| Type | Non-profit organization |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | New York City Boston, MA |
| Key people |
Jeannie Rosenthal, Founder Lauri Novick, Executive Director |
| Website | letsgetready.org |
Let's Get Ready (LGR) is a non-profit organization that provides free SAT and college preparation to low-income high school students. Programs are based at colleges and staffed by trained college student volunteers. Let's Get Ready is the largest network of student-run college access programs in the U.S., serving approximately 2,500 high school students per year. [1]. Let's Get Ready's mission is to "expand access to college in America by mobilizing, equipping, and empowering a movement of college students helping high school students get to college.".[2]
Contents |
It was started in 1998 by a group of college-aged students in Westchester, NY. It spread from a local program to Harvard University. In 2000, the College Board gave LGR money to replicate their program in NYC schools. In 2007, Goldman Sachs gave the New England LGR programs $400,000 to help expand their programs. This money accounted for 1/3 of the budget for these programs.[3] As of 2007[update], LGR ran 40 programs throughout the Northeast. The program has a partnership with Teach for America.
LGR runs afterschool programs that prepare students for college and tutor them for the SATs. The course is open to high school Juniors and Seniors.
LGR program managers recruit highly skilled college students who are passionate about education and/or college access to serve as paid Site Directors. New Site Directors are chosen for each site each semester, although there is room for continuity. Site Directors recruit talented college coaches and eager high school students, typically working with a site partner, which may be a community center (for example, LGR works with the Goddard Riverside Center), a college program (for example, LGR works extensively with the CUNY Black Male Initiative), or a high school (for example, LGR runs a program that sends Columbia students to Frederick Douglass Academy). LGR then provides training to the college coaches and support to the Site Directors, and the program begins. Each student receives 39 hours of completely free SAT preparation lessons, including practice tests, and 15 hours of college guidance. Students and coaches often develop powerful bonds, and many coaches return year after year. Students average a score increase of 110 points; many students have increases of 300-400 points. Over 90% of program graduates go directly to college after high school.
Barnard College
Boston College
Clark University
Columbia University
Fairfield University
Harvard University
Mount Holyoke College
New York University
University of Pennsylvania
Tufts University
Vassar College
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Baruch College
Colgate University
Cornell University
Princeton University
Boston, MA
Bridgeport, CT
Brockton, MA
Bronx, NY
Brooklyn, NY
Dorchester, MA
Harlem, NY
Lawrence, MA
Manhattan, NY
Mount Vernon, NY
New Haven, CT
New Rochelle, NY
New York City
Queens, NY
Stamford, CT
Summit, NJ
White Plains, NY
Worcester, MA
The organization has over 10,000 alumni who have studied at prestigious universities across the country. Alumni go on to become leaders in diverse fields with a passion for their communities. The organization prides itself on the number of program participants who have returned to LGR as coaches, Site Directors, and staff members, continuing the cycle of service.
College Board
SAT
College admissions in the United States