This is a message from College Possible Omaha Senior Executive Director Arvin Frazier III.
I am College Possible. I come from a background of parents who wanted the best for my siblings and me, but didn’t know the “how”. I am someone who was believed in, and I am grateful that the Omaha community embraces a long-term approach to addressing educational equity. At College Possible, we commit to six to eight years of support in a student’s life. Change does not happen overnight.
Over the 10 years College Possible has served the Omaha community, we’ve had the honor of serving close to 3,000 students across the metropolitan area. At our 10th Service Year Anniversary, I had the opportunity to meet with students who started their college journey at the same time we opened our doors. Seeing those students, who have now graduated college and started their careers, is fulfilling. They are economically self-sufficient and engaged in their communities, which is the reason we do what we do.
Throughout our decade of service, many things have changed. Even the way we deliver our program looks different. But one thing has remained the same, and that is the commitment of our AmeriCorps members and leadership team to students in the Omaha community.
Our service is not made up of a group of individuals who are “righting wrongs.” We are “righting rights.” The students we serve are not being “fixed”. They are just being given a coach to help them navigate the challenges of a college journey. The work we do and the success College Possible student scholars and our alumni have experienced are made possible through the Omaha community’s support. We are all College Possible—the students we serve and their families, school faculty and partners, university partners, philanthropic donors, and our founding funders who saw, from the very beginning, that this is an opportunity to embrace a purposeful mission.
As I look toward the next 10 years of College Possible Omaha, I hope to continue building our AmeriCorps and student graduate alumni programs. The pathways they have taken, the obstacles they have overcome, and the triumphs they have experienced are what continue to motivate our efforts.
