More Than Bootstraps

We obtained our 501(c)(3) in 2019 and selected the Passaic Public Schools, the seventh-lowest income district in New Jersey (median household income $36,226), as our initial partner. Passaic’s student body is made up of groups underrepresented in higher education: low-income, Latinx, and first-generation. Historically, these students matriculate at local, public Pell-serving institutions. Unfortunately, these institutions have an average six-year graduation rate of 39%. In other words, more than half of the ambitious, enterprising students who find their way from communities like Passaic into higher education find themselves in debt and without a degree at the end of six years.