KIPP New Jersey's Be the Change Celebration enters its tenth year in 2017. As exciting as that is, there are even more reasons why you don’t want to miss this year's edition of our annual celebration.

This year’s celebration will feature our first pre-program panel focused on a subject at the core of what we do: college access and completion.

Currently, students from families in the top quartile of income complete college at a rate almost ten times more often than students from families in the lowest quartile. For access-focused organizations, we all have a role to play in getting more students from places like Newark and Camden through college.

We’re bringing together national voices to share key information, obstacles, and successes in this work.

All four of our panelists come from organizations spanning different ends of the access and completion continuum. All are working to ensure kids from low-income communities go to college at rates that far exceed the national average.

On the panel, we’ll hear from:

• Richard Barth, CEO, KIPP Foundation
• Daniel Porterfield, President, Franklin and Marshall College
• Ays Necioglu, Vice President, SEO Scholars
• Moderated by, Shavar Jeffries, President, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER)

We’ll also hear directly from Gerald Rhymes, KIPP New Jersey alumnus and current Bloomfield College student – about his successes and challenges in college and plans for the future.

The panel will also explore how our organizational approaches are similar and how they differ on opposite ends of the access and completion equation.

We’ll explore questions around college match – what sorts of colleges do better at supporting students from low-income communities through college?

There is a huge range between graduation rates for low-income students and high-income students. Our panelists will discuss what kinds of colleges are best at getting kids from underserved communities across the graduation stage. This conversation will help our counselors point kids in the right direction when matching them to colleges invested in their success.

Finally, we’ll hear directly from one of our alumni who is in college

While talking to industry leaders is helpful, we want to stay rooted in the students we serve directly. We’ll hear from an alumnus who is currently in college explain what he’s experienced, his plans for the future, and ask questions to our panelists.

Don’t miss our first-ever College Access and Completion Panel on March 29^th. Get your tickets here!