Yonkers Partners in Education Receives Largest State Grant in Recent Competition

Yonkers Partners in Education (YPIE) is one of 20 organizations in New York State to receive federal College Access Challenge Grant Program funding to help increase college enrollment and directly serve low-income students. This funding comes from a $6.2 million grant awarded to the State in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Education and will be administered by the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation.

“Increasing access to higher education for all New Yorkers is a top priority of this administration, and this funding will help put more lower income students on track for a college career,” Governor Cuomo said. “Working with our partners in government, we will continue to invest in our home-grown talent to provide students with the education they deserve.”

YPIE’s award of $492,489, the largest awarded in the competition, will be used to provide the following services to students from 8th to 12th grade in seven PreK-8 schools and seven high schools:

• After school academic support to 8thgrade students from 7 schools to help prepare for the algebra and Living Environments Regents exams
• Group coaching to 8th grade students from 7 schools on the transition to high school
• Campus bus trips for 8th, 11th and 12th grade students to enable them to visit college campuses
• Diagnostic college placement exams (Accuplacer) for more than 800 11th and 12th grade students to identify areas of academic weakness and after school tutoring to address this
• Three-week academic boot camp over the summer for students who plan to enroll in WCC to help them place out of remedial classes
• Intensive work with cohorts of high performing students from each school to help them avoid under-matching and gain admission to top tier colleges including college access services
• Monthly life skills workshops in seven high schools that focus on skills for success in college and career

“We are excited to begin helping students become more academically ready for college and career by providing after school tutoring and other services to help 8th grade students transition to high school and high school students transition to college,” said YPIE Executive Director, Wendy Nadel. “Academic readiness is a key part of our mission of post-secondary success and this funding will enable us to work strategically to help our students.”

About YPIE
YPIE’s mission is to increase the number of Yonkers Public School students who complete a post-secondary program that prepares them for a successful career. YPIE partners with the Yonkers Public School District, business and philanthropic communities and higher education institutions and relies on detailed data to drive our decisions and programs. We believe that post-secondary success is key to meaningful and lasting improvements in the quality of life for our students and community. For more information, please visit www.ypie.org.

Patch file photo.