Collective Network Links Resources to Boost Students’ Postsecondary Success

Students who face particular challenges, including being economically disadvantaged and first in their families to pursue education beyond high school, are at heightened risk of graduating without a sustainable plan for their future.

  
  Even high-achieving students from supportive homes can be stymied by college planning complexities when their families don’t have first-hand experience to share tips for navigating processes such as admission, financial aid, major and course selection, and student housing.

  
  The story of Jane (not her real name), a local high school senior, illustrates what can happen when a supportive network provides guidance.

  
  Jane spent her early years with two parents in a modest home. After her father’s unexpected death when Jane was in high school, the family’s reduced income threatened to derail Jane’s plans for her future.

  She got back on track with the coordinated guidance of school counselors, a volunteer mentor, college and career advisors, and a youth organization advocate. Jane applied for and received scholarships and financial aid, landed an internship in her chosen field, and mapped out a plan for postsecondary education that is helping her to pursue her dream—running her own business in health care.

  Jane’s story represents realized potential, but many students who do not know where to turn for help are examples of lost potential. Although the community has numerous youth-serving and educational organizations, a solution was needed to link them.

  To address this critical issue, a $300,000 investment from Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation is helping the Education Foundation of Sarasota County (EFSC) move closer to realizing its goal of building a collective network of partners to identify and guide more students like Jane in attaining their postsecondary education dreams.

  “Our children deserve the best chance we as a community can give them,” said Barancik Foundation President | CEO Teri A Hansen. “And we can do that by investing in the infrastructure needed to create a safety net so tight that no student falls through.”

  Jennifer Vigne, EFSC president, said, “The Barancik Foundation’s generous award shows the importance of coming together to focus on this issue that’s essential for individual struggling students and a healthy community and culture.”

  Funds from the Barancik Foundation grant will be used to strengthen both operational and sustainable programs and strategies in support of the EFSC’s central goal to ensure that all Sarasota County students graduate with purpose and prepared for college, career and life after high school.

  Initiatives supporting the central goal include establishing comprehensive and accessible Student Success Centers in high schools; expanding the use of Naviance in district middle and high schools; and serving as the coordinating organization of the Local College Access Network (LCAN), a multi-sector collaborative committed to increasing college and career readiness and completion rates, especially among historically underserved students.

  The initial concentration is on identifying youth from middle school to age 24 that are facing particular barriers.

  Lost human potential resulting from an educational gap has devastating individual and generational impacts as well as a negative effect on the economy. 

  Labor economists project that 60% of Florida jobs will require a postsecondary degree or certificate by 2025 but only 40% of Sarasota residents hold that credential. Livable wage jobs often remain unfulfilled due to a lack of qualified applicants while under-educated workers are relegated to low-paying jobs.

  The long-term goal is to increase the rate by 2030 to 60% of Sarasota County residents 25 years and under who obtain a high-value postsecondary certificate, degree or training experience.

  “This funding gives our community a strong foundation to create transformative change by supporting a multi-pronged, multi-partner approach where stakeholders pool their unique   

   knowledge base for the greater good,” said Vigne.

  Underscoring the value of an engaged community, the $300,000 two-year grant designates a portion to be matched when $50,000 in donations is raised for the Student Success Fund.

  More information about the EFSC initiatives and the opportunity to contribute to the matching fund is available by calling the EFSC at 941-927-0965.