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Grantee Story: A Boost for First Generation Collegians

First person in your family to go to college? It’s an exceptional achievement, but despite overcoming the odds to even get into college, sometimes high-potential 1st generation students can’t make it to the finish line. Furthermore, even with a diploma, many of these young people lack the social capital that leads to lucrative job offers. That “opportunity gap” is about to close in New York City thanks to a brand new non-profit, New York Needs You (NYNY)…

Nicole Lindsay heads up NYNY, an innovative two-year mentorship program for first generation college students. The inaugural group of 50 mentees called “fellows” begins in June. The applicant pool reflects the ethnic and gender diversity of New York City; 75% are freshman and 50% come from community colleges. “Those demographics mean we’ll be serving a population that’s completely off the radar of most career development agencies,” she says.

Biweekly workshops will train fellows in a variety of essential skills- public speaking, personal finance and interviewing. NYNY will eventually assign each fellow a “Mentor Coach” – a young, accomplished professional who will assist fellows in developing life plans and career goals. “We’re not pairing them up immediately,” says Lindsay. “We want to give them the experience of building relationships organically and finding the mentor that best matches their strengths, interests and values.”

Lindsay found out about the Pepsi Refresh Project from the young professionals on NYNY’s Young Leadership Board. Initially skeptical that such a new organization could turn out the vote, Lindsay, a well-connected veteran of the non-profit world, and the rest of the NYNY team used their networking abilities- and a savvy email and Facebook campaign - to engage people.

“I turned our vote-getting efforts into a marketing campaign,” she says. “Those daily emails and updates became a great opportunity to share what we’re trying to do as an organization with our friends and supporters.”

Lindsay says voters became so engaged in the project that after voting closed and NYNY was in the top ten in the $25,000 category, “People were emailing me and they weren’t saying, “Congrats, you won’. They were saying, ‘Congrats, we won!’”

NYNY’s Pepsi Refresh Project grant will go toward curriculum development, recruitment, mentor training and a community project. Lindsay says NYNY’s long-term goals are to ensure that 90% of fellows graduate from college and are employed in their desired fields, and that 100% go on to lead projects that will positively impact their neighborhoods. “These are capable young people,” she says.  ”We just want to give them the opportunities they deserve.”