For Donors
WHAT WE DO
WithinReach Foundation awards scholarship to deserving adult learners, looking to complete a minimum of an Associate’s degree at a CUNY institution. We are hoping that these recipients will become leaders in a larger community of adult learners. We also provide individualized support and create a community that allows them to feel less alone in their college classrooms.
WHO ARE THE STUDENTS?
The students are adult learners who have given themselves the opportunity to go back to school and get their high school equivalency diplomas. The students have chosen to study at the BMCC continuing Education Department and completed at least one semester.
There are many reasons adults need a second chance to earn their high school diplomas: death of a parent at an early age, the need to work to support families, early parenthood, childhood illness, inadequate and dangerous schools, and little access to education, particularly for girls, in the countries they grew up in. All arrive in adult education classes woefully underprepared academically, mainly as a result of deep poverty.
Our students don’t take the decision to come back to school lightly. As adults they have many responsibilities and burdens. The decision to come back to school means making many sacrifices not the least of which is time away from with their children. They forego sleep so they can study. They pick up extra shifts at work so that they will have metro fare to attend school every day. They stay behind after class to help other students who are having trouble understanding the lessons.
The sheer determination they have to achieve this goal is absolutely inspiring. Within minutes of meeting one of our students, you can tell they aren’t just here to pass a test, they are here to change their lives. They dream of higher education.
Unfortunately their dreams of college are too seldom realized. Only 6% of those who earn HSE diplomas make it through one year of college. The principal reason is financial. Most simply do not have the money to attend college full time and complete degree programs. Jobs and families take precedent. Also, many adult students don’t have community to rely on to help them navigate their college experience and academic workload. We hope to help bridge that gap.
HOW CAN WITHIN REACH CHANGE A LIFE?
College means different things to different students. College means a greater wage-earning capacity over the course of one’s lifetime. College may mean pride and success that can be passed on through generations. College means a door to an education not otherwise available. College may mean achieving goals far beyond those imagined.
By providing the financial help to receive a college education, WithinReach will be changing the lives of students in a deep and meaningful way. A college education allows students to provide a better life for themselves and their families. They will be role models to their children and to other students who have been in their shoes.
Providing the financial assistance to achieve these goals means that WithinReach is not only changing the lives of our students awarded the scholarship, it will change our society as a whole for the better.
In the words of the great civil rights leader and mathematics educator, Bob Moses:
“To demand quality education is not radical, to demand quality education for the sons and daughters of sharecroppers is radical indeed.”
YOUR DONATION MAKES A DIRECT IMPACT
