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Daemen the Only WNY College Offering College Summit Workshops
President Obama Giving a Portion of his Nobel Prize Award to College Summit
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Daemen the Only WNY College Offering College Summit Workshops,
Aimed at Opening College Opportunities for Low-Income Students
March 12, 2010
Media
Contacts: Mike Andrei
Director- College Relations
(716) 839-8472
mandrei@daemen.edu
Frank Williams
Director-Undergraduate Admissions
Daemen College
(716) 839-8225
fwilliam@daemen.edu
Five months ago, President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for his vision of a collaborative world. Today, the President announced that he's giving a portion of his prize money to College Summit - honoring the innovative organization’s collaboration with schools, policymakers, and families to move every student in America toward college.
College Summit is one of just 10 organizations to share in President Obama's prize money, and will receive $125,000. “We will use every penny to help more low-income students get to and through college,” noted College Summit Founder and CEO J.B. Schramm. “To our minds, ensuring that the next generation is ready to create, thrive, and compete in 21st-century jobs is the single best way to advance innovation, prosperity, and peace.”
In an effort to get more young people to college, Daemen has, for the last three years, collaborated with College Summit – the only Western New York College to do so, and will join with College Summit again this year. Additionally, Daemen is the only four year college in NY State to be involved with College Summit. Other colleges and universities outside of New York State that collaborate with College Summit include: Yale University; Amherst College; and Quinnipiac College.
College Summit, an innovative not-for-profit program which teams up with high schools and colleges across the country, works to increase opportunities for a college education, with a special focus on students beyond the middle class. The College Summit workshops, which 1,500 low-income seniors across the country attend each summer, are shown to substantially increase the college-going odds of students who participate.
The Daemen/College Summit Workshops have tutored more than 100 College summit students each of the past three summers. The organization also involves 20 chaperones, and writing coaches. Daemen’s commitment to the College Summit sessions also extends to providing housing, meals, and additional staff support.
“College Summit marks a significant step forward in efforts to get more young people to college, particularly those from low-income communities,” noted Frank Williams, Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Daemen. “Each year we have held these workshops with College Summit they were, by everyone’s assessment, a real success.
“These students have talent and academic potential not revealed by their SAT scores. Through the workshops, with the assistance of writing coaches and staff, they are able to write college application essays that reveal who they are, and where they have come from. Their life stories are often compelling.”
Daemen’s College Summit workshops are designed to assist students to gain admission to the college or university of their choice. Following last summer’s College Summit workshops, five students who wrote essays during the program were accepted at Daemen.
“We are honored and very excited about President Obama’s decision to donate to College Summit. Daemen College has been our flagship College partner in New York and we continue to leverage our partnership as a model for the entire organization,” said College Summit Program Director Fred Richmond.
“Up until this point, our education system has not systematically ensured that all young people who are college-ready actually make it to college,” Richmond added. “We have found national data indicates that low-income students who got A’s on a standardized test went to college at the same rate as top-income students who got D’s on the same standardized test – which is why we focus on the ability to write a clear, thoughtful essay. It has become an increasingly critical part of the college admissions process.”
College Summit believes that schools that address this college enrollment gap are signaling their commitment both to delivering a rigorous, high quality education to all students, and to connecting that education to a promising future in college and beyond. Academic rigor is combined with a comprehensive effort to ensure that all young people have the tools and motivation to make it to the next level of education.
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