Agency Details:

College Track

College Track is the catalyst for change for under-resourced high school students who are motivated to earn a college degree. By offering tutoring, advising, and other enrichment and support, College Track helps students graduate from high school and succeed in college.

Description:
All of College Track’s programs for high school and college students are centered around our three core service areas: Academic Affairs, Student Life, and College Affairs. For each of these programs we have established a set of clearly defined student goals and expectations that are mapped to college admission requirements and are structured to best prepare students for the academic and social demands of college:
Academic Affairs reinforces the high standards and accountability that enable our students to enter college and succeed in life.
Student Life provides students the opportunities, resources, and tools to explore their passions and constructively engage in their communities through active civic and educational participation.
College Affairs helps our students identify colleges that interest them and find the scholarships they need to attend.
These three core programs form College Track's foundation, but, like anything else, it is the intangibles that make the real difference. The staff and volunteers set high standards, encouraging and supporting students when students feel daunted, and providing tough love when students are not performing to their potential. It is the personal element of the relationships formed, between volunteers, staff and students that make College Track a uniquely effective educational force.

History:
In 1995, while advising high school seniors from East Palo Alto about the college admission process, the co-founders of College Track realized that students who wanted to be the first in their families to attend college received little or no guidance about how to get there.
Their parents didn't know how to guide them, and they didn't get personal attention from their school counselors since each was assigned more than 1,000 students to advise and oversee.
Laurene Powell Jobs and Carlos Watson, the co-founders of College Track, also discovered that most students who were hungry for information and eager to attend college had not taken the classes needed to qualify for admission to a California state university. Recognizing that starting to work with seniors in their senior year was too late, the co-founders spent a year investigating area support programs and nonprofits that worked with teens.
They found many programs for elementary and middle school students, but no comprehensive program supporting high school students. Organizations that served teens provided only limited service, focusing on one area, such as tutoring, or youth leadership, but never taking a comprehensive approach.
College Track began working with 27 freshmen at Carlmont High School in September 1997, and has added more students each year. The organization grew to include all schools in the Sequoia Union High School District in 1999, expanded to Oakland in 2000, and opened a new center in San Francisco in 2007. College Track serves over 550 high school and college students through our centers in East Palo Alto, Oakland, and San Francisco. In the summer of 2008, College Track is opening up a center in New Orleans in partnership with the Urban League.

Contact people:

Damita Brown, Program Coordinator, (phone) Giana Rogriguez, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (510) 835-1775

Address:

436 14th Street Oakland, CA 94612 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.collegetrack.org

Directions:

From SFO Take US-101 north towards San Francisco for 11 miles. Continue on I-80 east towards Bay Bridge/Oakland for 7.5 miles. Take the I-580 east/downtown Oakland (CA-24) exit towards Hayward-Stockton and go 2 miles. Take the I-980 west exit towards downtown Oakland and drive. . . (more)   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 12th Street BART,   Walk distance (in minutes): 1 min.   Nearest Bus Stop: #'s 11, 51, 1R, 15, 18, 72, 12, 1 min. minute walk

Last updated on October 20, 2009