We partner with community organizations, high schools, colleges and employers to provide cohort-based leadership training, college success support, and career development programming to underrepresented students and graduates who desire to lead and serve their home communities.
As both a national backbone organization and local, direct service provider in Tacoma-Seattle, we provide and utilize research-based programming, cutting-edge evaluation and data tools, and innovative operational systems and technical assistance to support all aspects of our integrated programs. In addition, we contribute through leadership and technology to collective efforts to transform the systems that create and reinforce inequity for our participants and communities.
We love our communities and want to see them thrive in all their diversity. As a faith-based organization, our work is motivated by Christian convictions that include a deep commitment to working across differences for equity and justice. We believe that diverse, college-educated, homegrown leaders are in the best position to transform the inequitable systems that persist in our communities. We engage broad coalitions of organizations in the faith community and the public and private sectors to create meaningful impact.
It is Ramadan and Women's History Month, and Yusra Hamidani wants Muslim Americans to speak their truth. Yusra was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and immigrated to the U.S. when she was five years old. In high school, she was selected for an Act Six scholarship…
Read StoryWe work to identify and eliminate systemic barriers in higher education and career development that perpetuate social and economic disparities. In doing so, we remain attentive to our own individual and institutional contributions to these systems.
We believe communities can be positively transformed to the extent that they are loved and embraced by those that call them home. We look to local people and organizations as the most effective leaders of local change.
We recognize that our staff, board, and students must reflect the communities we serve. We know that we will maximize our impact only when decisions are shaped by diverse voices across the organization.
We seek to nurture in our students and ourselves leadership that is committed first to serving others. We look for the beauty amid brokenness that compels us to lean into, rather than away from, the most challenging places and problems.
We aspire to create among our team, our partners, and our students a courageous space where people from different backgrounds and worldviews can bring their whole selves, speak honestly, take risks, make mistakes, extend and receive grace, develop trust, hold each other accountable, and commit together to a common mission.
We bring people and organizations together to create partnerships that emerge from shared values and aligned mission. We believe we can only create systemic change together, and we seek to maintain relationships even when we disagree on important issues.
We rigorously assess and continuously reflect on our work, always looking for opportunities to measure, improve, and innovate. We take informed risks and learn from our successes and setbacks.
We know our students and partners deserve our very best work. We strive to pursue ambitious goals, attract and retain extraordinary people, build effective systems, make data-informed decisions, deliver exceptional service, and hold ourselves to the highest standards.
We send students from the same home community to college together.
We discover, nurture, and unleash students’ potential in its many forms.
We connect students to relevant career experiences and opportunities.
We build partnerships with colleges, community organizations, and the business community that promote student success.
