Hi all,

I wanted to bring a volunteer opportunity to your attention. The organization that I now work for, College Now Greater Cleveland, runs a mentoring program that pairs our college scholarship recipients with adult mentors in the Greater Cleveland area. Mentor-mentee pairs communicate on an online platform (similar to Facebook), meet up at three College Now-sponsored events throughout the year, and enjoy access to mentor-only and mentee-only programming. College Now staff provides training and support to both mentors and mentees. The program helps students stay in school and achieve their full potential. This is the fourth year of the program, so we don't have stats yet, but our goal is to see 80% of our students graduate, which would place them on par with student achievement in the highest income quartile in the US. We are on track to meet that goal.

College Now scholarship recipients are from NEO (but may attend college anywhere) and meet academic and financial need requirements to receive our scholarship each year. Over half are alumni of CMSD, and many are first in their families to attend college. Mentors represent more than 250 local companies and all age groups - nearly half our mentors are under 35, and a quarter are over 55.

We currently have 730 pairs in our program, and we're adding an additional 300 or so freshmen next year. So, we need mentors! If you are interested, contact me at 216-635-0163 or mrife@collegenowgc.org, or go to www.collegenowgc.org/mentor for more information. And, if you think this is something your colleagues at work would be interested in, please let me know - I often make trips out to offices to present the program as a volunteering opportunity for staff and a talent-acquisition opportunity for companies.

Thanks for reading!

Madeline Rife

Mentoring Program Manager, College Now Greater Cleveland

216-635-0163 / mrife@collegenowgc.org

RPCV: Ukraine, 2010-2012