Arlington Resident named Board Chair of College Bound Dorchester

Mike O’Toole Moves Up to Make a Difference for Dorchester’s Youth

Succeeds Sean Curran as New Chair of College Bound Dorchester Board

DORCHESTER, Mass –Mike O’Toole of Arlington has been named the new chair of College Bound Dorchester’s (CBD) board of directors. The nonprofit uses education to end systemic generational urban poverty in one of Boston’s toughest neighborhoods. It provides academic, social and emotional support for students facing challenges including incarceration, poverty, and language barriers.

O’Toole, President and Partner at PJA Advertising, has been on CBD’s board of directors for the last seven years. He studied English at Notre Dame and Business at the Yale School of Management.

“I’m honored to be named board chair,” says O’Toole. “I’ve always loved how audacious our mission is. We take the most disruptive, off-track kids in the city, the kids most people have written off - and we help them get on a college track. We’ve seen how that changes the kids’ lives, but we also know it can change communities.”

O’Toole plans to builds on the positive momentum created under the leadership of outgoing chair Sean Curran, of Sudbury. The nonprofit is embarking on an ambitious three year plan to double the number of CBD students sent to college each year, while creating a replicable national model for other communities to follow.

CBD is based in the Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood of Boston. The organization serves adolescents and young adults, ages 14 to 27, who have been pushed out or are in danger of dropping out of school. They are guided towards college with the help of mentors from the community, called College Readiness Advisors (CRA). CRAs create manageable and personalized road maps for each student, and support them until they achieve an associates or a bachelor’s degree.

In the last three years, CBD has helped more than 130 young people enroll in college with a 60 percent retention rate, which is significantly higher than national norms. As the positive behaviors of these influential youth begin to shift social norms, neighborhoods will experience higher rates of educational attainment and lower unemployment.

To learn more about CBD, visit: www.collegebounddorchester.org.