Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you should Know. Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm John Dinkell, founder and CEO of Dnkele Business Development
and former president publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal. This
is iHeartRadio's CEOs you Should Know and I'm here today
with Cassie Motts, executive director of College Bound Foundation. Welcome Cassie,
and thanks for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Thank you so much. John, It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, looking forward to our conversation. I thought we'd get
started by just getting to know the organization a little bit.
Could you tell us about College Brown Foundation?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Absolutely. College Bound is a local Baltimore City based nonprofit.
We work with Baltimore City Public school students from middle
school school through college and beyond, and we're currently reaching
about fifty percent of all Baltimore City Public School seniors.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Wow, that's great, and talk about your mission.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Absolutely so. Our goal is to help every Baltimore City
Public school student have the opportunity to go to college
and graduate from college, or to pursue something else after
high school.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It doesn't have to be college, got it. Yeah? It
does seem obviously, you know, moving into a higher education
great thing, but there seems also be a trend too.
Now with young people that whether it's the trades or
get any certifications on the IT side and cybersecurity side,
(01:26):
what kind of trends are you seeing there?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
That's absolutely true. And college isn't for everyone, and college
right out of high school isn't for everyone, So you
really meet students where they are. We certainly work with
students who go right into the trades or the world
of work with some students go to the military, and
then many students do go to four and two year colleges.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I love it, I love it. Thank you. Could you
talk briefly about just the various programming and you know,
maybe how you're partnering with parents of these middle school
and high school students.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Absolutely so, we meet with We meet students as early
as middle school. We are currently in five middle schools.
We have full time advisors in the middle schools every
day meeting students and parents and working on college exposure
and you know, getting to think about college and what
happens after middle school, working on the high school choice process.
(02:20):
We also, as I mentioned, work with many, many high
school students across the city. We're in twelve high schools
and we also work with four different community based organizations
like the Why Harlem Lacrosse Urban Alliance and the University
of Maryland Baltimore Cure Program helping them with college and
career readiness. So we do one on one advising, but
(02:42):
we also have city wide seminars throughout the year and
some of them are You don't necessarily have to have
a college bound advisor in your school to be participating
in one of our seminars.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
God, it's neat. Yeah. Talk about your your funding, Moe
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Sure. So we are funded. We get some government money
and we're also funded from private philanthropy, So we get
money from the city school system that helps to pay
our advisors. And we also have extremely generous community partners.
The Ravens and the Orioles are both huge supporters, seven
figure supporters of college Bound and the students we serve,
(03:22):
and most large local businesses support college Bound and our
scholarships as well.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
That's great. Yeah, I was going to ask you, you know,
how how can the business community help support you and
College Brown Foundation.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So one way that the business community is increasingly supporting
us is by providing paid summer internships for our scholars,
our high school students and particularly our college students are
looking for ways to stay in Baltimore and earn a
living over the summer and get some valuable job experience
for after college. So we are very open to and
(03:58):
looking for Lousiness is to partner with to provide internships
to our students.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's great. And speaking of like events, do you have
any events coming up that you have?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yes, I was hoping you'd ask that. So one of
our citywide seminars that is open to everyone across the
city is our Ignit Seminar. It's for rising ninth graders,
So current eighth graders and their families going to get
John Hopkins on Saturday May third morning of Saturday May third,
(04:30):
and folks can learn more about it by going to
our website which is www dot College Bounds Foundation all
one word dot org.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That's great, Thank you, I appreciate you sharing that. What
bath you know, what what accomplishments are you and your
team most proud of during this you know, this fiscal year.
It's been an interesting few months, uh, to say the least,
with the change in the administration and you know, and
you know, some of the let's just say cutbacks and
(04:59):
u things that we're seeing. If you were to look back,
you know we're in the third quarter of your fiscal
year and getting ready to get to the fourth court.
I'm assuming you have your fiscal year starts at July first.
What are you guys most proud of when you look
back on the work you've been doing.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So what we're most proud of over the past year
is that we've been able to serve more students than
ever before in our thirty seven year history. Thanks to
the generosity of the Ravens and the Orioles and other
local businesses as well as private individuals, we are now
reaching fifty percent of all Baltimore City Public School seniors
(05:37):
providing college advising and twenty five percent of all Baltimore
City Public School seniors who are going to four year
college on a pelgrant, received a scholarship from college Bound
and continued in college advising from a college Bound advisor.
And the best part is that not only are students
going to college, they are graduating at record high rates.
(05:59):
The students in our program again, twenty five percent of
all students from Baltimore City who are going to four
year college on the pilgrimt are graduating at a higher
rate than the statewide average across all income levels. They're
graduating a seventy three percent compared to seventy one percent.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, congratulations first of all, and
I want to actually kind of go back to that
fifty percent is, which is an incredible number. By the way,
is a type dreamed? Is a goal to like get
to seventy five percent, you get to one hundred percent? Like,
what's the reality there?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So we would we would love to have a college
bound advisor in every high school in Baltimore City as
well as every middle school. The way that the funding
works now is that we have contract with individual schools.
We would love to get a district wide contract where
with the school district so that we could have a
college bound advisor in every school.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Got it? Got it? That's great, that's great. Well, congrats,
thank you. Yeah. Now you mentioned earlier that you partner
with the other organizations, you know that work with the
you know, the Mottimers City High school population. What does
that look like like? What does the partnership look like?
Are you continuing to kind of increase your partnerships with
other organizations nonprofits like Yeah, a little bit how that works.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, So, as you know, there are many nonprofits in
Baltimore and we work together well. There are other organizations
like college Bound who do similar work, and many of
them work with young people, but they don't necessarily focus
on the college piece. So organizations like Urban Alliance and
Harlem Lacrosse they have they work with young people and
(07:39):
then they ask college Bound to come in and be
the college advisor, to take the students on the bus tours,
to have the college fairs, to help with the fast
foot to get the scholarship money for the students. So
that is where we are working really well with other nonproducts.
We also have great relationships with higher education, so we
have liaisons at almost every college across the state, public
(08:02):
and private college. So when our students go to college
from Baltimore City, they have a college Bound advisor, but
then there's also a liaison on campus who's looking out
for them.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well I need okay, Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you
explaining that. I want to kind of switch gears a
little bit. I love like talking about leadership on the show.
Talk to us about how or describe your leadership style.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So my leadership style is collaborative and that I really
like to hear as many different voices as possible. And
in fact, an employee's first day at College Bound, I
meet after interviewing them. Of course, when I meet them
in person for the first time, I say to them
(08:47):
that your input is as valuable, if not more valuable,
than the people who've been working here a long time,
because you bring a fresh set of ice And just
because we've always doing something a certain way doesn't mean
that we should continue doing it that way. So I
would say it's it's collaborative. I like to build consensus.
But also at a certain point as a CEO, when
(09:09):
they're tough decisions to be made, there's one decision maker,
and so you know, then I make the decisions. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I like that, you know, especially the collaborative part. I
remember when you know, when I was at the BBJAYE
and the other leadership positions, you know, I tried to
like take time throughout the year to like just randomly,
hey you want to go grab breakfast or hey you
want to you know, grab bloods today, and just you know,
get their ideas. It's some of the best ideas that
we had around employee engagement and even new products and
(09:38):
things like that came from you know, doing those kind
of one on them absolutely, and.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
The people who if closer to the students. I actually
just sent the calendarly link out to my team. I
do one on ones with everybody, all fifty four team
members every year. I go out to the schools, I
go to the community based organizations and I just sit
with people for an hour and they can use that
hour however they want.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And I learned so much. Yeah, yeah, that's great. It's
great that you do that. I think, you know, I
run across the leaders that don't get back down to
the ground level a lot of times, and they're yeah,
you've got a lot of decisions to make your running
in organizations, there's a lot of moving parts and you
have executive team and all that stuff. At the same time,
(10:20):
you know, you do need to spend time with everyone
and like because you know, things change and you just
want to or you can stay relevant and like you know,
continue to you know, understand what's going on at every level.
But that's hardly great. That's awesome. You know, we kind
(10:40):
of talk a little bit about this and about the
climate right now, especially with nonprofits over the past, you know,
three four months. What what advice would you give your
fellow nonprofit CEOs executive directors during these these times.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Well, we all talk to each other all the time,
so we're already sort of advising each other. And I
think this is true probably for nonprofit and for profit. Ye. Yeah,
I mean, part of it is making sure that the
team recognizes that there's only so much that we can control,
and so really trying to do the best job that
we can on the things that we can control, and
(11:20):
trying to be strategic and proactive in anticipating what might happen.
But I think, you know, one learning that I had
from COVID is that consistency is really important just showing
up every day. And I am a big believer in person.
I think it's so much better than remote. That we
do some remote work, but we're mostly in person most
(11:41):
of the time. And another thing to keep in mind,
and this is really brought home during COVID, is that
whatever people have going out going on outside of work
is the most important thing in their lives. And I
think just acknowledging that we have a motto here in
College Bound family first that just recognizing, however, you define family,
(12:02):
blood family, you know, your chosen family that needs you
need to have that in order so that you can
come to work and do a good job.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, agreed, Agreed. When you think of resiliency, seems to
be the kind of word of the day. I hear
that a lot that I heard a lot over the
past six months. What does that mean to you and
your organization?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
So being consistent for our students. It's very grounding to
be at a nonprofit where you're working in service to
young people because as an adult, you know you're further
along in your career, you're more mature, and so just
being there for the students, doing your job the best
(12:47):
you can on behalf of the students. I mean, every
decision we make at College Bound is we run it
through the lens of how is it going to impact
our students, And so that really clarifies things so that
when you're being resids, I mean, some of it is
just showing up to work every day, meeting with your students,
being there for them, being that adult for them when
(13:07):
there's so much chaos and uncertainty in the world.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's great advice, Gus. Great guys, thanks for
sharing what excites you about the future of College Round Foundation.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So we have been growing tremendously because our students have
been so successful. And so our goal is, in partnership
with other nonprofits in the city, with the city school system,
and with our colleges and universities, to be able to
offer advising and scholarships for every student in Baltimore City
(13:41):
Public School to pursue either college or something else meaningful
to the student after college. And so the thing I'm
most excited about is that our partnerships are bearing fruit.
Our students are successful, funders are seeing our results, and
I'm hoping that they're going to be a city wide movement.
I mean, Baltimore City schools graduate four thousand students a year.
(14:05):
That's a manageable number. This We's not New York, right,
four thousand students of the four thousand two thousand go
to college, a thousand to four year college, and a
thousand to two year college. So as a city, I
would love to see us rallying around our young people
and making sure that the students who are going to
college and the students who aren't who have some other
(14:26):
plan after high school, that they're getting the support that
they need.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, so, and that is an exciting opportunity, right and
you've got like and the fact that you're growing through
you know, support from you know, your partners. I mean,
you know, hopefully you're on your way there. But that
is an exciting opportunity for you guys, so appreciate that absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
And we can't do it alone. I mean, it's it's
it's with other nonprofits, it's with city schools, it's with
higher end and it's all in support. It's with families
of course too. I mean, it's all in support of
our city's next generation.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Got it? What what kind of keeps you up at night, Cassie,
at about this and looking at the future of College
Crown Foundation.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I think it's the the general uncertainty, certainly, the budgetary uncertainty,
the just the tenor of the country right now. It's
so divided, and I worry about that because we really
do need to work together, and I feel I feel
that it's very polarized. I Mean people sometimes say, well,
(15:31):
was that harder to lead an organization during COVID or now?
And you know, COVID certainly brought challenges, but COVID had
I had the feeling we were all in it together,
and I worry now that the country is so divided
that that's really going to hurt us long term, not
just College Bound but us as a country.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I agree, Yah, And you're certainly not alone in that thought.
I think I think a lot of CEOs out there
and executive directors would are feeling the same way. Yeah. Well,
so it kind of wrap things up, you know. Is
there anything else you'd like our listeners to know about
you and College Round Foundation.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Well, I'd love you to learn more by going to
our website, Collegebound Foundation dot org. And we do have
a couple of events coming up. We have the Ignite
Seminar at John Hopkins University for all rising ninth graders
and their families, so current eighth graders wanting to know
more about what high school is going to bring and
(16:26):
what's happening after high school. And then we also have
our Scholars Luncheon on Thursday, July thirty, first down at
the Hilton across from Camden Yards, where we honor all
of our city scholars who are headed to college.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Awesome, Well, thank you, I appreciate that, and thank you
so much, Cassy for taking the time to talk to
me today. It was great learning a little bit more
about the College Round Foundation. I had research. He and
I knew about it before, but now I know a
lot more about so I really appreciate it, and I
hope our listeners go to the website and look at
the events you have coming and again, really appreciate you
taking the time to do the interview.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Thank you so much for the opportunity and wanting to
learn more in support of our city students.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
This has been Iheartmedias CEOs you should know
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you should Know. Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm John Dinkell, founder and CEO of Dnkele Business Development
and former president publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal. This
is iHeartRadio's CEOs you Should Know and I'm here today
with Cassie Motts, executive director of College Bound Foundation. Welcome Cassie,
and thanks for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Thank you so much. John, It's great to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, looking forward to our conversation. I thought we'd get
started by just getting to know the organization a little bit.
Could you tell us about College Brown Foundation?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Absolutely. College Bound is a local Baltimore City based nonprofit.
We work with Baltimore City Public school students from middle
school school through college and beyond, and we're currently reaching
about fifty percent of all Baltimore City Public School seniors.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Wow, that's great, and talk about your mission.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Absolutely so. Our goal is to help every Baltimore City
Public school student have the opportunity to go to college
and graduate from college, or to pursue something else after
high school.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It doesn't have to be college, got it. Yeah? It
does seem obviously, you know, moving into a higher education
great thing, but there seems also be a trend too.
Now with young people that whether it's the trades or
get any certifications on the IT side and cybersecurity side,
(01:26):
what kind of trends are you seeing there?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
That's absolutely true. And college isn't for everyone, and college
right out of high school isn't for everyone, So you
really meet students where they are. We certainly work with
students who go right into the trades or the world
of work with some students go to the military, and
then many students do go to four and two year colleges.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I love it, I love it. Thank you. Could you
talk briefly about just the various programming and you know,
maybe how you're partnering with parents of these middle school
and high school students.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Absolutely so, we meet with We meet students as early
as middle school. We are currently in five middle schools.
We have full time advisors in the middle schools every
day meeting students and parents and working on college exposure
and you know, getting to think about college and what
happens after middle school, working on the high school choice process.
(02:20):
We also, as I mentioned, work with many, many high
school students across the city. We're in twelve high schools
and we also work with four different community based organizations
like the Why Harlem Lacrosse Urban Alliance and the University
of Maryland Baltimore Cure Program helping them with college and
career readiness. So we do one on one advising, but
(02:42):
we also have city wide seminars throughout the year and
some of them are You don't necessarily have to have
a college bound advisor in your school to be participating
in one of our seminars.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
God, it's neat. Yeah. Talk about your your funding, Moe
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Sure. So we are funded. We get some government money
and we're also funded from private philanthropy, So we get
money from the city school system that helps to pay
our advisors. And we also have extremely generous community partners.
The Ravens and the Orioles are both huge supporters, seven
figure supporters of college Bound and the students we serve,
(03:22):
and most large local businesses support college Bound and our
scholarships as well.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
That's great. Yeah, I was going to ask you, you know,
how how can the business community help support you and
College Brown Foundation.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So one way that the business community is increasingly supporting
us is by providing paid summer internships for our scholars,
our high school students and particularly our college students are
looking for ways to stay in Baltimore and earn a
living over the summer and get some valuable job experience
for after college. So we are very open to and
(03:58):
looking for Lousiness is to partner with to provide internships
to our students.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's great. And speaking of like events, do you have
any events coming up that you have?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yes, I was hoping you'd ask that. So one of
our citywide seminars that is open to everyone across the
city is our Ignit Seminar. It's for rising ninth graders,
So current eighth graders and their families going to get
John Hopkins on Saturday May third morning of Saturday May third,
(04:30):
and folks can learn more about it by going to
our website which is www dot College Bounds Foundation all
one word dot org.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That's great, Thank you, I appreciate you sharing that. What
bath you know, what what accomplishments are you and your
team most proud of during this you know, this fiscal year.
It's been an interesting few months, uh, to say the least,
with the change in the administration and you know, and
you know, some of the let's just say cutbacks and
(04:59):
u things that we're seeing. If you were to look back,
you know we're in the third quarter of your fiscal
year and getting ready to get to the fourth court.
I'm assuming you have your fiscal year starts at July first.
What are you guys most proud of when you look
back on the work you've been doing.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So what we're most proud of over the past year
is that we've been able to serve more students than
ever before in our thirty seven year history. Thanks to
the generosity of the Ravens and the Orioles and other
local businesses as well as private individuals, we are now
reaching fifty percent of all Baltimore City Public School seniors
(05:37):
providing college advising and twenty five percent of all Baltimore
City Public School seniors who are going to four year
college on a pelgrant, received a scholarship from college Bound
and continued in college advising from a college Bound advisor.
And the best part is that not only are students
going to college, they are graduating at record high rates.
(05:59):
The students in our program again, twenty five percent of
all students from Baltimore City who are going to four
year college on the pilgrimt are graduating at a higher
rate than the statewide average across all income levels. They're
graduating a seventy three percent compared to seventy one percent.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, congratulations first of all, and
I want to actually kind of go back to that
fifty percent is, which is an incredible number. By the way,
is a type dreamed? Is a goal to like get
to seventy five percent, you get to one hundred percent? Like,
what's the reality there?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So we would we would love to have a college
bound advisor in every high school in Baltimore City as
well as every middle school. The way that the funding
works now is that we have contract with individual schools.
We would love to get a district wide contract where
with the school district so that we could have a
college bound advisor in every school.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Got it? Got it? That's great, that's great. Well, congrats,
thank you. Yeah. Now you mentioned earlier that you partner
with the other organizations, you know that work with the
you know, the Mottimers City High school population. What does
that look like like? What does the partnership look like?
Are you continuing to kind of increase your partnerships with
other organizations nonprofits like Yeah, a little bit how that works.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, So, as you know, there are many nonprofits in
Baltimore and we work together well. There are other organizations
like college Bound who do similar work, and many of
them work with young people, but they don't necessarily focus
on the college piece. So organizations like Urban Alliance and
Harlem Lacrosse they have they work with young people and
(07:39):
then they ask college Bound to come in and be
the college advisor, to take the students on the bus tours,
to have the college fairs, to help with the fast
foot to get the scholarship money for the students. So
that is where we are working really well with other nonproducts.
We also have great relationships with higher education, so we
have liaisons at almost every college across the state, public
(08:02):
and private college. So when our students go to college
from Baltimore City, they have a college Bound advisor, but
then there's also a liaison on campus who's looking out
for them.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well I need okay, Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you
explaining that. I want to kind of switch gears a
little bit. I love like talking about leadership on the show.
Talk to us about how or describe your leadership style.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So my leadership style is collaborative and that I really
like to hear as many different voices as possible. And
in fact, an employee's first day at College Bound, I
meet after interviewing them. Of course, when I meet them
in person for the first time, I say to them
(08:47):
that your input is as valuable, if not more valuable,
than the people who've been working here a long time,
because you bring a fresh set of ice And just
because we've always doing something a certain way doesn't mean
that we should continue doing it that way. So I
would say it's it's collaborative. I like to build consensus.
But also at a certain point as a CEO, when
(09:09):
they're tough decisions to be made, there's one decision maker,
and so you know, then I make the decisions. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I like that, you know, especially the collaborative part. I
remember when you know, when I was at the BBJAYE
and the other leadership positions, you know, I tried to
like take time throughout the year to like just randomly,
hey you want to go grab breakfast or hey you
want to you know, grab bloods today, and just you know,
get their ideas. It's some of the best ideas that
we had around employee engagement and even new products and
(09:38):
things like that came from you know, doing those kind
of one on them absolutely, and.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
The people who if closer to the students. I actually
just sent the calendarly link out to my team. I
do one on ones with everybody, all fifty four team
members every year. I go out to the schools, I
go to the community based organizations and I just sit
with people for an hour and they can use that
hour however they want.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
And I learned so much. Yeah, yeah, that's great. It's
great that you do that. I think, you know, I
run across the leaders that don't get back down to
the ground level a lot of times, and they're yeah,
you've got a lot of decisions to make your running
in organizations, there's a lot of moving parts and you
have executive team and all that stuff. At the same time,
(10:20):
you know, you do need to spend time with everyone
and like because you know, things change and you just
want to or you can stay relevant and like you know,
continue to you know, understand what's going on at every level.
But that's hardly great. That's awesome. You know, we kind
(10:40):
of talk a little bit about this and about the
climate right now, especially with nonprofits over the past, you know,
three four months. What what advice would you give your
fellow nonprofit CEOs executive directors during these these times.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Well, we all talk to each other all the time,
so we're already sort of advising each other. And I
think this is true probably for nonprofit and for profit. Ye. Yeah,
I mean, part of it is making sure that the
team recognizes that there's only so much that we can control,
and so really trying to do the best job that
we can on the things that we can control, and
(11:20):
trying to be strategic and proactive in anticipating what might happen.
But I think, you know, one learning that I had
from COVID is that consistency is really important just showing
up every day. And I am a big believer in person.
I think it's so much better than remote. That we
do some remote work, but we're mostly in person most
(11:41):
of the time. And another thing to keep in mind,
and this is really brought home during COVID, is that
whatever people have going out going on outside of work
is the most important thing in their lives. And I
think just acknowledging that we have a motto here in
College Bound family first that just recognizing, however, you define family,
(12:02):
blood family, you know, your chosen family that needs you
need to have that in order so that you can
come to work and do a good job.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Yeah, agreed, Agreed. When you think of resiliency, seems to
be the kind of word of the day. I hear
that a lot that I heard a lot over the
past six months. What does that mean to you and
your organization?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
So being consistent for our students. It's very grounding to
be at a nonprofit where you're working in service to
young people because as an adult, you know you're further
along in your career, you're more mature, and so just
being there for the students, doing your job the best
(12:47):
you can on behalf of the students. I mean, every
decision we make at College Bound is we run it
through the lens of how is it going to impact
our students, And so that really clarifies things so that
when you're being resids, I mean, some of it is
just showing up to work every day, meeting with your students,
being there for them, being that adult for them when
(13:07):
there's so much chaos and uncertainty in the world.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, yeah, that's great advice, Gus. Great guys, thanks for
sharing what excites you about the future of College Round Foundation.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So we have been growing tremendously because our students have
been so successful. And so our goal is, in partnership
with other nonprofits in the city, with the city school system,
and with our colleges and universities, to be able to
offer advising and scholarships for every student in Baltimore City
(13:41):
Public School to pursue either college or something else meaningful
to the student after college. And so the thing I'm
most excited about is that our partnerships are bearing fruit.
Our students are successful, funders are seeing our results, and
I'm hoping that they're going to be a city wide movement.
I mean, Baltimore City schools graduate four thousand students a year.
(14:05):
That's a manageable number. This We's not New York, right,
four thousand students of the four thousand two thousand go
to college, a thousand to four year college, and a
thousand to two year college. So as a city, I
would love to see us rallying around our young people
and making sure that the students who are going to
college and the students who aren't who have some other
(14:26):
plan after high school, that they're getting the support that
they need.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, so, and that is an exciting opportunity, right and
you've got like and the fact that you're growing through
you know, support from you know, your partners. I mean,
you know, hopefully you're on your way there. But that
is an exciting opportunity for you guys, so appreciate that absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
And we can't do it alone. I mean, it's it's
it's with other nonprofits, it's with city schools, it's with
higher end and it's all in support. It's with families
of course too. I mean, it's all in support of
our city's next generation.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Got it? What what kind of keeps you up at night, Cassie,
at about this and looking at the future of College
Crown Foundation.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I think it's the the general uncertainty, certainly, the budgetary uncertainty,
the just the tenor of the country right now. It's
so divided, and I worry about that because we really
do need to work together, and I feel I feel
that it's very polarized. I Mean people sometimes say, well,
(15:31):
was that harder to lead an organization during COVID or now?
And you know, COVID certainly brought challenges, but COVID had
I had the feeling we were all in it together,
and I worry now that the country is so divided
that that's really going to hurt us long term, not
just College Bound but us as a country.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I agree, Yah, And you're certainly not alone in that thought.
I think I think a lot of CEOs out there
and executive directors would are feeling the same way. Yeah. Well,
so it kind of wrap things up, you know. Is
there anything else you'd like our listeners to know about
you and College Round Foundation.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Well, I'd love you to learn more by going to
our website, Collegebound Foundation dot org. And we do have
a couple of events coming up. We have the Ignite
Seminar at John Hopkins University for all rising ninth graders
and their families, so current eighth graders wanting to know
more about what high school is going to bring and
(16:26):
what's happening after high school. And then we also have
our Scholars Luncheon on Thursday, July thirty, first down at
the Hilton across from Camden Yards, where we honor all
of our city scholars who are headed to college.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Awesome, Well, thank you, I appreciate that, and thank you
so much, Cassy for taking the time to talk to
me today. It was great learning a little bit more
about the College Round Foundation. I had research. He and
I knew about it before, but now I know a
lot more about so I really appreciate it, and I
hope our listeners go to the website and look at
the events you have coming and again, really appreciate you
taking the time to do the interview.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Thank you so much for the opportunity and wanting to
learn more in support of our city students.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
This has been Iheartmedias CEOs you should know
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