Pasadena, CA – February 15, 2012 -

College Access Plan (CAP) (www.collegeaccessplan.org), a Pasadena nonprofit organization, has received funding from the Pasadena Community Foundation to provide 40 juniors at John Muir High School with a seven-week SAT preparatory course. Students will participate in six hours of formal instruction from Study Smart Tutors, an SAT Prep company that partners with nonprofits and schools to design courses tailored to a specific population of students, particularly those with historically low test scores. CAP’s staff will provide an additional eight hours of follow up instruction, including practice tests, study sessions, and course homework assistance.

Alexia, a Muir senior who was one of 40 junior participants in last year’s course, says that Study Smart’s facilitator, Jack, “was willing to help students out, and he fully understood the test.” She thinks that this year’s students, who will benefit from expanded program hours, are “lucky because they get more sessions, more time, and more opportunities to meet.” Alexia encourages this year’s juniors to “be prepared and do all the homework,” and she describes her experience in last year’s course as “awesome.”

The first session for this program will meet on March 1st, and students will gather for two hours every Thursday for seven weeks. The goal of this program is to provide students with the strategies and practice that will help them to increase their score potential at a school where students traditionally score below the national average in all three areas of the SAT Reasoning test.

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Read more in an article published in Pasadena Now!

Our awesome professional visitors discuss the rewards and challenges of their careers.

Last Thursday, a handful of brilliant professionals from careers in health, law, and education visited with our Freshman Footsteps to College cohort to discuss what their careers are like and how they arrived to where they are today. Visitors, including a CAP mentor, CAP’s co-founder, and representatives from the Pasadena Department of Health, focused primarily on their journeys through college and graduate school, how they decided on their current career focus, and the big unexpected light bulbs that come from experience. As many adults have learned (sometimes the hard way), we do not always end up in the career we envisioned for ourselves when we were in high school. But the exploration students do now can impact the choices they make later, even if they shift their career focus later in life. Even more significantly, all of our speakers cited their experiences in college as fundamental to their path to success.

Prior to this visit, our students took advantage of this great opportunity by exploring some of their own career interests and preparing some questions for their visitors. With Lina’s guidance, they even created their own job descriptions–imagining the education, skills, and knowledge they would need to successfully achieve their current career goals. A number of students also came up with on-the-spot questions for their guests, and everyone lingered after the presentations to chat and learn more from the experts. CAP is happy to celebrate the conclusion our Freshman Cohort’s first career month!

Career Day roundtable in CAP's Muir office

Next month’s goal: exploring colleges.

CAP is super proud of our seniors. They applied to these schools and more:

Arizona State University
Azusa Pacific University
Boston College
Brown University
CSU Bakersfield
CSU Channel Islands
CSU Chico
CSU Dominguez Hills
CSU East Bay
CSU Fresno
CSU Fullerton
CSU Long Beach
CSULA
CSUN
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
CSU San Bernardino
CSU San Marcos
Claremont McKenna College
Clark University
Colgate University
Colorado State University
Columbia University
DePaul University
Dominican University of California
Drew University
Duke University
Green Mountain College
Hampshire College
Harvey Mudd College
Hofstra University
Howard University
Humboldt State University
Kettering University
Loyola Marymount University
Louisiana State University
Mills College
Montana State University
New York University
Notre Dame de Namur University
Occidental College
Pepperdine University
Pitzer College
Pomona College
Rutgers University
Sacramento State University
St. John’s University
San Diego State University
San Francisco State University
San Jose State University
Santa Clara University
Scripps College
Smith College
Spelman College
Tennessee College of Social Work
Tuskegee University
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCLA
UC Merced
UC Riverside
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
UC San Diego
University of Denver
University of Colorado
University of La Verne
University of Michigan
University of New Mexico
University of Florida
University of Redlands
University of San Diego
University of San Francisco
University of Southern California
Vassar College
Wesleyan University
Western Michigan University

Congratulations on all your hard work! If you are one of our seniors and you applied to schools you do not see listed here, please add your college(s) in the comments section.

Now’s the fun part–waiting for all the acceptances to roll in!

• End of the year charitable giving
• Top 10 lists

So let’s combine them. Here are the ten best reasons (aside from the obvious-and-delightful tax write-off) to give to CAP before the new year:

10. Your stomach can’t possibly take another peppermint cappuccino, and yet you still have cash left in your peppermint cappuccino account.

9. You went to college once, and you had the time of your life with all the book-a-learnin’ and friend-a-makin’. You like the idea of today’s younger people having the same great adventures.

8. You returned that reindeer sweater from Aunt Hilda, and you simply cannot think of anything to do with the cash handed to you by the clerk at Tacky Christmas Sweaters “R” Us.

7. You know that giving to a local organization has a big impact. While large organizations may barely notice your gift, a donation to CAP can literally deliver measurable and direct services to students. For example, a modest donation today will go directly to providing a high school senior with one-to-one support completing the FAFSA (that irritating federal form that students must complete to qualify for financial aid) next week.

6. Your mom taught you that giving is nice.

5. You’ve already bought six outfits for your rottweiler, and, frankly, he’s starting to look a little embarrassed.

4. Because CAP is about $3,400 behind on its 2011 donations goal. This doesn’t sound like much, and, with your help, it isn’t. But to a small shop like ours, any loss in revenue equals a loss in services. We run a tight ship to insure that we use your investment well and provide A+ services to our students. This means that we rely on your generosity to fuel our engine, and, right this second, we need you to help meet our modest-but-also-huge year-end goal.

3. You love that CAP’s programs not only help students to get to college–we also help them to be prepared leaders and thoughtful community members. We encourage our students to be successful collegians who leave a serious mark on their schools and in their dream professions.

2. Despite warnings from your bookie, you are absolutely convinced your team will cover the point spread on New Years Day.

1. As we look to the future in this new year, given that the fiscal climate is what it is, support from private individuals fuels the vital engine providing college-readiness services to students. Our public schools simply do not have the capacity to focus on college the way they once could, and CAP helps to buttress a system in crisis. We love our teachers and counselors, but, with huge class and caseloads and endless bureaucracy, they can no longer do this work on their own. They need CAP’s help. And we need your help. Together, we will make sure the graduates of 2012 and beyond have the support to reach their Big Dreams.

Give via PayPal now by clicking the Big Green Donate Button on this page.

Set up a monthly gift of $10 or more here.

Donate the old school way by sending a check to College Access Plan:

College Access Plan
871 E. Washington Blvd.
Suite 207
Pasadena, CA 91104

Looking back: Some of our favorite 2011 moments!

December: ice skating at Pershing Square

November: CAP's 5-Year Anniversary Party at John Muir High School

October: Interview with the Altadena Patch

October: Applications Workshop for Parents and Students

June: Graduation

May: CAP's year-end Recognition Event for students and volunteers

April: SAT prep class for juniors

January: FAFSA with the class of 2011

Then we enjoyed an early evening outdoor ice-skate at Pershing Square!

Everyone was relaxed and laughing–and tired out by the end of it all. It was the perfect CAP day.

Beyond that, CAP students have had admissions interviews at Occidental College, Harvey Mudd, Scripps College, Wesleyan, and Smith. These provide a great opportunity for our students to learn more about small liberal arts colleges, and it gives the colleges a chance to meet some incredible students.

Chelsie and Maria visit Scripps College and Harvey Mudd to show off their brilliance in admissions interviews!

We are most impressed that 98 seniors–that’s 45% of the senior class–visited us this fall to search for colleges, fill out applications, work on personal statements, and more. To put that into perspective, last year, 46% of the senior class visited us during the entire school year, which we thought was impressive. This year’s attendance shows a great amount of dedication on the part of the class of 2012, but it also points to a greater trend: more and more John Muir Mustangs see four-year colleges as a viable option worthy of their exploration and effort. We hope to work with even more students during FAFSA and community college application seasons, but we’re already so excited about the flurry of excitement focused on college this year.

But that was just the start of an awesome week.

CAP seniors worked AMAZINGLY hard this week, and, as of 6:30 this evening, all California State University and University of California applications have been SUBMITTED! Tomorrow, the crunch to submit private school applications begins, but tonight, we get to relax and reflect, as our students have completed applications to all nine eligible UC’s and 21 out of 23 Cal States. Congratulations on a job well done, seniors!

A few of CAP's hardworking seniors with Lina and Laura, CAP's tireless program coordinators!

Kathleen and Mo began the evening with some stories and thank yous (and a few happy tears that the comics didn’t like one bit). As our evening’s host, Dan Rothenberg, joked, crying is a real comedy killer! But he had the audience laughing quickly enough, and from that point on, it was all comedy, all the time. Each comic brought his or her own style and wit; and each, of course, found ways to involve (make fun of) our audience members. By the end, we all had bellies full with food and exhausted from laughter.

CAP's staff members Lina and Laura joined by friends and family

Thanks to the wonderful owners and staff of Mijares for hosting the event (and for feeding us all such delicious dinners).

Mijares staff joined in on the fun!

And, of course, thank you to everyone–friends, family, colleagues, and total strangers–who came and whooped and hollered with us. We had so much fun because you were there with us!

Here are some photos from the celebration. Enjoy!

Delicious "Brain Food"

Lizeth, Maria, Briana, and Daena

Denisse and Chelsie study as they celebrate

Alexia and Laura--the Cupcake Crew!

Over the past five years, we’ve grown by leaps and bounds. In our first year, we reached about 200 students through our programs. This year, we will reach just under 2,000! Our growth has been made possible by the excellence of our students and their willingness to follow Big Dreams with hard work and by our steadfast supporters, who have donated tens of thousands of dollars to keep our workshops, one-to-one college advisement, and mentoring programs running strong.

We hope to see you at Mijares to share with us in celebration of this awesome milestone. Here’s the poster (click to enlarge)–it has all the necessary deets!