For more than 30 years, TPI has been designing and managing college access and success and scholarship programs for funders who want to have an impact on the lives of young people through higher education. While each program has unique elements based on funders’ own goals, we have found that one key to students’ success in college is their ability to access support in the form of peer communities and networking.

Take a quick peek inside a recent gathering of one group of scholars TPI supports. We think it illustrates how – and why – thoughtful, strategic college success programs like those designed and managed by TPI deliver graduation rates higher than the general national average, and change not only individual lives, but the trajectory of entire families and communities.

The Red Pine Scholars Program is a college success initiative supported by an anonymous family foundation in Massachusetts. Through four-year scholarships, mentoring, and other support, Red Pine helps high-achieving, low- to middle-income students from Massachusetts turn their college aspirations into a reality. Designed and administered by TPI, Red Pine has supported 335 Scholars since its founding in 2012. This year alone, 115 Red Pine Scholars are enrolled in colleges across the United States, pursuing degrees in majors from psychology, nursing, biology, and engineering, to history, the arts, finance, business, and more.

The Red Pine Scholars Program engages students in a rich community of peers, offers one-on-one mentoring by advisors, and draws the Scholars together into a network of students with shared experiences at events with outside guest speakers and professionals. Earlier this year, for example, 40 Scholars gathered for the annual Red Pine Winter Event. The panel discussion about careers was moderated by Red Pine alumna Jada Alexander, part of the first cohort of Red Pine Scholars in 2012 who graduated from New York University, has worked in the education and nonprofit sector, and recently earned an MBA from the Brandeis University Heller School for Social Policy & Management. The panel drew healthcare, sales, and financial services professionals to share their personal stories and career insights.

For funders who have family histories of college graduates, consider how in any casual conversation between generations, or even among peers, you have coached and encouraged the college students in your life. How to make the right impression, how to network, or whether an action will be seen as inexperienced are probably all topics you have offered advice on to young people. This winter’s Red Pine Scholars event was a chance for students to ask those same questions of professionals who had backgrounds like their own in a safe, nonjudgmental environment. In return they received invaluable advice like:

  • Make the most of every professional opportunity. Students of every background need reminders that every part-time job, internship, or volunteer effort is an opportunity to build strong relationships with coworkers and supervisors and prove soft skills such as time management, diligent work, willingness to learn, that establish the groundwork for solid references or hiring opportunities.
  • Be curious and open-minded.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help – and utilize your network!
  • Challenges will come your way, but know that you are stronger than anything life throws at you.

Read the full article about accessing peer networks in college by Lacey Upton at The Philanthropic Initiative.