RECRUIT MORE EXCEPTIONAL STUDENTS

There are still exponentially more exceptional students from under resourced communities than there are programs to serve them. To identify these exceptional students, TEAK has strengthened and expanded its recruitment efforts by adding qualified admissions personnel. As the cost of living drives low-income families further away from our offices in Manhattan, TEAK must also travel deeper into the outer boroughs to build relationships with counselors and yield the most motivated students to join us. It is the best and only way to ensure a cohort of 45 students each year with the same potential as previous cohorts.

EDUCATE MORE MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

TEAK knows that to place its 45 students per cohort, however exceptional, into selective high schools and, more importantly, to prepare them for success there requires a first-rate middle school program. To ensure that each cohort receives the same high quality academic instruction and individualized support as previous cohorts, TEAK will add a part-time high school placement officer, a full-time classroom teacher and maintain its enviable student-teacher ratios. TEAK will also rent a third classroom site for Queens students for after-school weekday classes, providing them with the same shorter commutes and additional class time as students from Brooklyn and the Bronx.

15:1

Student:Teacher

PREPARE MORE STUDENTS FOR HIGH SCHOOL SUCCESS AND COLLEGE PLACEMENT

TEAK knows that to ensure that high school students perform at their potential and are also prepared for the demanding college placement process requires TEAK staff to provide a combination of ongoing support/guidance and transformational summer experiences. To maintain that combination, TEAK will add a full-time dean who will maintain relationships with a cohort of students and visit them in their high schools and a part-time college placement officer who can help students navigate the increasingly complex placement process. TEAK will strengthen its partnerships with organizations and companies that provide our students with Summer of Service opportunities and high school internships.

PREPARE MORE STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE SUCCESS, GRADUATION AND CAREERS

TEAK knows that preparing college students for success, graduation, and careers requires TEAK staff to provide targeted course advising, ongoing communication and support as well as the job skills, training, and networking opportunities necessary to become competitive applicants and compete successfully in the tomorrow’s work force. To do so, TEAK will capitalize on the number of mentors and internship hosts who wish to work with our students but cannot be accommodated and increase partnerships with volunteers and internship sites bringing new individual and corporate partners into the fold.