IMC Weekendschool Competitors

Summer Search believes young people should have the opportunity to fulfill their potential, regardless of their circumstances. Young people across the nation possess unique strengths, resilience, and tremendous potential, yet many face systemic inequities that can limit their potential. As a result, their ability to obtain postsecondary degrees, participate in the workforce, or gain financial stability is often stifled. Since 1990, we have partnered with high schools, community-based organizations, families, and supporters to provide opportunities for high school students from low-income communities to overcome systemic inequities through mentoring and transformative experiences. OUR ALUMNI ARE 3 TIMES MORE LIKELY to graduate with a 4-year degree than their peers and become the kind of leaders our country needs—civic leaders, advocates, industry leaders, teachers, mothers, and fathers. Their collective leadership ripples across the community, future generations, and contributes to a more equitable society.

Teach For All (www.teachforall.org) supports and connects a global network of independent organizations working around the world to ensure that every child has access to an equitable and excellent education. Each organization in the network, conceived and launched by a local entrepreneur, enlists its nation’s most promising leaders to teach in high-need areas for two years, and, in the long-term, drive systemic changes from within and outside of the education sector. Teach For All is catalyzing an international movement to expand educational opportunity. At the center of this network, Teach For All plays a unique role: it helps local organizations overcome common challenges by providing direct support services and serving as a hub for the exchange of best practices. In addition to delivering support to local organizations, Teach For All maximizes local impact on educational need by directly connecting the teaching participants and alumni of its international network programs through conferences and online forums.

Each year, After School Matters provides life-changing after-school and summer program opportunities to nearly 19,000 Chicago high school teens. Our hands-on, project-based apprenticeship and internship programs – in the arts, communications and leadership, sports and STEM – allow teens to explore and develop their talents, while gaining critical skills for work, college and beyond. After School Matters full-time staff of approximately 85 supports the day-to-day operations and administration of the organization, as well as the provision of our signature programs across the city, while hundreds of individuals across Chicago work with us part-time as After School Matters instructors and program providers. We seek to serve our teens and achieve our mission by: • Advocating for teens and youth development • Building opportunities for teens through partnerships • Engaging teens in skills development for work and higher education • Showcasing teen accomplishments • Disseminating research and best practices about out-of-school time for teens