National College Access Network Launches Advising Corps With The University Of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

March 22, 2007
[The following is a news release issued by National College Access Network.]

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Awards $10 million to university-based access programs

With the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation awarding ten $1 million grants to universities in nine states today, the National College Access Network (NCAN) and the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill announce the creation of the National College Advising Corps. The purpose of the corps is to significantly increase college enrollment and graduation among low-income high school and community college students through university-based access programs.

Following in the tradition of AmeriCorps and Teach for America, the College Advising Corps will recruit and train college seniors to work as college access advisers for one or two years following graduation. The ten programs will provide support for low-income high school students to help them apply to postsecondary institutions that best fit their academic profiles, career goals, and personal circumstances. The program is based on a successful model created by the University of Virginia (UVA) and funded by a lead grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. NCAN provided program support and substantial technical assistance to this UVA initiative. The National College Advising Corps will be directed by Dr. Nicole Hurd, who crafted the original UVA program and is the Director of Higher Education Initiatives at NCAN.

The National College Access Network's membership includes 237 access organizations located in forty-four states and the District of Columbia. NCAN has been a leader in the field of college access for more than a decade. Partnering with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NCAN will provide technical support for programs, assist with the growth and expansion to additional universities, and help build bridges between K-12, local access programs, and the higher education community.

The grant recipients, who will be the first members of the Corps, are Brown University, Franklin & Marshall College, Loyola College in Maryland, Pennsylvania State University, Tufts University in collaboration with the Massachusetts Campus Compact, the University of Alabama, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Utah.

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