New College of Florida Receives YMCA Outstanding Community Partner Award
New College of Florida received the YMCA Outstanding Community Partner Award at the Sarasota YMCA Achievers Annual Recognition Breakfast earlier this month. This is the fifth year in a row that New College has been honored for its participation with the YMCA Achievers, a program in which New College staff provide Sarasota teen students with educational enrichment in order to develop the skills necessary to access educational excellence in school programs, decrease absenteeism and drop-out rates and prevent gang involvement and delinquent behavior.
Preparing for College, a semester-long program developed by the YMCA and New College staff, helps to guide the Achievers into higher education by partnering New College of Florida mentors with middle and high-school students in the Black and Hispanic Achievers programs. This year, New College staff re-formatted some of the programs in order to better serve students and families as they start the college preparation process. The collaboration of professionals and mentors provided hands-on experience and skills in areas such as investigating college, career and life skills planning, writing successfully and scholarships and financial aid. Students toured the New College campus and talked with current students about college life, submitted college application essays for one-on-one consultations with New College professors and were guided through the process of completing federal student aid forms.
“A special thanks to all New College participants, including Sonia Wu, Al Woodall, Cathy Cuthbertson, Jan Wheeler, Monica Baldwin and New College students Stacy Greene and Monica Tedder,” commented New College Assistant to the Dean of Students and liaison for the program, Beth Bowen. “A big thanks also to Estela Curiel and Joe Wright of the YMCA who make this program the success it is today!”
For more information, contact Aimee Chouinard, Media Relations Coordinator, at (941) 487-4152 or [email protected].