as their higher income intellectual peers. And because they often lack college-going family members or mentors, they don’t have other avenues for “college-knowledge.”
Yet Leaven Scholars exhibit a hunger to learn and achieve academically. They persist to succeed despite significant long-term obstacles. These students also show leadership potential and a commitment to serve. In a nutshell, Leaven Scholars have traveled a further distance to excel. At Leaven, we recognize that this distance traveled is itself an indicator of our students’ remarkable ability and perseverance.
Engage Others
Involving one or more family members in the college preparation process increases the odds of success because these individuals can provide emotional encouragement, transportation, and practical necessities to better support and own the outcome. Occasionally, there may not be a parent who has the time, language skills, proximity, or ability to assist. The key is to find at least one caring adult. If not a parent, then a grandparent, an older sibling, a Take Stock Mentor, a teacher, a member of the clergy, a coach, a Big Brother/Big Sister or simply someone who knows the student well, understands where s/he is coming from, and has the her/his best interests at heart.
Begin Support in High School
Continue To and Through College
When our Scholars transition to college, we make sure they have basic things like warm winter clothing, a laptop, bedsheets and blankets, a sturdy backpack, a roundtrip ticket home twice a year, and proper attire for internship and job interviews.
Leaven recognizes the value of college bridge programs offered by selective schools, because these programs deliver an intensive introduction to college academics and facilitate students’ transition to college life. Therefore, we work diligently with our students as they apply and compete for these experiences that occur in the summer before freshman year.
Once our students enroll at college, Leaven provides regular outreach and coaching tailored to students’ own communication preferences and support needs. We do so via phone, Skype, FaceTime, email, and text when students are at school, and via in-person meetings during break periods. We also connect Leaven Scholars to fellow Leaven Scholars currently in college or recently graduated for “near peer” mentoring. These near peers understand what our students are going through because they’ve been through it. Moreover, for inspiration and focused mentoring, Leaven also links our students to subject-matter and industry experts working in fields our students are pursuing.
All these sources of connection, information, and guidance help ensure that Leaven Scholars excel academically, persist in college, and graduate, prepared to succeed.
Facilitate a Great Launch
Leaven Scholars are able to rely on their schools’ generous grants and scholarship funds to help them graduate on time with little or no debt, so they can create a future without being burdened by student loans. Leaven Scholars also take full advantage of the rich career advising and networking resources available at their schools to help them secure a great first job or graduate school experience.
Daniel
Pedaling down the cracked sidewalk on Maverick Avenue is one of my baby cousin Noah’s favorite activities. I wish the street didn’t have a dead-end, because Noah’s energy has no bounds. But watching him fall and cry hurts me as it hurts him. I pick Noah up, dry his tears and hug him all the way home, dragging the broken tricycle behind us. Noah enters the garage and points towards his tricycle, since he can’t say “trike” yet. He knows I can fix it.
Fixing a tricycle is easy for me. But there are other things I wish I could fix.
The garage is as cluttered as the one I lived in when I first immigrated to America from Peru. As unpleasant as a garage may seem, the three-year-old me never gave it much thought. Yet reflecting on my childhood, I don’t feel I was ever disadvantaged. Rather, I learned how to make something from nothing. When my father saw me repairing my broken toy truck, he recognized my potential. As we upgraded from a garage to a home, my toys upgraded to computers…broken computers that is. Then, I never considered buying, repairing and selling computers with my father as a business. While I was enjoying myself fixing our customers’ laptops, my father was piecing together multiple jobs to make ends meet.
As time passed, my father’s health forced him to step down from his roofing job, creating financial hardship for my family. I found a way to help by launching an unconventional business, buying and selling collectible clothes and shoes online. My enterprise thrives today. Everything I earn, I give to my father. I know I am reducing the weight my father carries. But how can I continue to carry Noah’s weight as well?
Noah is like a brother or son to me. He’s developmentally disabled and needs daily therapy. I feel responsible for Noah since his father abandoned him. How can I fix this?
Perhaps not every situation is entirely “fixable.”
Yet, I see each of life’s challenges as an opportunity to find a solution, or simply a path forward. I can make something from nothing, or at least make things better. And I will do this through education.
I am an immigrant, low-income, and first in my family to attend college. To have ended up at one of the nation’s top liberal arts schools on a full scholarship is something I never would have thought possible. For this opportunity, I am forever grateful.