College Bound is an organization that empowers students in St. Louis facing systemic barriers to achieve transformative lives of higher education and economic possibility through an individualized, holistic, and multi-year investment.
The Confluence Collaborative spoke with Milton Mitchell Jr., College Bound’s Chief Executive Officer, and Kaleigh Lawrence, College Bound’s Chief Philanthropy Officer, about the organization’s impact on students and what research questions the organization hopes to explore as it enters its 20th anniversary year.
For people unfamiliar with College Bound, can you speak to the organization’s mission and how your team works to fulfill it?
Milton Mitchell Jr.: We take students from the St. Louis City and St. Louis County area who have the desire and interest in pursuing higher education, beginning at the start of their sophomore year of high school, and shepherd them through the access and persistence process of attaining a college degree, and doing so with as little debt as possible.
We also partner with St. Louis Community College and Ranken Technical College through our CB on Campus programs, where we support first-generation and under-resourced students on those campuses.
Kaleigh Lawrence: For each grade level, there are three staff members: an academic specialist who helps students understand their academic strengths and challenges; a stabilization manager who typically has an MSW and works with students and their families on anything non-academic—resource needs, social emotional support, housing insecurity, food insecurity; and a possibility specialist who helps students understand their aptitudes, motivations, and career exploration. The three of them design and deliver our college prep and persistence curriculum while also providing individualized coaching to each student in that cohort.
How do you see students’ perspectives change as they progress through College Bound?
MM: One of the biggest things we do is expose our students to people, places, careers, and pathways that they didn’t know to dream about.
You see the confidence that comes when they step on a college campus for the first time, or when they walk into a research lab for the first time. Their minds expand because they see that there’s a whole world out there.
While the backbone of our program is supporting students as they navigate degree completion with as little debt as possible, College Bound students build a community, become self-advocates, and gain the agency that will carry them through the rest of their lives while they are earning that degree.
Can you share a story of how a student has been positively impacted by the support of College Bound?
KL: I’m thinking about one student who started with us in high school. She was part of an immigrant family with a lot of siblings and cousins at home, and she’s the oldest, so she was the caretaker of everyone. College was so quiet in comparison to her home life. She called her coach and said, “I don’t know if I can do this. My family’s not here. These classes are harder than I thought they would be.”
Every time she felt like she couldn’t keep going, instead of unenrolling, she would call her coach and they would walk through it. She successfully completed a competitive program within her college debt free, and she is now working in our community with people who need support. Had she not had that relationship with a College Bound staff member, she wouldn’t be impacting these other lives. There’s a lot to be said for the relational piece. [You can learn more about her story here.]
What are College Bound’s goals for the near and longer-term future?
MM: We just completed a strategic planning process, and in essence, it’s saying keep going. We’re proud of the impact that we’ve had over the years and hope that with the move away from Americorps towards professional staff, we’ll have the capacity to increase graduation rates and make strategic shifts to continuously improve program quality.
We want students to know about us, families to know about us, counselors to know more about us. We want to be fiscally able to handle the growing and ever-changing needs of our students and staff. We are in an interesting phase where we need to consider how we support and grow a highly trained professional staff and are looking forward to building out the internal structures to do that.
KL: We have a couple of north star goals that will guide us as we continue to tweak and improve our programming:
- We’re striving towards 65% of students in our To and Through program completing higher education with a Bachelor’s degree within 6 years of high school graduation. Our students currently have a graduation rate of 50%, which is 5 times the rate of their peers from similar backgrounds.
- 40% of CB @ STLCC students will complete either an associate degree or other high-quality credential or certificate within four years of starting at STLCC. Last year, we surpassed that at 43% and are looking forward to reconsidering that goal in the coming year.
- CB students receiving their degree will have less debt than the national average ($28,950) for graduates and will be on the path to career-relevant employment.
What research questions would you be interested in exploring in regards to College Bound’s work?
MM: There is a huge difference between our young ladies and young men in their preparation and ability to persist. Particularly in the post-COVID era, there’s been a shift. I’m seeing much more of a “Can I really do this?” mindset among young men, versus our young women are like, “Let’s go.”
I would love it if someone came in and said, “How can we study what’s going on from a gender standpoint?” It’s a small subset, but what’s happening with our students is likely happening across the board. I think our young women are able to support each other and go at it together, while our young men are further isolating themselves.
Also, I would love it if someone studied the impact that College Bound has on the family members of the students who go through our programming. How does our work influence what is taking place generationally?
When ‘Johnny’ graduates college, we can see what that does for him, but what about the impact on Johnny’s siblings or cousins who are seeing Johnny become the first college graduate in the family and how that shifted his life? Can we study what that one person breaking through the glass ceiling did for others? That’s a big study, but I’m really curious.
KL: To build off that, we’re also interested in exploring longitudinal data. I’m really curious about how College Bound has impacted our region. For our 20th anniversary, we’re trying to find all of our alumni, where they’re living and where they’re working, and so far, a lot of them are back in St. Louis.
I have a lot of questions about the high-level impact our graduates have in our region in terms of dollars they’re earning that are going back into the economy. Are they voting? Are they civically engaged? Do they have health insurance? How does that impact public health? How has 20 years of doing this work changed St. Louis? We have some surveys and anecdotal data, but haven’t participated in a full research study.
How can people support College Bound’s work?
KL: We want our students to be connected to career and networking opportunities. We have something called the College Bound Booster Club, which serves as the social and professional network for our students. Folks can make a gift of any size that feels meaningful to them, and they become part of this network of supporters for our students as they’re navigating to and through college. This group helps with informational interviews, job and career panels, our networking dinner for high school students, and our professional networking event for collegians.
We have College Bound Pickle and Rally coming up on November 8th, which is an opportunity to support our work while playing pickleball. We also have our 20th anniversary coming up in 2026. Our annual gala ‘Cap and Gown,’ on June 13th, will be heavily focused on that, and we’ll also be hosting some smaller pop-up anniversary parties throughout the year. Those are great opportunities to learn more about our work and get a better understanding of the long-term impact our alumni are having in the region.
Lastly, folks can spread the word about College Bound, make a gift that feels meaningful to them, or reach out to grab coffee and learn more.
If you’re a WashU scholar interested in exploring any of the research questions outlined above, please reach out to our team at confluence@wustl.edu.
Anyone interested in learning more about College Bound, or supporting the organization, is encouraged to reach out to Kaleigh Lawerence – klawrence@collegeboundstl.org