Scholarship • Leadership • Service

We now offer three distinct Cohort Programs. Our College Planning Cohort is offered both virtually and in-person to our school district partners. Our HBCU Cohort is a variation of our college planning cohort program that is HBCU-specific and offers both virtually and in-person sessions to our school district partners. Our Emerging Leaders Cohort is an all-virtual program offered to students in grades 9 – 11 (by application) from throughout the country. 

College Planning Cohort (TM)

College Planning Cohort participation is available to any student in grades 9 – 12 attending school in our partner school districts. Students in grades 9 – 11 are guided through our 3 pillars of scholarship, leadership, and service in a manner consistent with expanding students’ college and scholarship opportunities.

High school seniors receive comprehensive 1-on-1 guidance and wrap-around services, such as: 

  • Guiding students in selecting the Common Application prompt that will allow them to best tell their story and contextualize their college applications in a manner consistent with the selectivity of their colleges
  • Developing, reviewing, editing, and proofreading college and scholarship essays
  • Developing comprehensive college and scholarship lists to close financial aid gaps and minimize student and Parent PLUS loan debt
  • Ensuring that senior-year course schedules meet the expectations of college admissions officers and scholarship providers
  • Keeping students on track to meet college and scholarship deadlines
  • Selecting admissions cycles to maximize college admissions and scholarship opportunities
  • Selective college majors that are aligned with students’ “body of work”
  • Teacher/Counselor guidance in writing recommendation letters
  • Assisting students in matching to national and institutional scholarship programs
  • Preparing students for college and scholarship interviews
  • Assistance with completing the FAFSA
  • Guidance in completing the Net Price Calculators to estimate college costs and student loan debt exposure
  • Identifying college pathways aligned with students’ long term aspirations, i.e., career, graduate school, nursing school, medical school, dental school, pharmacy school, law school, etc.
  • Developing résumés and transitioning high school résumés to college CVs
  • Assistance with reviewing and appealing financial aid awards
  • Assistance with reviewing college applications from the perspective of college admissions
  • Supporting students throughout their undergraduate experience and recommending graduate school pathways

Curriculum:

HBCU Cohort (TM)

Many Black students find the most academically supportive, intellectually enriching, culturally reflective, and emotionally and physically safe spaces at HBCUs. However, according the UNCF report, “Fewer Resources, More Debt: Loan Debt Burdens Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” (Saunders, et al. 2016) 80 percent of students attending HBCUs rely on federal student loans to finance their education.

Our HBCU Cohort program has been developed to address these dual needs of guiding students into the right HBCU and into the right scholarship pathway to avoid student loan debt. Similar to our College Planning Cohort, high school and community college students are guided through our 3 pillars of scholarship, leadership, and service in a manner consistent with expanding students’ first-year and transfer college and scholarship opportunities. However, the focus is HBCU-specific and supported by our Why Attend an HBCUseries of books.

High school seniors and community college transfer students receive comprehensive 1-on-1 guidance and wrap-around services, such as: 

  • Guiding students in selecting the Common Application prompt that will allow them to best tell their story and contextualize their college applications in a manner consistent with the selectivity of their colleges
  • Developing, reviewing, editing, and proofreading college and scholarship essays
  • Developing comprehensive college and scholarship lists to close financial aid gaps and minimize student and Parent PLUS loan debt
  • Ensuring that senior-year course schedules meet the expectations of college admissions officers and scholarship providers
  • Keeping students on track to meet college and scholarship deadlines
  • Selecting admissions cycles to maximize college admissions and scholarship opportunities
  • Selective college majors that are aligned with students’ “body of work”
  • Teacher/Counselor guidance in writing recommendation letters
  • Assisting students in matching to national and institutional scholarship programs
  • Preparing students for college and scholarship interviews
  • Assistance with completing the FAFSA
  • Guidance in completing the Net Price Calculators to estimate college costs and student loan debt exposure
  • Identifying college pathways aligned with students’ long term aspirations, i.e., career, graduate school, nursing school, medical school, dental school, pharmacy school, law school, etc.
  • Developing résumés and transitioning high school résumés to college CVs
  • Assistance with reviewing and appealing financial aid awards
  • Assistance with reviewing college applications from the perspective of college admissions
  • Supporting students throughout their undergraduate experience and recommending graduate school pathways

Curriculum:

Emerging Leaders Cohort

Our Emerging Leaders Cohort is a college planning and leadership development multi-year program for students in grades 8 – 11. Students must apply to the program and present evidence that they are serious about their college planning and willing to make a commitment to our 3 pillars of scholarship, leadership, and service. While the program is a multi-grade level program, students may be assigned to grade-level appropriate discussion groups as needed. All monthly discussions will be facilitated by Rev. Dr. Yolanda Davis.

Program Components:

  • Over the course of 9 months from September through May, students will participate in a small group discussion on the second Saturday of each month (10:00 am – Noon EST) during which they discuss the reading, activities, and an assigned monthly topic.
  • The monthly discussions are based on a monthly theme beginning with setting school-year goals consistent with each student’s affirmed college and career aspirations.
  • Participating students must commit to using their gifts, talents, and voices to supporting the work of our foundation as part of developing the overall body of work required to establish themselves as highly competitive college and scholarship applicants. 
  • Students will develop collaborative, narrative writing, presentation, debate, and critical thinking skills.
  • Interested students must download, complete, and return the application, with all requested documents to be considered for the program.
  • If students are accepted into the Emerging Leaders Cohort, they must agree to the following:
    • No unexcused absences over the course of the 9 monthly meetings.
    • They must turn on their cameras and actively participate in the discussions.
    • They must complete the assigned reading and activities between meetings to be sufficiently prepared to contribute to the discussions.
    • They must me openly transparent with sharing their grades, classes, test scores, and personal goals.
    • They must be willing to contribute their gifts and talents to furtherance of the goals of our foundation.
  • Once accepted into the program, students must pay the $495.95 per year, non-refundable registration fee. Students with financial need may request a need-based scholarship from our foundation.
  • 2 unexcused absences, or failure to meet the expectations as set forth will result in removal from the program. Students who are removed from the program will not be refunded their registration fee.

Participating students will receive online access to our curriculum and all required books and materials.

Responding to Inequity

 
While any student attending school in our partner school districts may join our college planning cohort program, our program was developed by our founders, Mychal and Nina Wynn, to address the inequities in college admissions and student loan debt—both of which contribute to the wealth gap in America. In the article “American Wealth is Broken,” Maura Cheeks, daughter of Mr. Wynn’s Du Sable High School classmate and retired professional basketball player, Maurice Cheeks, recounts an all too familiar story:
 
Maurice Cheeks grew up in Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes, once the largest public-housing development in the country; it’s now gone—the last building was torn down in 2007. The development opened in 1962, housing up to 27,000 people despite being planned to hold less than half of that. By 1975, 92 percent of the families relied on government assistance. My grandmother was well known around the building she lived in. She used to belt out my dad’s and uncles’ names to get them to come inside as soon as the streetlights turned on. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros once said, ‘ don’t know of another place in America where there are 15 shootings and five killings over a weekend.’ My dad’s general feeling was that you lived your life as best you could. ‘it was rough,’ my dad told me. ‘But we didn’t really think about it at the time.’
While Maurice Cheeks escaped the violence and despair of Chicago’s South Side to West Texas A&M University on a trajectory that would lead him into the NBA, Mr. Wynn escaped to Northeastern University on a trajectory that would lead him to becoming an educator, researcher, and writer. However, the wealth gap continues to persist when so many students from lower income families lack the guidance to navigate their way through college without relying on student loan debt. Mr. Wynn’s older son received his BS in English from Amherst College on the strength of a full need-based scholarship while his younger son left Morehouse College debt-free on the strength of the Gates Millennium Scholarship.
 
Through his experiences as a child of poverty, and as a parent, Mr. Wynn believes that the conversation about college is not limited to “college readiness,” but expanding college access, increasing college match, and avoiding student loan debt—some of the many obstacles confronting students from low-income families and under resourced communities, those who will be the first in their family to attend college, and students from other marginalized groups. 
 
 
While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to end race as a consideration in college admissions, they chose to ignore the advantages of privilege, legacy status, celebrity status, athletes, and donors—all of which continue to benefit students based on income and family connections. Zachary Schermele in “The Chronicle of Higher Education“ notes:
 

Though the nation’s most-selective private colleges have long been criticized for perpetuating inequality, a sweeping new study has reached a stark conclusion: They “amplify the persistence of privilege across generations.”

Research released Monday from three education scholars at Harvard and Brown Universities pulls from a trove of data, including federal tax returns, standardized-test scores, and application and admissions records, some of which were anonymously provided to the researchers by selective colleges.

The study looked at “Ivy-Plus” colleges, defined as the eight Ivy League colleges plus Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, and the University of Chicago.

Their conclusion is decisive: getting into one of those colleges “dramatically changes children’s life trajectories.” Then, after those students graduate, they’re more likely to make more money than their peers who were educated elsewhere.

While our program does not suggest that every student should pursue admission to a highly selective college or university, we believe that every student should be aware of the opportunities, especially when attending such schools could result in avoiding student loan debt today and lifetime earnings in the future that can close the wealth gap. 

Our Program is One of a Kind

In 2013, while serving as the Education Ministry Leaders at the Turner Chapel AME Church in Marietta, Georgia, Mychal and Nina Wynn developed a partnership between the Turner Chapel AME Church and their foundation to create the first cohort of aspiring college students (Students Offered $4.1 million in scholarships). The two founding principles were: (1) Support students and families in small groups (i.e., cohorts); (2) Provide students and families with the latest information to assist students in gaining admission into the ‘right’ colleges and avoiding student loan debt. 
 
In 2014, the foundation partnered with Florence County School District 3 (SC); in 2015, the foundation partnered with Guilford County Schools (NC); in 2016, the foundation partnered with Judson ISD (TX); and in 2018, the foundation partnered with Pinellas County Schools (FL). In 2020, our program received national recognition as a recipient of the National School Boards Association Magna Award for providing college planning guidance and support for students from marginalized populations (e.g., lower income, first generation, refugees, and undocumented).
 
As members of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC), our foundation is a recognized Community-based Organization (CBO) by hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the United States. While other programs are focused on identifying and supporting high performing high school juniors and seniors, our program is focused on developing any student in grades 6 – 10 into high performing students and becoming competitive applicants for gaining admission to selective colleges and being awarded high dollar scholarships.
 
In the following video, produced by cohort students, Kimberly was offered 6 full undergraduate scholarships (Amherst, Duke, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Washington & Lee, Williams) and graduated with a BA in Math and Chemistry from Williams College. We then assisted Kimberly in applying to graduate school, where she was offered 6 full graduate school scholarships (Dartmouth, Iowa State, University of Arizona, University of Iowa, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the University of Nebraska) and is now a Teaching Assistant pursuing a Ph.D. in Math at Iowa State University. Kimberly is also the recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Fellowship. As a woman of color, first generation college student, and from a lower income family, Kimberly, and countless other students like her, are reflected in our curriculum as a blueprint for such students to navigate the obstacles onto deserving postsecondary pathways.

 

Note: Since recording this video, Kimberly is approaching the completion of a PhD in Math; Omar (creator of the video) is now attending Brown University and is a Jack Kent Cooke College Scholar; Josiah is a QuestBridge College Match Finalist and is awaiting his college match; and Jocelyne has applied Early Decision to Brown University and is awaiting her admissions decision. Other students from the youth leadership board: TaRetta is attending North Carolina A&T State University on a full scholarship; Jayla is attending Williams College on a full scholarship; Anna is awaiting college admissions decisions; and Sydney has completed her studies at The University of Chicago is is now applying to medical school.

7-year Curriculum

Our College Planning Cohort Program is based on a 7-year online and print curriculum guiding students across our 3 pillars of scholarship, leadership, and service. Lessons are designed around the “Essential Questions,” developed by the Coalition of Essential Schools (Coalition of Essential Schools):
  • From whose viewpoint are we seeing or reading or hearing? From what angle or perspective?
  • How do we know when we know? What’s the evidence, and how reliable is it?
  • How are things, events, or people connected to each other? What is the cause and what is the effect? How do they fit together?
  • What’s new and what’s old? Have we run across this idea before?
  • So what? Why does it matter? What does it all mean?

Through the process of deeply considering their current goals and long-term aspirations within a college planning context, students increase their critical thinking skills as they continuously ponder, “What is the right college for me? Where will I receive the most financial aid? How can I further develop my body of work?”

3-year Emerging Leaders Middle School Program: Our middle school college planning approach is to guide middle school students in planning their 7-year middle school through high school trajectory across the areas of academics, leadership, community service, and school/community engagement.
 
4-year College Planning Cohort Program: Our high school college planning approach is to inspire students to be intrinsically-motivated learners and leaders, and to maximize school and community-based opportunities to develop their gifts and talents, and to have a community impact through their leadership and service.
 
Through our grade-level appropriate curriculum:
 
  • 9th graders EXPLORE and ESTABLISH themselves for making a successful transition into high school through a yearlong focus on study skills and planning their high school trajectory across our 3 pillars of scholarship, leadership, and service.
  • 10th graders REVISIT and RE-AFFIRM their successful approach to studying and learning and aligning scholarship pathways with their academics, leadership, service, and gifts and talents.
  • 11th graders PLAN to pursue specific college and scholarship pathways.
  • 12th graders IMPLEMENT THEIR PLANS in pursuing their affirmed college and scholarship pathways.

College Planning is All About Strategy

Only 1.5% college students (including athletes) are attending college on a full scholarship (Source: ThinkImpact). In contrast, nearly 50% of students in our program are offered full scholarships each year. To fully appreciate the extraordinary outcomes of our students, read the Washington Post article, “Your child probably won’t get a full ride to college.” There are no programs that can be compared to our program. Programs such as AVID, TRIO, and Upward Bound are focused primarily on increasing college readiness and inspiring students from lower income families and marginalized communities to attend college. While different from AVID, TRIO, and Upward Bound, Naviance  and   SchooLinks are also “college readiness programs” not college planning programs and make no claims to the contrary.
 
None of these, or other such programs, proclaim to be focused on guiding students in matching to the ‘right’ colleges or to the ‘right’ scholarships. They do not provide guidance for increasing on-time degree attainment or eliminating student loan debt. They also make no claims for guiding students in choosing the ‘right’ essay topics; packaging themselves to be the most competitive college and scholarship applicants possible; developing and presenting an overall ‘body of work’ consistent with the mission, vision, and core values of their desired colleges; or assisting students in developing an exceptional “self presentation” resulting in being offered admission to the country’s most selective colleges, with the most generous financial aid polices; or being offered the country’s most selective scholarships. This is what we do, which is why comparing our program (or our outcomes) to such programs is an unfair comparison.

 

If increasing college readiness and expanding college access was all that was needed, student loan debt would not be so high and college completion rates so low. The table presented below, taken from the SallieMae report, “How America Pays for College 2018” provides insight into the $1.56 trillion student loan debt crisis and the disproportional load being carried by students from demographically identifiable subgroups.

College Readiness and Culturally Relevant

Our program meets the standards of U.S. Department of Education ESSA, Title IV, Part A which focuses on increasing student achievement with access to a well-rounded education; increasing students’ technology proficiency and digital literacy; supporting college and career counseling; promoting access to accelerated learning opportunities such as AP, IB, and dual enrollment; promoting parent involvement; establishing community partners; innovative uses of technology; providing high quality digital learning opportunities; and delivering specialized curricula using technology. However, our program not only meets federal guidelines, but inspires. Our curriculum is culturally relevant in both content and student outcomes. Diverse student profiles are embedded in our curriculum so that students see themselves in the curriculum and are exposed to the college and scholarship pathways chosen by students from similar socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Students are exposed to postsecondary pathways into technical schools, community colleges, research universities, liberal arts colleges, military academies, HBCUs, High Hispanic Serving Institutions, and first generation-friendly institutions and support programs.

Our cohort students are choosing to be intentional in their college planning and are among the top performing and most motivated students in their respective schools; are measurably increasing their GPAs and SAT/ACT scores; are enrolling into the most rigorous classes; and are performing thousands of hours of community service and assuming leadership roles across an array of clubs, organizations, activities, and athletic teams.

As a result of making informed college choices, our cohort students are assuming student loan debt at a far lower rate than the national average and graduating on time at a rate far higher than the national average. We are proud of the many hundreds of students with whom we have worked who are choosing to “Own the Process.” 

In 2019 Elon University Odyssey Scholar, Yuzu Do, from our Guilford County Schools Cohort was awarded 3 full scholarships and accepted the full scholarship to Elon University. Yuzu, a first generation immigrant from Viet Nam, is pictured above (fifth from left in the front row) with other Odyssey Scholars.

In 2023, Yuzu went on to graduate from Elon University with two degrees—BS in Accounting and MBA.

In 2018 Torch Scholar, Damian Lee from Florence County School District 3 Cohort (SC) (seated on the far left), was offered 3 full scholarships and accepted the full scholarship to Northeastern University.

In 2023, Damian received in BS in Political Science from Northeastern and was selected as one the inaugural Northeastern University Senior Leadership Award recipients.

The Differences Between College Planning, College Readiness, and College Awareness

Typically, school, mentoring, and community-based programs provide college readiness or expand college awareness through social skill development, study skill development, college tours, and conversations about college and careers. However, college planning is largely relegated to private college admissions counselors or advisors who work one-on-one with students or in small groups for fees ranging from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. The Princeton Review “Ultimate Admissions Package” costs $2,799 and is targeted toward high school seniors who are ready to apply to college. Private College Advisors can easily cost $10,000 for a Common Application and essay review.

In the article, “How Much Would You Pay to Get Your Child into Harvard,” the $10,000 consultant fee was paid by a family to increase the odds of their child being offered admission to Amherst College—where our older son received his degree and where we have successfully assisted many cohort students in being offered admission. One of our Guilford County Schools Cohort students, Brenna Kaplan, posted a video sharing her journey, and our guidance, into Amherst College. 

We are the only nonprofit community-based organization (CBO) with a comprehensive proprietary research-based and research-responsive curriculum providing college planning guidance freely to students and families in our partner school districts; at a deeply discounted price for students at our faith- and community-based partners, and at minimal price directly to students and families through our online program. In contrast to college readiness and college awareness, college planning involves course planning, summer planning, college/career research, self-assessment, leadership development, focusing community service activities, choosing the right extracurricular activities, social media assessment, navigating online portals, communicating with college admission and financial aid officers, completing the FAFSA and CSS Profiles, personality type profiles, multiple intelligences, narrative writing, institutional and private scholarship research, reviewing and negotiating financial aid award letters, and setting short- and long-term goals within a grade level specific and strategic context. Students and parents, particularly those who will be the first in their family to attend college, need assistance with navigating the FAFSA and CSS Profile, and communicating with college admission and financial aid officers. All of these areas are covered in our printed materials, throughout our online curriculum, and through one-on-one conversations with students and families.

Click here to download our Pinellas County Schools Program Outcomes