Course Catalog | Foundation for Ensuring Access and Equity

2022 High School Boot Camp (Seniors)

The tragic mistake made by millions of high school seniors is to have squandered the opportunity during the summer between their junior and senior year of high school to finalize their college planning. Due to the intense nature of our program, even students participating in our program in grades 9 - 11 can fail to reach the critical milestones in the college planning process prior to the end of 11th grade. Participants in our high school boot camp for rising high school seniors are guided through a comprehensive proprietary culturally-relevant curriculum through which students are introduced to the real stories of students from similar sociocultural backgrounds who were offered admission to selective colleges and full need- and merit-based scholarships. Each day opens with a large group presentation providing a context for the day's work. Students are then engaged in focused and intentional activities to develop a comprehensive college and scholarship plan:

Day 1: Engaging in an authentic assessment of students' gifts, talents, and interests
Day 2: Engaging in comprehensive college and scholarship research aligned with students' gifts, talents, interests, careers, and college majors
Day 3: Guiding students in developing a final college list of matched colleges and scholarships, to reduce or eliminate the reliance on student loans
Day 4: Guiding students in developing a final college and scholarship plan

Through our intense and intentional approach to college planning, students emerge from the boot camp prepared to move into the essay writing phase for well researched and vetted group of colleges and scholarships.

Applying for Scholarships

Applying for Scholarships is a self-guided class containing:

Links to scholarship websites
Scholarship research chapters from "Show Me the Money: Scholarships, Financial Aid, and Making the Right College Choice"

Since institutional scholarships provide the largest amount of funding for college, far out weighing funding from the state and federal government (i.e., Pell Grant, state scholarships); or from private scholarships (e.g., Gates Scholarship, Ron Brown Scholars, Jack Kent Cooke Scholars, Burger King Scholars, Coca Cola Scholars, etc.), there is a module devoted to institutional scholarships. While large private scholarship programs are covered, students are guided in researching local scholarships and identifying scholarships to which their background and body of work are strong matches. Forms and tables are provided to assist students in being well organized and an overview of scholarship essays is provided to ensure that students seek the best support for reviewing and proofreading scholarship essays and applications. Students may email questions or request a one-on-one session to further discussion their college and scholarship application strategies.

2022 High School Boot Camp (Grades 9 - 11)

2022 High School College Planning Boot Camp for students in grades 9 - 11.

2022 Middle School Boot Camp

2022 College Planning Boot Camp for middle school students.

9th Grade Cohort

Our Curriculum

Since we do not want our program to present students with another area of stress on an already overloaded schedule, our curriculum is developed around 4 distinctive areas of focus for each year of high school: 9th Grade: The focus is on who you are and how you can make a smooth transition into high school. 10th Grade: The primary focus is on building on the successes of 9th grade or overcoming any challenges that may have resulted in failure to achieve all of your goals. The secondary focus is strengthening each of the 3 pillars of our program: Scholarship, Leadership, and Service. 11th Grade: The primary focus is maximizing this critically important year of high school in building a strong brand and making yourself the most competitive college and scholarship applicant possible by the end of your junior year. As in 10th grade, the secondary focus is strengthening each of the 3 pillars of our program: Scholarship, Leadership, and Service—areas that will be critically evaluated when you apply to colleges and for scholarships as a high school senior. 12th Grade: Our Senior Cohort begins in June, prior to beginning your senior year of high school, so that your college application and scholarship plan is developed and essays are written prior to the opening of school so that you are well ahead of classmates and in a better position to reduce your stress and enjoy your senior year of high school. In our 9th grade curriculum, students will:

Discover their gifts, talents, personality, learning style, and temperament.
Identify whether they have a fixed or growth mindset.
Be introduced to the concept of 'grit' and its impact on personal success and college admissions.
Set goal across our 3 pillars of Scholarship, Leadership, and Service within the context of who they are.
Be introduced to the concept of 'alignment' within the context of who they are; how hard they are willing to work; and their educational/career aspirations.

Students are assigned to discussion groups of 6 - 8 students, guided by a college intern, in a supportive and encouraging environment where they become part of a "Conversational Community" of students from throughout the country with similar hopes and dreams for the future.

11th Grade Cohort

Setting goals within a college context reflects the concept of, "Backwards Mapping," or beginning with the end in mind. For one student, the end may be getting into their top choice college. For another student, the end may be earning a full scholarship. For Juliana, who joined our Florence School District 3 Cohort as a rising 11th grader, her involvement in our program was more than she could have ever imagined. Ranked at the top of her class, Juliana, who will be the first in her family to attend college, was undocumented. Despite her lofty career aspirations of becoming a Civil Engineer and building roadways, bridges, and developing an infrastructure in underdeveloped countries, college was an unaffordable aspiration in her home state of South Carolina. Unable to qualify for any state or federal funding, Juliana could not even afford the cost of technical college classes. Approaching our curriculum with the intellectual curiosity that made her a top academic student, Juliana embraced our curriculum to ensure that she was as competitive as possible across each of the 3 pillars of Scholarship, Leadership, and Service. She also engaged in extensive college research to identify those colleges that extended their full need-based institutional scholarships to undocumented students. However, such colleges are also among the most selective colleges in the United States. Despite receiving initial rejections from Northwestern and the University of Chicago, Juliana remained hopeful, yet undeniably doubtful, of being offered admission to the 'right' college. Then, she received the email congratulating her on being offered admission to Williams College, the country's top ranked liberal arts college, together with a full need-based scholarship! Juliana is an example of how opportunities find their way to students who commit themselves to developing the right plan.

Our Curriculum

Assess your body of work and align your college choices.
Determine your brand and market yourself to colleges.
Set junior-year goals across each of the 3 pillars of Scholarship, Leadership, and Service.
Pursue exceptionality in one of more areas aligned with your gifts and talents.
Identify the unique summer and fly-in programs that will put you on multiple college campuses as part of the focus of finalizing your college choices and admissions strategies.

What to Do After Applying to College

There are many important steps to be taken after applying to college—while your application being processed or after being offered admission. This class provides step-by-step guidance.

The Meeting Street Scholarship

Overview The Meeting Street Scholarship Fund provides an opportunity for Florence County School District 3 students to receive up to $10,000 of college assistance. If you meet the eligibility criteria, and attend one of the eligible South Carolina 4-year colleges or universities, you may be awarded up to $10,000 through the Meeting Street Scholarship program. The video presented below shares how the scholarship program was inspired and the first scholarship recipients from the Charleston County School District. While the scholarship is limited to 18 South Carolina colleges and universities, each of the units in the class will provide guidance in researching and matching to the college or university best aligned with your educational and career aspirations. The units will also allow you to compare the net price of attending each college after applying the Meeting Street Scholarship. Eligibility

Reside in Florence County
Graduate from a Florence School District 3 public high school
Qualify for the South Carolina LIFE or Palmetto Fellows Scholarship
- Two of the following three requirements must be met:
  - Earn at least a 3.0 GPA in high school
  - Score at least 1100 on SAT or 24 on ACT
  - Rank in the top 30% of your graduating class
Attend one of the eligible SC colleges and universities
Qualify for the federal Pell Grant after completing the FAFSA

Eligible Colleges and Universities

Essay Writing Series (2022)

First and foremost, our program is about, "Packaging." With so many colleges becoming test optional in 2021 as a result of COVID-19 disruptions to SAT/ACT testing dates, college applications to selective schools are likely to double or triple to 40,000 - 80,000 applications. Only students with the best packaging will be competitive applicants in such a large pool of applications. Becoming a well packaged student requires extensive college and scholarship research and then matching your 'Self Presentation' or your package (i.e., résumé, essays, recommendations, leadership, service, coursework, and grades) in such a way as to make you an exceptional candidate amongst thousands of exceptional candidates. The Essay Writing Sessions are an extension of our High School Senior Classroom, through which we provide comprehensive guidance through such areas as researching colleges and scholarships; matching student aspirations and family's financial need to a well-matched group of colleges; completing the FAFSA/CSS Profile; choosing the best admission cycles; developing an academic résumé as a college/scholarship application supplement; identifying the best teacher recommenders; identifying specialized scholarships and academic programs; and creating high quality college and scholarship applications. The Essay Writing Sessions are designed to result in one fully written and edited essay. The session may be repeated as many times as students need to write supplemental or scholarship essays.

2022-23 High School Senior Cohort

The COVID-19 impact on high schools and the future impact on college admissions, requires that high school seniors be intentional in their course taking, grades, leadership, activities, and service. Joanne (pictured here), from our 2022 Pinellas County Schools Cohort, begin our program as a high school sophomore with a clear focus on making herself the strongest possible candidate for being offered admission to her top choice school, together with a full scholarship. While Joanne always wanted to get into a great school like Harvard, Rice, or Emory, her research guided her to a summer medical intensive program at Johns Hopkins University during the summer prior to entering her senior year of high school. She returned home to St. Petersburg, Florida with a clear top choice school. She then committed to developing a brilliantly written set of essays and writing responses as part of what we refer to as "Creating the right package." In December, she received news that she had been offered admission to Johns Hopkins, together with a full scholarship. Joanne will be offer to Johns Hopkins in the fall on a full scholarship and majoring in molecular and cellular biology. Jason, a member of our Florence School District Cohort is on his way to the University of South Carolina - Columbia on a full scholarship. While Jason only joined our cohort as a rising high school senior, on the urging of his sister, who was already attending Claflin University on a full scholarship, we were able to successful guide Jason in developing a high qualify application by the USC Early Action deadline so that he was invited into their Opportunity Scholars Program, providing a small learning community and personalized assistance for first generation students. The USC funding, together with the Meeting Street Scholarship available to students in his school district, Jason's entire cost of attendance is full funded. Juliana, who also attends Jason's high school, is on her way to Williams College with the most generous financial aid offer that we have ever seen. Williams is fully funding her education and funding her medical insurance, travel expenses, personal expenses, and summer storage. She will begin Williams in a fully funded residential pre-frosh science program. Juliana, who is also the first in her family to attend college, joined our program as a high school junior and applied herself to following our guidance in developing a meticulous college-bound plan of academic excellence, leadership, and community service. While less than 2 percent of students attending college in the United States are on full scholarships (and that includes athletes), each year nearly half of our participating seniors are like Joanne. Our students have received full scholarships to an impressive group of colleges, which include Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Carleton, Claflin, Claremont McKenna, Duke, Georgie Tech, North Carolina A&T, Princeton, Northwestern, Northeastern, Swarthmore, University of Chicago, University of Southern California, Vanderbilt, and Williams. Our students have been selected as Gates Millennium Scholars, GE-Reagan Scholars, Georgia Tech Clark Scholars and Georgia Tech Gold Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Meyerhoff Scholars, Richmond Scholars, Rhodes Scholars, Ron Brown Scholars, and Torch Scholars. The comprehensive nature of our curriculum and personalized guidance is unmatched. At a cost of $499.95 per year, students are exposed to information that private college planning consultants charge tens of thousands of dollars to provide.

2022 2-day Middle School Boot Camp

2022 College Planning Boot Camp for middle school students.

2022 2-day High School Boot Camp (Grades 9 - 11)

2022 High School College Planning Boot Camp for students in grades 9 - 11.

2022 2-day High School Boot Camp (Seniors)

Day 1: Engaging in an authentic assessment of students' gifts, talents, and interests
Day 2: Engaging in comprehensive college and scholarship research aligned with students' gifts, talents, interests, careers, and college majors
Day 3: Guiding students in developing a final college list of matched colleges and scholarships, to reduce or eliminate the reliance on student loans
Day 4: Guiding students in developing a final college and scholarship plan

2022-23 10th Grade Cohort (New Students)

Explore their gifts, talents, and areas where they believe themselves capable of pursuing exceptionality.
Identify their personality type and interest profile, and explore careers and college majors that best match to their personality and interests.
Identify the type and level of coursework aligned with their gifts, talents, and interests.
Identify activities and community service aligned with their gifts, talents, personality, and interests.
Explore leadership opportunities, honors, and awards aligned with their gifts, talents, personality, and interests.

Students complete monthly presentations outlining what they have learned as part of their small group discussions.

10th Grade Cohort

Setting goals within a college context reflects the concept of, "Backwards Mapping," or beginning with the end in mind. For one student, the end may be getting into their top choice college. For another student, the end may be earning a full scholarship. For Jayla, who joined our Florence School District 3 Cohort as a rising 10th grader, her first year in our program was life changing. Ranked at the top of her class, Jayla, who will be the first in her family to attend college, was an extraordinary academic student who believed that strong academics were all that was needed for being offered admission to top colleges. Approaching our curriculum with the intellectual curiosity that made her a top academic student, she quickly realized that she must be intentional in her actions to become more than an accomplished academic student. Her embrace of our curriculum during the 10th and 11th grades resulted in her becoming an exceptional college applicant as she enters her senior year of high school. Her impressive list of accomplishments during her sophomore and junior years of high school, landed her an invitation to the Yale Young Global Scholars Program; being selected as a QuestBridge College Prep Scholar; and a coveted fly-in invitation to Carleton College. Jayla is an example of "It does not matter where you start, but how you finish."

Our Curriculum

Reflect on the successes and challenges of 9th grade as they set, revise, or continue pursuing goals across each of our 3 pillars of Scholarship, Leadership, and Service.
Revisit their gifts, talents, personality, learning style, and temperament within the context of moving in an intentional way to develop their brand.
Reflect on how their mindset and grit are reflected in their coursework, extracurricular activity involvement, and community service.
Reflect on how their goals are aligned with their educational/career aspirations.
Explore the type of colleges and programs aligned with their body of work and family's financial need.

12th Grade Cohort

The COVID-19 impact on high schools and the future impact on college admissions, requires that high school seniors be intentional in their course taking, grades, leadership, activities, and service. Joanne (pictured here), from our 2022 Pinellas County Schools Cohort, begin our program as a high school sophomore with a clear focus on making herself the strongest possible candidate for being offered admission to her top choice school, together with a full scholarship. While Joanne always wanted to get into a great school like Harvard, Rice, or Emory, her research guided her to a summer medical intensive program at Johns Hopkins University during the summer prior to entering her senior year of high school. She returned home to St. Petersburg, Florida with a clear top choice school. She then committed to developing a brilliantly written set of essays and writing responses as part of what we refer to as "Creating the right package." In December, she received news that she had been offered admission to Johns Hopkins, together with a full scholarship. Joanne will be offer to Johns Hopkins in the fall on a full scholarship and majoring in molecular and cellular biology. Jason, a member of our Florence School District Cohort is on his way to the University of South Carolina - Columbia on a full scholarship. While Jason only joined our cohort as a rising high school senior, on the urging of his sister, who was already attending Claflin University on a full scholarship, we were able to successful guide Jason in developing a high qualify application by the USC Early Action deadline so that he was invited into their Opportunity Scholars Program, providing a small learning community and personalized assistance for first generation students. The USC funding, together with the Meeting Street Scholarship available to students in his school district, Jason's entire cost of attendance is full funded. Juliana, who also attends Jason's high school, is on her way to Williams College with the most generous financial aid offer that we have ever seen. Williams is fully funding her education and funding her medical insurance, travel expenses, personal expenses, and summer storage. She will begin Williams in a fully funded residential pre-frosh science program. Juliana, who is also the first in her family to attend college, joined our program as a high school junior and applied herself to following our guidance in developing a meticulous college-bound plan of academic excellence, leadership, and community service. While less than 2 percent of students attending college in the United States are on full scholarships (and that includes athletes), each year nearly half of our participating seniors are like Joanne. Our students have received full scholarships to an impressive group of colleges, which include Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Carleton, Claflin, Claremont McKenna, Duke, Francis Marion, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina A&T, Princeton, Northwestern, Northeastern, University of South Carolina - Columbia, Swarthmore, Tennessee State, Tuskegee, University of Chicago, University of Southern California, Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, and Williams. Our students have been selected as Gates Millennium Scholars, GE-Reagan Scholars, Georgia Tech Clark Scholars and Georgia Tech Gold Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Meyerhoff Scholars, Richmond Scholars, Rhodes Scholars, Ron Brown Scholars, and Torch Scholars. The comprehensive nature of our curriculum and personalized guidance is unmatched. At a cost of $499.95 per year, students are exposed to information that private college planning consultants charge tens of thousands of dollars to provide.

Our Curriculum

Identify college and scholarship matches based on each student's body of work and family's financial need.
Develop college and scholarship application strategies.
Maximize their opportunities based on their unique gifts and talents.
Athletes will explore the "Athletic Advantage" and developing a college list across NCAA Divisions I, II, and III providing the best match of the financial aid policies of colleges and financial need of the student's family.
Develop a strategic approach to choosing the best Common Application prompt and writing responses that best provide a narrative context for each student's application.

Emerging Leaders Cohort

While we have had many exceptional students participate in our college planning cohort program, we have only had one student who has participated in our program since the 3rd grade. Pictured here is Kimberly, who, as a sixth grader, received her first Dr. Cassandra Young Marcus Award for Academic Excellence and Leadership awarded by our church, Turner Chapel AME in Marietta, Georgia. As a 3rd grader, Kimberly, set her sights on qualifying for the Marcus Award, presented to the top male and female student in our church in grades 6 - 12. She also set her sights on earning a full college scholarship and learned, through our program, that the most direct pathway to a full college scholarship was academic excellence. However, such a pathway could be further expanded with leadership and service. As a result of these early conversations to provide guidance, and her own grit and determination, Kimberly became the first 7-year recipient of the Marcus Award at our church and was offered 6 full college scholarships (Amherst College, Duke University, Princeton University, Vanderbilt University, Washington and Lee University, and Williams College). Kimberly has graduated from Williams College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Math and Chemistry and is now pursuing a PhD in Math as a graduate student at Iowa State University. We believe that Kimberly's achievements are possible any middle school student who commits to developing their gifts and talents; pursues leadership within the context of their gifts, talents, personality, temperament, and interests; and commits to engaging in meaningful community that results in an indelible impact on their school and community.

Our Focus

The focus of our Emerging Leaders curriculum is to provide a context for the monthly conversations between middle school students, currently attending school in Georgia and Florida. However, our program is open to any middle school who is committed to completing the work needed to prepare for the monthly discussions and participating in each of the 9 monthly discussions from September through May. Our Emerging Leaders curriculum is supported by a college adviser, high school intern, and guest speakers. Each component of our program is designed to provide support and encouragement as students build their capacities through their emergence as a youth leader. Students are assigned to discussion groups of 6 - 8 students, guided by a college intern, in a supportive and encouraging environment where they become part of a "Conversational Community" of students from throughout the country with similar hopes and dreams for the future.