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College Summit

Overview

Sending a child to college is one of the surest ways to end the cycle of poverty within a family. The college graduate will make $1 million more over a lifetime, and his or her children will be nearly twice as likely to go to college themselves. College Summit is demonstrating that this solution is not only possible, but also sustainable and scalable. It works to ensure that every student who can make it in college makes it to college, thus increasing the college enrollment rate of low-income students.

Since 1993, College Summit has been nearly doubling the college enrollment rates of low-income students. These results have been achieved with nearly 10,000 students: 79% of College Summit students have enrolled in college--nearly double the national rate of 46% of high school graduates from the same income level; 80% of College Summit students stay in college--remarkable for almost any group of students, but especially those who weren’t even expected to enroll; and College Summit students have obtained over $40 million in college scholarships, attending the full range of schools that match their academic, financial, and social needs.

One of those students is Jahi Davis. Jahi grew up in the Raymond Rosen Housing Project in North Philadelphia. After initially doing well in school, in the 10th grade he became distracted and his grades dropped. Then, in the hospital after a serious car accident, he decided to turn his life around. He returned to school, raised his grades, and joined a youth program where he quickly became a leader. But with a cumulative 2.2 GPA and combined 850 SAT, Jahi was told by his counselor that he wasn't college material. Fortunately, Jahi's youth program recognized his leadership skills and nominated him for College Summit. With their support, Jahi was admitted to Temple University with a substantial scholarship and is now a social worker preparing for law school.

The impact of the College Summit model also provides the foundation to change the conversation in this country about who does and doesn’t go to college--and opens up a system whose doors have been long closed to many talented youth in the National Capital Region and all over the nation.

College Summit Website

Investment Fact Sheet

College Summit
http://www.collegesummit.org
1763 Columbia Rd., NW
Second Floor
Washington DC, 20009
202-319-1763 

Founded in 1993

Executive Director, National Capital Region: Donna Fleming
Founder, CEO: J.B. Schramm
National Board Chair: Charles (Chuck) Harris III
Chair, National Capital Region Site Board: Angela Antonelli

Mission and History
College Summit's mission is to increase the college enrollment rate of low-income students by ensuring that every student who can make it in college makes it to college, and by putting college access “know-how” and support within the reach of every student.

College Summit was founded in 1993 by J.B. Schramm, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Divinity School who was directing a teen center in the basement of a low-income housing project in Washington, DC. J.B. was alarmed by the large number of talented, motivated, and college-capable teens not enrolling in college. Having worked as a freshman advisor while in graduate school, J.B. knew that college admissions officers throughout the country were aggressively searching and competing for talented low-income and diverse students to enter their freshman classes. Mobilizing the support of a Harvard University writing instructor and a community youth worker, J.B designed a college transition system to help all capable talent in a low-income school make the transition to college, the first step toward a brighter future for students who are often the first in their families to do so. This led to the creation of College Summit, a national organization headquartered in Washington, DC with significant operations in the District, California, Illinois, Colorado, and West Virginia. As it refines and grows its programmatic reach in these existing regions, serving thousands more students, College Summit is also in the midst of a new round of site expansion into prospective communities across the country.

Services
College Summit provides a combination of tools and approaches aimed at changing the culture of high schools and creating new norms among students so that they value a college degree, and truly believe it is within their reach. These resources include the College Summit proprietary on-line application management tool, CSNet; teacher training to fill the role that college-experienced parents play for their children in middle-class communities; the “Navigator” curriculum for high school seniors; an “Educator’s Navigator” manual for teachers; intensive 4-day college application and transition workshops; a peer leader and alumni development program; youth facilitators; and an ever expanding network of school district and college/university partners.

Leadership

Donna FlemmingDonna Fleming is Executive Director of the National Capital Region of College Summit, where she has overall responsibility for the region’s college assessment program initiatives; philanthropic, corporate, and individual development; establishment and cultivation of relationships with community leaders, financial management, development and management of the Advisory Board; and strategic planning. Prior to joining College Summit, she was a Corporate Officer/Senior Vice President of Operations for Zimmerman Associates, Inc. from 1990 to 2006. Fleming has extensive executive, operations, and business development experience leading large project teams and multi-million dollar, multi-task federal contracts.

Her volunteer and community involvement includes LEAD VIRGINIA, Class of 2005, where she currently serves on the Board of Directors and is Chair of the Alumni Committee; Leadership Fairfax, Inc., Class of 1999 and Past Chair of the Board of Directors; Shelter House, Inc., past President of the Board of Directors and current member of the Advisory Board; and the Junior League of Northern Virginia, Sustainer, and current Advisory Board member. She is also appointed to the Fairfax County Human Services Council and currently serves as the Vice Chair. Fleming has been recognized as a contributor to community services with the following honors and awards: Leadership Fairfax, Inc., Torchbearer Award-Member of the Year (2002) and Community Trustee Award-Individual (2001); Human Services Coalition, Outstanding Individual Award (2001); Shelter House, Inc., Volunteer of the Year Award (1998); and The Giving Hope Award (2004).

She is a M.S.A candidate, Organizational Development at Trinity University in Washington, DC (expected 2008); she has completed graduate courses in Business Administration at Frostburg State University and holds a B.A., Business Administration, from Trinity College in Washington, DC.

J.B.SchrammJ.B. Schramm is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of College Summit, Inc. He is a graduate of Yale University (1986) and Harvard Divinity School (1989). Schramm founded College Summit while directing a Teen Center in the basement of a Washington, D.C. low-income housing project.

For his skill in conceiving the idea and creating an effective organization to implement it, Schramm was one of the first four North Americans named to the Ashoka Fellowship for social entrepreneurs (2000), and received the highest award in the field of college access from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (2001). In 2002, Schramm won the Manhattan Institute Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2003, J.B. was profiled in The New York Times, won the Skoll Foundation Social Innovator Award, was named one of the top 20 social capitalists in the United States by Fast Company Magazine and Monitor Group, and won the Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award.

In 2004, Schramm was profiled in David Bornstein’s book, How To Change The World, and most recently has spoken about his organization at The University of Chicago, at The Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern, and at New York University. In addition, Schramm won the “First Decade Award” from the Harvard Divinity School in 2000 and was named the Graduate Public Service Fellowship from Echoing Green (1997-2001).

He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Lauren, and their two boys, Jacob and Luke.

Angela M. Antonelli serves as Chair of the College Summit NCR Board.  She is the Founder and Managing Principal of AMD Strategies LLC, a public policy and government affairs consulting firm providing policy research, education, issue advocacy, and business development support to clients. Her expertise includes federal legislative, regulatory, and procurement processes, as well as budget, appropriations, tax, labor, housing, transportation, energy, and environmental issues. 

From 2004 to 2008, Ms. Antonelli was a Firm Director, Federal Strategy and Operations, for Deloitte Consulting LLP and one of the leaders recruited to help establish Deloitte's new federal practice.  She was responsible for business development and client service delivery in civilian agencies including HUD, Labor, and Transportation.  Her client work focused on business process reengineering, financial transformation, enterprise resource planning, outsourcing, and public-private partnerships.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Ms. Antonelli was appointed and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  During her tenure, she re-established integrity and sound financial management practices; strengthen internal controls and reduced major material weaknesses by 60 percent.  As HUD's chief budget officer, she was also responsible for HUD's $32 billion annual budget and appropriations as well as its strategic plan and the measurement of program performance.

Ms. Antonelli began her career at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Senate.  She then served as a Deputy Branch Chief at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where she was responsible for the review and approval of budgets, legislation, testimony, regulations and data collections developed by Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Treasury, and HUD.

In addition to her government experience, Ms. Antonelli also worked in Washington for a health care consulting firm and as the Economic Policy Director of a major Washington, D.C. based non-profit policy institute.

Ms. Antonelli's work has earned her professional recognition and awards. She has testified several times before Congress on public policy issues, including federal spending and government reform. Her views, articles, and work have appeared in national newspapers and magazines around the nation, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, Roll Call, Fortune, and Business Week. She has appeared on radio and television, including CNN, Fox and PBS.

She has a B.A., summa cum laude, from Cornell University, an MPA from Princeton University and is a Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM). 

Investment Summary

Please note: this Investment Summary represents VPP's perspective at the time of the investment agreement, February 2007.  

In February 2007, VPP continues its investment partnership with College Summit, a dynamic organization whose mission is to increase the college enrollment rate of low-income students by ensuring that every student who can make it in college makes it to college, and by putting college access “know-how” and support within the reach of every student.

OPPORTUNITY
College Summit aspires to increase the college enrollment rate of low-income students by ensuring that “every student who can make it in college makes it to college.” It has targeted the DC metro area to establish a proving ground for a metropolitan college access model that will potentially send 3,000 students from lower income families living in this region to college annually, many of whom would not otherwise attend. And, in meeting this aspiration, it seeks to reform the college access systems in the high schools served, and close the college access gap between students with low family incomes and students with middle and high family incomes. A chief strategy is to establish a regionally successful fee-for-service platform that can be replicated, and erase college enrollment gaps nationally.

While College Summit is a national organization headquartered in Washington, DC, currently they have larger programs in other cities, such as Chicago, so they must first demonstrate local economies of scale with a viable and replicable regional platform and solution. The DC metro area, with its large school districts, high concentration of college-educated citizens and officials, large investment in schools, region-wide focus on closing the achievement gap, and growing numbers of talented, college-ready students from low income families, has the most favorable conditions for College Summit to achieve its primary aspiration, and demonstrate a successful regional solution that establishes a platform on which to grow nationally. More broadly, College Summit believes that talent among low-income students is undervalued, and it seeks to correct this “market inefficiency” so that the value of these young people can be realized in a way that serves them well and serves the self-interest of institutional players in the college access arena: public high schools, colleges and universities, and corporations.

INVESTMENT RATIONALE

  1. Leadership: J.B. Schramm, an Ashoka fellow, graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, and winner of Fast Company Magazine’s “2003 Social Capitalist of the Year Award,” has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills as he has grown College Summit from an after school program associated with Good Shepherd Ministries in the Jubilee Housing Development in DC, to a national organization with an annual operating budget approaching $7 million. College Summit presents a special opportunity for VPP to invest in national leadership that is focused on the Washington metropolitan area. VPP would be investing in the leadership of J.B. Schramm and the national board and team, in addition to the leadership and board recruited to run the DC Metro operation. This assumes the full commitment and direct participation of J.B. Schramm and the national organization in building College Summit/DC Metro.
  2. Leverage: College Summit, because of its innovative and unique focus on the transition from high school to college, is well positioned to form alliances with other college preparatory and college access programs. Its programs and systems are distinct and focused enough so as not to compete with programs offered by others (College Board, Kaplan, DC CAP, etc.), yet provide resources and tools that complement them. Because of this, alliances can be formed that would likely strengthen all partners and improve opportunities for all the youth who participate in them.
  3. Demonstrated performance in achieving outcomes: College Summit has demonstrated that it can close the persistent college attendance achievement gap between students from low-income families and those from more affluent families. Moreover, it has demonstrated exceptionally high college retention rates (80%). College Summit also had developed a strong technology infrastructure and capability for participant tracking that can be used to develop even more advanced outcomes management and analysis functions. College Summit is an outcomes-driven organization and has established clear metrics for itself.

SUCCESS FACTORS
We believe this investment in College Summit will be successful because of the following key factors:

  1. Board and Management Team – Strong national senior management team and a number of high-powered boards and advisory group. Founder and Executive Director J.B. Schramm demonstrates outstanding leadership skills and is committed to creating a highly functioning management team for the DC Metro office.
  2. Programs and Products – Exceptional process, curriculum materials, trainings, and workshop formats.
  3. Financial Sustainability – Unique fee-based income structure that strengthens and stabilizes revenue flow. Exploring other fee-based revenue streams including contractual agreements with colleges and universities.
  4. Growth Trends – Growth of 130% by 2003.

USE OF FUNDS
Through this investment partnership, VPP proposes to support the College Summit/DC Metro business planning process with funding up to $350,000, and to augment this financial support with the strategic assistance of the VPP investment team. Under this Agreement, a business planning process will consist of the development of a comprehensive strategic plan and critical area plans that will guide College Summit‘s development and growth related to strategic marketing for DC Metro, and a set of agreed-upon milestones that would frame a follow-on investment agreement.

Synopsis

College Summit has built out the DC operations and programs of their very successful national model and completed business planning in 2006.

Key Accomplishments

College Summit-NCR's increased effectiveness has allowed the organization to grow from serving 400 to 2,838 students, a 609% increase in five years.  The organization has established partnerships with seven key universities and twenty-seven schools in DC, Maryland, and Virginia (including three VPP investment partners), greatly expanding its impact on the region's talented low-income students.

Other noteworthy accomplishments that will contribute to increased effectiveness and improved capacity include:

  • Planning and Focus: Completed business planning in February 2006, facilitated by Monitor Group, resulting in a well-defined plan that describes the relationship between the local and national operations and management.

  • Human Capital - Board and Senior Management: Hired executive director after long recruitment period to complete six-member local staff team. Built new board, recruting eight out of eight needed members.

  • Operational Effectiveness: Business planning helped College Summit gain greater clarity to move the organization to a higher level of impact by:

    • Shifting to a "geographic" model for all sites that calls for tighter calibration across site-specific program, sales, and development strategies;

    • Redesigning criteria for selecting strategic partners (schools and school districts). Criteria designed around research-based principles that must be in place for the College Summit program to be successful.

Key Information

Date, years, and stage of VPP Investment:
December 2004; 5 years (complete)
Capital committed and disbursed by VPP:
$2,126,542 committed and funded
Revenue increase & % budget growth:
$690 thousand to $1.4 million - 97% increase in five years
Leveraged funding:
$10,000
Expansion to new places and coverage:
19 new high schools and 3 new universities in Virginia, Maryland, and the District

Case Study

A College Path for Every Student

The Investment Partner: College Summit

College Summit is a national nonprofit organization that partners with schools and districts to strengthen a college-going culture and increase college enrollment rates so that all students graduate career and college-ready. Founded in 1993 by J. B. Schramm in the basement of a low-income housing project in Washington, DC, the program was created to change the trajectory of talented young people that Schramm was seeing. Too many of them were “graduating” from his teen center to the streets. Earlier in his career, while working his way through Harvard Divinity School as a Freshman Advisor to undergraduates, Schramm had seen the hunger colleges have for low-income talent and their inability to connect with this talent. He became determined to help admissions offices see students, like Antoine Tate, the way he saw them. He enlisted the best writing instructor he’d seen in graduate school and the finest urban youth worker he knew. Together, they designed a model to help bright, low-income students who, with the right support during their senior year, could make a successful postsecondary transition and propel their lives (and communities) in a positive direction.

The Challenge

Although College Summit began in DC, the model didn’t get the traction in this region that it got in other parts of the country. Schramm’s network of contacts in other areas was stronger, and partnerships with school systems were more accessible elsewhere. However, all the time he was growing College Summit nationally, Schramm’s desire to foster and nurture a college-growing culture for the thousands of talented children in low-income communities in the National Capital Region intensified. He wanted to bring the program home to the District and surrounding jurisdictions, but like Tate, he and his team faced challenges and needed help to make their organizational dreams a reality. Some of the challenges the organization faced in the National Capital Region were:

  • Recruiting the right leader for College Summit NCR;
  • Creating a specific strategy to build a local presence of scale that would bring College Summit’s successful model to thousands of young people who needed it;
  • Navigating the complex maze of public school and higher educational systems to forge the partnerships that are so critical to the success of College Summit’s model; and
  • Enhancing the organization’s infrastructure nationally and locally to deliver its programs successfully.

Download Case StudyVPP-CS-Case-Study.pdf (447.67 KB)