Hilton Foundation Renews Grant to The Foundling’s Road to Success Tutoring Program!
Pictured above (L-R): Michael Zink (Director, Road to Success); Raquel (Student); Jessica Puma (Tutor, Road to Success)
We have a lot to be thankful for as we approach Thanksgiving this week! The Hilton Foundation has renewed and recommitted their support for our Road to Success tutoring program! Road to Success has served 173 students in New York City’s foster care system, logging in over 9,678 hours of tutoring. That’s about 56 hours of one-on-one tutoring for every single student who’s been in the program.
Over the last three years, 38 students in Road to Success graduated from high school. Through the combined efforts of our Road to Success and Educational Advocacy teams, the overall graduation rate for The Foundling’s foster care programs jumped from a five-year average of 34% before Road to Success to 52-55%!
88% of our students who leave foster care while in Road to Success decide to stay in the program. And, in the past two years, 16 students from The Foundling have enrolled in four-year colleges, including:
- Baruch College
- Brooklyn College
- College of Staten Island
- Howard University
- Hunter College
- SUNY Binghamton
- SUNY Buffalo
- SUNY Buffalo State
- Spelman College
“Our Road to Success tutors do more than just teach; they also serve as mentors, modeling key social and academic skills and showing our students that academic success is possible for them,” said Michael Zink, Director of The Foundling’s Road to Success Program. “Our students and families deeply value the support that they receive from our tutors; so much so that they overwhelmingly elect to continue the service after they leave foster care.”
Another point of pride is that, unlike other comparable programs, Road to Success makes a concerted effort to serve students with special needs. Over half of the students in Road to Success had IEPs for learning disabilities or emotional challenges, and more than a quarter were in full-time special education. While in the program, our students did things that they never thought would be possible for them:
- Passed the Regents
- Became proficient readers
- Tested college-ready on the Regents
- Moved from special education to general education classes
- Stayed in school
- Passed their college remedial classes,
- Graduated high school
- Won essay contests
- Got accepted to college
- Went from receiving report cards with D’s and F’s to C’s and B’s and A’s…
We are excited to see what we will accomplish together in the next two years! We also want to give a special thanks to The Hilton Foundation for supporting our kids!
