College Access & Success

Student Leadership Network’s college access programs are a critical first step towards closing what is commonly referred to as the “degree divide” but the work does not end there. Our college success programs address additional roadblocks on the road through college to ensure our students have the support and resources to succeed in college and go on to lead successful lives. Every year our work towards educational equity impacts over 15,000 students.

Core Pillars

College Matters

At Student Leadership Network, we know college matters as a critical lever to multigenerational prosperity. We know how to get students to their best-fit college and prepare them to succeed there. Our programs create a college-going culture in under-resourced high schools and put students on a path to college. We help students gain access to and succeed in college by focusing on four core areas:

Early College Awareness

Access to our CollegeBound Initiative directors of college counseling as early as 6th or 9th grade.

Early College Awareness

Family Engagement

Educating and connecting with parents to build a strong support network for our students.

Family Engagement

Financial Literacy

Comprehensive financial aid counseling and planning with students and their families.

Financial Literacy

Experiential Learning

Opportunities to participate in pre-college trips, summer programs, and scholarships to familiarize students with college life.

Experiential Learning
Programs:
CBI

CollegeBound Initiative

CollegeBound Initiative (CBI) empowers young women and men to realize their higher education and career potential by placing full-time directors of college counseling (DCCs) in high-need public schools. CBI’s DCCs maximize students’ college awareness, access, and financial aid awards. CBI students graduating from our partner high schools achieve four-year college degrees at approximately four times the rate of their national peers.

We combine intimate knowledge of our students and trusted connections with a diverse network of colleges, enabling us to optimize college placement and maximize financial aid. Our comprehensive approach creates a culture of success in each of our partner high schools. And the results are clear – we have decades of demonstrated success in increasing the college enrollment and attainment rate for students from underserved communities.

For CBI students, the question is not if but where they will go to college.

CBI combats college attrition by accessing, and partnering our graduates with, support programs at various colleges (e.g., NYS Opportunity Programs, CUNY ASAP, Bottom Line, Posse Scholars, etc.). The financial aid, structure, and support that these programs offer ensures our students have a smooth transition to and through college.

Program Details

Early College and Career Awareness Activities

  • coordinate college trips and fairs
  • college awareness lessons and workshops
  • connect students to alumni enrolled in college

Complete College Application Support

  • assist students with registering/preparing for the PSAT and SAT exams
  • one-on-one assistance with college selection
  • help students hone their interview skills
  • assist seniors in writing essays, recommendation letters, and resumes
  • offer parent education and outreach

Enrollment and Financial Aid Support

  • comprehensive financial aid counseling
  • FAFSA application support
  • one-on-one meetings with families

Experiential Learning Opportunities

  • Overnight trips to partner colleges
  • CollegeBound Summer Institute at Gettysburg College
  • Pre-college summer programs and scholarships

Alumni Support

  • Connect current students to college-enrolled alumni
  • Support graduates during summer months to support their transition to college
  • Work closely with several partner colleges (e.g., Gettysburg College and University of Rochester) to increase students’ preparation for, access to, and enrollment in a college that supports their success
Bridge Through College

Bridge Through College

Bridge Through College (BTC) supports our students to persist through college and ultimately graduate. The program leverages Student Leadership Network alumni to support first-year college students as peer leaders. Research shows that near-peer models have been incredibly effective at increasing graduation rates, as well as contributing positively to many other benefits, such as creating important social networks and increasing students’ sense of belonging.

Additionally, BTC peer leaders will provide support around critical milestones. All SL Network alumni will have access to tools and resources developed around three core program areas – financial aid renewal, financial planning, and academic planning – via a robust and interactive alumni portal.

Program Details

Student Leadership Network alumni who are college juniors and seniors support first-year college students around critical milestones that have a huge impact on who graduates from college. These include:

  • 1:1 advisory and group engagement to set first-year students up for success with consistent check-ins covering everything from financial standing to connecting with professors
  • Financial Aid renewal to ensure continuity of financial aid packages year over year
  • Financial planning for additional expenses, college bills & debt management
  • Guidance around class selection, registration, and successful completion
CollegeBound Resources

CollegeBound Resources

As we work toward educational equity, we know a large number of high school students still don’t have access to the support of a dedicated college counselor or resources to help guide them on the path to college. From deciding which college(s) to apply to, to enrolling at college, we want to make sure students across the country can navigate this often complex process. We’ve put together resources to help guide high school seniors through some of the components of a successful college application process. Good luck – we know you can do it!

Program Details

Applying to College

  • Researching a Good Fit

    Ready to kickoff your journey to college? You’ll need to do research on colleges and universities to determine which schools are a good fit for you. Don’t forget to consider tuition costs! We’ve got you covered with a number of online resources to get your college list in top shape.

    Download First Step: Research

  • Application Checklists

    Once you’ve picked the colleges/universities you will be applying to, it’s time to tackle the applications. If you’ve set your sights on a CUNY, SUNY, or schools that accept the Common App, we’ve put together handy checklists to help keep you organized and on-track.

    HOT TIP: create a “Login Tracker” document to record all your new application portals’ login credentials (usernames and passwords)!

     

    common app

    Download Common App Checklist

     

    CUNY

    Download CUNY Application Checklist

     

    SUNY

    Download SUNY Application Checklist

  • Letter of Recommendation

    Colleges often ask applicants for letters of recommendation as part of your application; they provide admission staff with an outside perspective of your accomplishments and growth. Follow these steps to make the process as smooth as possible:

    1. Research each college/university’s letter of recommendation requirements.
    2. Figure out who is best suited to speak about your interests and abilities.
    3. Include a “brag sheet” when you make your request for a letter of recommendation.
    4. Make sure you list your recommenders on your application and you’ve made the appropriate FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) selection.

    Watch the video below for more!

    Download Letter of Recommendation Request Email Template

    Download Letter of Recommendation Brag Sheet Template PDF

    Download Letter of Recommendation Brag Sheet Template WORD

  • Personal Statement

    A personal statement is an important part of your college application that adds an individual touch. It goes far beyond your standardized test scores and grades to give a full picture of who you are and why you’d be a great addition to any college/university. We’ve partnered with Story2 to bring you their StoryBuilder platform, providing step-by-step guidance for communicating your unique stories.

    Watch the video below for more!

    in partnership with story2

  • Virtual Interview

    Many colleges and universities encourage students to participate in admissions interviews – even during a pandemic! While the format may be different this year, the benefits are the same. College interviews can help you build personal relationships with admissions staff, show off your strengths and skills, and get a better sense of whether a school is a good fit.

    Watch the video below for more!

    in partnership with Gettysburg College

Applying for Financial Aid

  • Get to Know the FAFSA

    Great job submitting your college applications! Up next on your path to college is figuring out how you’ll pay for school. Your first step will be submitting your FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Once you check this off your list, you’ll be able to qualify for federal grants, work-study, student loans, and even receive aid from your college and/or state. We’ve looked into five common FAFSA myths to help you separate fact from fiction before you get started.

    Watch the video below for more!

  • Financial Aid Tools

    Now that you’re more familiar with the FAFSA, it’s time to get your financial aid application process underway. We’ve partnered with uAspire to bring you tools and resources to help you along the way like checklists, timelines, videos, and uAspire’s College Cost Calculator!

    Financial Aid Resources

    • FAFSA tips video
    • FAFSA IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) video
    • Steps to take after the FAFSA
    • And more!

    Download Financial Aid Checklist

    A guide through the financial aid process from start to finish, including a timeline.

    College Cost Calculator

    When you receive your financial aid offers from colleges, use this tool to compare the total costs of attending different colleges.

    in partnership with u aspire

Choosing a College

  • Getting Ready for College Decisions

    Now that you’ve submitted your college and financial aid applications, it’s time to prepare to make your college decision. Even though there’s a lot of waiting at this stage as colleges send out their acceptances, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be proactive. During this time you can check your application statuses to make sure all the required documents and files have been submitted and received. Once you start to hear back from schools you’ll need to gather your admissions decisions, and eventually choose a college! We’ve put together some tips to help you cross the finish line to college enrollment.

    Watch the video below for more!

  • Enrolling in College

    Once your college admissions decisions come in, you’ll review the offer and financial aid package information for each school. Once you’ve picked the option that works best for you, you’ll want to make sure you’re taking all the right steps to enroll at the college of your choice. These checklists will help you cross the t’s and dot the i’s to get you from accepted to enrolled!

    Download Private College Enrollment Checklist

    Download CUNY Enrollment Checklist

    Download SUNY Enrollment Checklist

    Congratulations on making it through the college application process, and best of luck on this next exciting step on your higher education journey!!

Join Us in Driving Educational Equity!

Want to help us remove barriers to the educational opportunities all students deserve and learn more about how we’re closing the degree divide across the country?

Contact Us!

Brad Ruskin

Board Chair

Brad Ruskin joined Student Leadership Network’s Board of Directors in 2014 and was elected Board Chair in 2023. He believes passionately in equity for all students.

Brad is a Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP, and has tried a significant number of high profile, headline-generating cases to verdict, each one with a complete victory for Proskauer’s clients on issues ranging from so-called “bet-the-company” antitrust challenges to questions of Russian constitutional and military law. He currently serves as a Director of the Legal Aid Society, the nation’s oldest and largest legal services provider to the indigent. He also serves on its Executive Committee. He is a frequently published author of articles, has taught a graduate school class at NYU’s Tisch School, and has testified before legislative and other bodies concerning the administration of justice and court operations in New York State.

Beth Cohen

Senior Managing Director, Growth Strategy and Development

Beth H. Cohen is passionate about connecting people, ideas, and resources to create a more equitable world. Throughout her career, she has successfully managed teams for various impactful organizations to generate over $150M.

For the past decade, Beth has worked to generate support for initiatives that allow young people across the U.S. to gain access to transformative educational opportunities. In September 2022, she joined Student Leadership Network as Senior Managing Director of Growth, Strategy, and Development. Previously, Beth served as Vice President of External Relations at New Classrooms. At New Classrooms, she led the fundraising team to raise over $80M to support the growth and expansion of innovative learning models. Before that, Beth served as Vice President of Leadership Gifts at Teach for America, where she cultivated the organization’s largest national supporters and champions.

Early in her career, Beth focused on international poverty issues. From 2001-2011, she was Director of the Synergos Institute’s Global Philanthropists Circle, a dynamic network of leading philanthropists addressing questions of strategy, meaning, and impact.  Previously, she worked with Catholic Relief Services as Senior Program Manager in Lima, Peru, and as an Internal Program Auditor. As an Internal Program Auditor, she assessed the effectiveness of diverse programs in Africa, Latin America, and the Balkans. Beth also worked as a Change Management Consultant for Andersen Consulting, where she designed and developed training programs for public sector clients in Texas and Puerto Rico.

Beth holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a joint Master’s degree in Public Affairs and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, teenage daughters, and fluffy bernedoodle.

Sara Clarke

Chief Operating Officer

Sara C. Clarke is the Chief Operating Officer of Student Leadership Network. As a dedicated TYWLS volunteer and active contributor for 15 years, Sara is delighted to join the organization to apply her collaborative leadership and business acumen to help drive increased scale and impact. She brings over 20 years of experience at the confluence of strategic analysis, project management, and talent development. Sara has a proven commitment to equity and access to opportunity through decades of volunteer leadership focused on literacy, education, and career advancement.

Sara was most recently the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Analysis, and Collaboration at Showtime Networks Inc. She oversaw an adaptable, solution-oriented team, providing competitive analysis and strategic recommendations that helped Showtime exceed its performance targets. Earlier in her career, Sara was a consultant for Accenture in the Media and Entertainment practice. She serves as Co-President of the HBS African-American Alumni Association and has also served on the Board of Directors of the New York Chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications, chairing the award-winning Prime Access Executive Mentoring program and community service committee.

Sara holds a master’s degree from Harvard Business School in Business Administration, and a bachelor’s degree with honors in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University.

Meg Kayman

Managing Director, Finance and Administration

[email protected]

Meg is the Managing Director of Finance and Administration and has been with the organization since March 2009.  During that period, the organization has grown from a budget of $3.5 million to $11.0 million. She is part of the Administration Team which is responsible for building infrastructure to support the growing needs of the organization.

Prior to Student Leadership Network, Meg worked in the Financial Services Industry including positions as an equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs and a senior research analyst at General Electric’s Commercial Finance Division.  She also has been an active volunteer with numerous non-profit organizations and a board member of the HIV Law Project from 2005 to 2013.  She holds a B.A. in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from Michigan State University and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University.

Rob Robinson

Senior Managing Director, CollegeBound Initiative

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Robert Robinson is the Senior Managing Director of CollegeBound Initiative (CBI). Prior to joining Student Leadership Network’s central office team in 2008, he served as director of college counseling for CBI at two Brooklyn high schools: Juan Morel Campos and Middle College High School at Medgar Evers College. As a college counselor, Robert worked primarily with first-generation students of color with the goal of preparing them academically and financially for college enrollment. Before joining CBI, Robert served as an Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions at his Alma Mater, New York University (NYU) for nearly four years where he worked specifically with the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) in an effort to increase minority and financially disadvantaged student enrollment.

Robert received both his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and his Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from NYU.  He has also spent a summer in South Africa where he had the opportunity to study higher education and social reform. Robert prides himself on being an active member of his community.  He has volunteered with various non-profit organizations such as Grand Street Settlement and Publicolor. As a member of the New York State Association for College Admissions Counseling (NYSACAC), he has served as a Conference Presenter, Workshop Moderator and Planning Committee member. He has also served as a Summer Institute Mentor where his responsibilities included training new high school and college admissions counselors.

Laura Rebell Gross

Senior Managing Director, Girls’ Education National Team

[email protected]

Laura Rebell Gross is the Senior Managing Director for the Girls’ Education National Team — comprising The Young Women’s Leadership Schools (TYWLS) and Young Women’s Leadership Network (YWLN) — which serves more than 10,000 students every year. A leader in the education field for decades, Laura implements a vision for developing innovative programs that enrich students’ lives, create experiential leadership opportunities, and build a path to college. Her expertise is widely recognized and she has been honored by Jewish Women International and The Center for the Women of New York. Laura is a national speaker and expert on girls’ public education.

To impact the lives of girls beyond New York City, Laura co-founded the Young Women’s Charter Prep School of Rochester, a YWLN affiliate, and takes the lead in identifying and establishing new school affiliates nationwide. Notably, Laura’s path to leadership started as a public school teacher, including serving as an English teacher at SL Network’s flagship school in East Harlem for six years.  She earned a BA from Tufts University, an MAT from Brown University, and has completed coursework toward an Ed. D. in Curriculum and Teaching at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and the Warner School, University of Rochester.

Jon Roure

Executive VP & Chief Innovation Officer

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Jon Roure is the Executive Vice President & Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) for the Student Leadership Network. As the organization’s first CIO, Jon oversees program planning and implementation across the network. He continues to provide overall leadership to CollegeBound Initiative (CBI) while developing the work streams that support the organization’s strategic planning efforts. This includes increased focus and programming around alumni engagement, research and evaluation, and national expansion via Young Women’s Leadership Network affiliate schools.

Prior to this year, Jon served as the Senior Managing Director of CBI for many years and totals decades of college counseling and management experience in both the higher education and nonprofit sectors. Jon began his career at Columbia University as an Early Intervention Initiative Coordinator for the Double Discovery Program and a College Advisor for Columbia’s Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP). In 2001, Jon was hired by SL Network (formerly Young Women’s Leadership Network) as one of four inaugural counselors to pilot CBI in some of New York City’s Title 1 public high schools.  He served as a CBI director of college counseling at Health Opportunities High School for almost five years where he worked to build a college-going culture with its families, faculty, and staff that helped guide nearly 400 students to college.

Jon holds a B.A. in Sociology (1998) with a minor in Professional Youth Work from Rutgers University and an M.A. in Student Personnel Administration (1999) from Teachers College, Columbia University.  He is a proud alumnus of the Educational Opportunity Fund Program (EOF) at Rutgers University and is an example of what opportunity and access to higher education can do for first generation students.

Lesley Guggenheim

Chief Operating Officer

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Prior to joining Student Leadership Network Lesley spent 15 years supporting school systems, schools, and educators across the country to ensure students in under-resourced schools have access to the excellent education they deserve. She began her career working at – and later leading – the NYC Teaching Fellows (NYCTF) program and later became a Partner and then a Vice President at TNTP (formerly The New Teaching Project). Lesley has a BA in political science from Union College and an MPA in non-profit management from New York University’s Wagner School.

Yolonda Marshall

Chief Executive Officer

[email protected]

Yolonda Marshall has committed nearly two decades of her life working to ensure that children growing up in underserved communities across the country receive the education they deserve.  She is Student Leadership Network’s first-ever Chief Executive Officer charged with overseeing the management of the organization’s $11M budget, leading the implementation of the organization’s strategic direction, operations and ensuring that the organization is a great place to work and grow.

Prior to joining Student Leadership Network, Mrs. Marshall served as the Deputy Chief Officer, Regional Programs for New Leaders; an organization whose mission is to ensure high academic achievement for all children, especially students in poverty and students of color, by developing transformational school leaders and advancing the policies and practices that allow great leaders to succeed.  In this role, Mrs. Marshall was responsible for managing a team of Executive Directors who led all local program implementation, client engagement and management of 70+ staff across the country.

Mrs. Marshall began her education non-profit career with Teach For America where she held a number of leadership roles on their national development and human assets team, and also served as Interim Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia region. Prior to joining Teach For America, Mrs. Marshall had a 14 year career with Showtime Networks Inc where she honed her sales and marketing skills, provided strategic direction to the nation’s top cable companies and managed a team of marketing specialists that created and executed comprehensive marketing plans to help launch critically acclaimed and Emmy award winning programming.

Mrs. Marshall received her BS degree in Marketing from Tuskegee University and her MBA with a concentration in Marketing and Media Management from Columbia Business School.

Ann Rubenstein Tisch

Founder and President

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Ann began a 19-year career in broadcast journalism at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas. She then moved to WCOO-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and later joined NBC Network News as a national correspondent, where she developed a strong interest in educational issues.

After covering dozens of education stories for the network and reading and studying data on single-sex education, she was inspired to create an all-girls inner-city public school to serve disadvantaged families. In 1996, with the unanimous approval of the New York City Board of Education, Ann turned her idea into a reality and opened The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) of East Harlem – the first public all-girls school to open in the United States in 30 years. Her vision was to provide students growing up in underserved communities a high-quality college preparatory education modeled on the finest private schools.

Ann was educated at Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated summa cum laude with degrees in psychology and sociology. She currently serves as a trustee on the Board of Washington University in St. Louis. She also serves on the Dean’s Council of The New York University Tisch School of the Arts and is a trustee of the Center for Educational Innovation. She consults with many school districts and parent groups across the country about creating schools similar to TYWLS.

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