This is a message from College Possible Omaha’s Senior Executive Director Arvin Frazier III.
I often begin my message with, “I am College Possible!” I repeat that statement with pride and joy in leading a movement of student centered, outcome driven support for talented and capable future leaders. Our mission is very personal to me. I was fortunate that during my high school years, a school counselor cared enough to push, prod, and guide me toward a pathway of educational success.
At College Possible, we guide talented youth toward their pathway of educational success. The students and scholars we serve have prepared themselves for success. We join them in operationalizing their vision.
This past year saw the delivery of services to over 1,600 student scholars. This included programming for high school juniors and seniors attending nine area partner high school. College Possible Omaha college students were enrolled at 83 campuses across the country. I’m proud to report that nearly 100 future leaders graduated with college degrees that have prepared them to compete for employment opportunities. We know, a viable approach to addressing generational poverty is through education. Education leads to choice; education leads to viable opportunities.
This year we were joined by 12 AmeriCorps members and 1 VISTA. This was the smallest number of direct student service providers since our inception. Like numerous other post-pandemic businesses and organizations, College Possible has experienced workforce recruitment challenges. However, our AmeriCorps members rose to the challenge, and hundreds of student scholars received committed and dedicated coaching driven by our proven curriculum of coaching and support.
Our newest level of support came from the top, as College Possible welcomed a new CEO, Dr. Siva Kumari. Siva is a lifelong educator and an enthusiastic advocate for expanding access, equity, and opportunity in education, who most recently served as the first female Director General of the International Baccalaureate (IB). I believe Siva meets the very high bar that we established and will bring a new level of education leadership and executive experience to College Possible.
We remain intensely committed to excellence in service and helping to operationalize our student scholars’ vision of educational success. I am grateful to the Omaha community for your support and partnership in preparing tomorrow’s leaders today.
