Student/Partner Alliance Celebrate 25 Years Of Mentoring Students

SHORT HILLS, NJ — Student/Partner Alliance (S/PA) is celebrating its 25th year anniversary of helping students succeed.

A501(c)(3) nonprofit, S/PA is housed in Christ Church at 561 Springfield Ave. in Summit. Their mission is to offer tuition assistance and mentoring to high school students (in New Jersey’s urban areas of Essex, Hudson and Union counties) so that they can attend and be successful at strong academic, college preparatory private schools in their communities.

S/PA has had great success with their students with nearly a 100 percent graduation rate and 98 percent college acceptance rate, according to Marianne Muench Busby, director of marketing at S/PA.

The group's founder, Tom Cash is a resident of Short Hills. Many of the mentors are Summit residents, as is the current President of its Board of Trustees, Emmett Daly. Additionally many partner/mentors come from several of the surrounding communities including Millburn/Short Hills, Chatham, Basking Ridge, Westfield, Maplewood and more.

Busby is a mentor herself and finds the experience rewarding.

“Working here is great because it is such a feel good organization,” Busby said.

Each mentor is screened and trained beforehand and placed with a student in their freshman year. They then follow the student through their high school years until they graduate.

Formally incorporated in 1993, S/PA has provided scholarship and mentoring support to more than 2,000 students from low-income areas.

To learn more about becoming a mentor or for information on earning a scholarship visit www.studentpartneralliance.org or reach out to Busby directly at mmbusby@studentpartneralliance.org.

With reporting by Alexis Tarrazi, Patch Staff

Photo: Short Hills residents Tom and Judy Cash with student mentee and scholarship recipient from Marist High School, Bayonne (via Student/Partner Alliance)

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