Dear College Possible supporter,
For more than 20 years, College Possible has been working to close the college degree divide with a proven model that includes near-peer college access and success coaching. With your support, we have grown from one location to seven sites nationwide and have helped put more than 50,000 students on a path to economic mobility.
Despite these successes, we still have much work to do. As communities nationwide prepare for an equitable post-pandemic recovery, the role of proven, scalable college access and success programs has never been more important. As part of our continued commitment to deepen our impact and scale meaningful student outcomes, we are excited to announce that College Forward will become a part of College Possible, effective July 1, 2021. College Forward is a values-aligned Austin, Texas-based nonprofit that implements a very similar program model to ours and has been a trusted industry partner for nearly 20 years.
By combining resources, we will cost-effectively reinforce our foundational programming, expand our national reach, and evolve our service model and capacity to meet the needs of students long into the future. With the addition of College Forward, we have the opportunity to build upon our existing programming — serving students virtually via innovative technology and with partnerships like CollegePoint, scaling college success programming with Catalyze, and extending our reach to rural communities via Navigate, just to name a few.
Following the transaction, College Forward will be the eighth College Possible site, joining Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Omaha, Oregon, Philadelphia and Washington State. College Forward will retain its name and unique branding through at least June 2022, as our team carefully and thoughtfully supports this integration.
Equally important, we are proud to announce that the College Possible board has voted unanimously to elevate Craig Robinson from the role of president to chief executive officer. Craig’s appointment as CEO reflects a carefully developed transition plan created in partnership with founder Jim McCorkell to ensure the transformational work benefiting thousands of students around the U.S. continues. For the past two years, the organization has benefited from Craig’s stewardship of this remarkable legacy. Craig’s visionary leadership and the investments he has made toward innovation, organizational culture, and capacity building will help drive sustainable growth in student outcomes for decades to come.
We are extremely excited to embark on this new chapter. We value your continued partnership and unwavering support of College Possible and hope you will join us in celebrating these important milestones.
Best,
Stephen M. Smith
Chair, College Possible Board of Directors