Help Someone Succeed in College

Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) – Montgomery College Foundation (acesmontgomery.org) is a collaboration among Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery College and The Universities at Shady Grove to increase college enrollment and completion among students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education. The program provides academic coaching, interventions and career experiences to 2,700 students enrolled in the three institutions each year.

Headquartered: Rockville

Serves: Montgomery County

What a donation buys:

• $250 helps a student purchase textbooks for one semester.
• $1,000 provides a scholarship that keeps a student working towards their degree.

Volunteer Opportunities:

• One day: Share your own career story as a guest speaker or offer career shadow experiences.
• Ongoing: Take on an intern at your company.
• SSL
• Internships

CollegeTracks (collegetracksusa.org) empowers first-generation-to-college students and students from immigrant and low-income households in Montgomery County, helping them bridge systemic opportunity gaps to get to and through postsecondary education and on a career pathway. CollegeTracks believes that every student deserves a pathway to prosperity, and that education will help build a brighter future for Montgomery County.

Headquartered: Silver Spring

Serves: MCPS high school students and alums

What a donation buys:

• $250 helps one high school senior submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (two hours of support). 
• $1,500 provides one year of postsecondary admissions and financial advising for a high school senior (99% are accepted into college/postsecondary education).

Volunteer Opportunities:

• Weekly: Help students navigate the postsecondary admissions and financial aid processes, and build networks.

Future Link (futurelinkmd.org) seeks to close the social justice gap by empowering first-generation-to-college, low-income young adults through career exploration programs, internships, mentoring, academic advising and scholarships. Future Link’s intensive individualized program emphasizes persistence in postsecondary education; teaches workplace, self-advocacy and decision-making skills; and equips students with a concrete plan to enable self-sufficiency through a meaningful career.

Headquartered: Rockville

Serves: Montgomery County

What a donation buys:

• $500 provides tuition for one Montgomery College class toward a degree or certification.
• $1,000 provides career planners for 50 Future Link students.

Volunteer Opportunities:

• Weekly: Help a student with career planning and exploration.
• Ongoing: Mentor a young adult.
• Internships

Generation Hope  (generationhope.org) ensures that all student parents have the opportunities to succeed and experience economic mobility by engaging education and policy partners to drive systemic change and providing direct support to teen parents in college as well as their children through holistic two-generation programming.

Headquartered: Washington, D.C.

Serves: Metro region

What a donation buys:

• $100 provides culturally relevant, age-appropriate children’s books to build a family’s home library.
• $1,000 ensures that eight scholars can participate in career readiness programming.

Volunteer Opportunities:

• One day: Resume review; career shadowing; child care volunteer.
• Ongoing: Mentor; tutor scholars.
• Internships

The Universities at Shady Grove (usmf.org/universities-at-shady-grove) bestow life-changing degrees from nine leading Maryland universities offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs on the Rockville campus. An investment in the USG General Scholarship Fund at the Universities at Shady Grove is an investment in the vitality of Montgomery County. For many students, the availability of scholarship support makes the difference as to whether they can earn their degrees or not.

Headquartered: Rockville

Serves: Montgomery County

What a donation buys:

• $250 helps a student with textbook costs.
• $1,000 helps a student close the gap between financial aid and tuition.

Volunteer Opportunities:

• One day: Host a job shadowing day.
• Ongoing: Hire an intern or mentor a student.
• SSL
• Internships