Organizational Values

A college education is a determining factor in professional success. Researchers estimate that a college degree is worth $1 million in additional earnings over the course of a career—and deeply affects quality of life in many ways. Unfortunately, each year, nearly 200,000 college-capable high school graduates from low-income families do not enroll. 

The fact is that low-income students who get A’s on standardized tests go to college at the same rate as their higher-income peers who get D’s on the same tests. Thousands of low-income high school graduates who could succeed in college don’t even submit applications. Not every high school in the United States is fortunate enough to presume opportunities in higher education. For those students who have potential to succeed in college, but have never been motivated, an organization is there to help them pursue that dream: College Summit. College Summit strives to change that fact by helping high schools dramatically increase college enrollment rates. College Summit began in 1993 in Washington, D.C. to provide writing skills and the “know-how” for urban youth to enroll in college. Since then, the program has expanded to 13 states and helped thousands of high school seniors pursue a college degree. For many years, a lot of counties and cities that host College Summit have provided scholarships (through sponsors, such as Deloitte) to many College Summit participants to attend a state college. Many school boards have found the need to partner with College Summit to mentor incoming freshmen; raise money to provide scholarships; and hold public forums to discuss the role higher education plays in their lives.

We live in a time when more than ever our values, our core beliefs, are being challenged and questioned. Reaching a common understanding about the inherent beliefs in the organization provides a platform for further explorations of the norms of behavior that help define the organization's culture. Operating values are the principles that govern the actual decision-making process in an organization. The paradox of operating values is that while they are resistant to change, they provide the most leverage for creating significant change in organizations. College Summit holds many exceptional operating values because this organization aims to create sustainable change.

I chose this organization because I have personal ties with it. I was a participant (also known as a Peer Leader) of College Summit in the summer of 2007 at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, and then I became a volunteer in the summers of 2008, 2009, and 2010 as an Alumni Leader at nine workshops in D.C., Maryland, Indiana, and West Virginia. I have seen the background work that all the founders and employees put forth year-round just to make the life-changing summer workshops a success. Through my experience I have seen firsthand their values and they implement them in many ways, such as the following:

• Operating in nearly a dozen states, collaborating with almost 20 urban and rural school districts, and implementing its post-secondary planning program in nearly 100 high schools nationwide.
• Providing training, curriculum, and measurement tools that have helped its partner schools achieve double-digit increases in college enrollment over baseline based on externally verified data, improvements ranging from 10-50 percent.
• Since 1993, supporting more than 20,000 high school students in navigating the college application process, including 7,000 summer workshop participants.
• Training more than 700 teachers and counselors in its in-school post-secondary planning.