Join the AmeriCorps Ohio College Guides
You’re not alone if you feel that the key to college access is knowledge; knowledge spread through caring adults who can connect with students as they seek to connect students with futures lined with open doors.
OCAN feels the same way, and has partnered with other like-minded organizations across the state, with support from the Ohio Commission on Service and Volunteerism, to develop an AmeriCorps initiative that will do just that: provide caring adults equipped with the know-how and the passion to connect traditionally underserved students with a future lined with open doors.
The Ohio College Guides combats issues of college access in school districts that need them the most, districts with low graduation and college-going rates, but hard-working students who face the obstacles that come with the “status” of low-income, minority, or a first generation college student. The Ohio College Guides is based on a near-peer model, which allows students to learn from recent college graduates who have ‘been there, done that’ in terms of the college-going and completing process. Ohio College Guides serve as a corps of enthusiastic and driven individuals whom students can easily relate with, confide in, and eventually emulate as they are guided in planning for their future and taking constructive steps toward successful completion of their goals.
As an AmeriCorps initiative, members of the Ohio College Guides undergo ample training, and are provided with valuable professional development, networking, and guidance and support with career and graduate study goals. Members serve full-time, or 1,700 hours over 11 months, and in return receive a modest living allowance, health insurance, and an Educational Award upon completion of the full-time commitment.
For the 2011-2012 academic year, 60 AmeriCorps Members are serving through the Ohio College Access Network’s College Guides initiative at the following host sites: Canton, Ohio (Stark Education Partnership); Cleveland, Ohio(College Now Greater Cleveland); Cincinnati, Ohio (Cincinnati Youth Collaborative); Columbus, Ohio (I Know I Can); Yellow Springs, Ohio (Greene County College Success Partnership); Marietta, Ohio (Connect to Success), and Zanesville, Ohio (Scholarship Central).
Check out these links for additional information:
Ohio College Guides Recruitment Blog
Press Release
Benefits of an AmeriCorps Program
Questions?
Please contact Bridget McFadden, Director, AmeriCorps Ohio College Guides at 216.241.6133 or mcfaddenb@ohiocan.org.