Charity
Profits for Local Schools
Monies made from the race will be directed toward the Public Schools of Indianapolis through charities including but not limited to the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation, Mind Trust and College Summit. One of the primary goals is to have more students from the Public School of Indianapolis attend college. The following is a brief summary of several programs that will be supported through the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.
Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation
The IPS Education Foundation is a separate 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization established in 1984. The purpose of the foundation is to provide supplemental funds for IPS academic programs and staff development. These funds are made possible by contributions from IPS employees, community organizations, local businesses and individual IPS supporters. Future goals include: provide emergency funds for school uniforms to IPS families in need; provide tuition reimbursements to IPS staff members for professional development and support Academic Summer School.
The Mind Trust
The Mind Trust’s mission is to dramatically improve public education for underserved students by empowering education entrepreneurs to develop or expand transformative education initiatives. To achieve this mission, The Mind Trust has two principal strategies: (1) a nationally unique Education Entrepreneur Fellowship that serves as an incubator for transformative education ventures; and (2) a Venture Fund to recruit to Indianapolis the nation’s most successful entrepreneurial education initiatives.
The Mind Trust, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was founded in 2006. While building Indianapolis’ award-winning charter schools initiative, The Mind Trust’s founders, former Mayor Bart Peterson and President and CEO David Harris, saw firsthand the value that education entrepreneurs brought to students in Indianapolis. They sought to reach more students by making Indianapolis one of the most attractive places in the country for talented entrepreneurs to start new educational ventures and to expand those that have been successful elsewhere.
College Summit
College Summit is the nation’s premier college access program for low-income students. College Summit’s success around the country has been extraordinary. For example, nearly 80% of students who participate in College Summit’s summer workshops enroll in college, compared to the national average of 46% among low-income students. These students remain in college at a rate of 80%, far above the national average of 64% among students across all income levels.
With a $100,000 commitment from The Mind Trust’s Venture Fund, College Summit began a pilot project in IPS’s Manual High School this year. In July, 37 incoming seniors from Manual attended a summer workshop at the University of Indianapolis, where they learned about the college application process and how to positively influence their peers to create a college-going culture at Manual. This school year the entire Manual senior class (204 students) is enrolled in College Summit’s college preparatory course. The course is taught by 12 IPS teachers at Manual who were trained in the College Summit curriculum. Although College Summit’s pilot at Manual just began, the preliminary results are very encouraging. As of November 15, 2007, 77% of participating Manual High School seniors had completed a list of their preferred colleges or universities. In addition, a full 70% of participating Manual seniors had completed their personal statements for their college applications. While we realize that not all students participating will ultimately matriculate to college, this is still strong evidence of a dramatic change at a school that historically only sent a handful of students to college.
College Summit’s remarkable immediate success in implementing its program at Manual makes it imperative that we significantly expand College Summit to additional IPS schools and other area high schools with large populations of low-income students. Imagine Indianapolis in 10-15 years when several thousand college-educated young adults are contributing back to society, thanks to College Summit’s programs that enabled them to attend college. College Summit’s exceptional record makes the vision of Indianapolis as a city where low-income students regularly obtain college degrees a realistic goal.
