Ivy Advantage Academy Closes Standardized Testing Gap by Funding 12+

Meet The Disruptor: Ivy Advantage Academy & 12+

The intertwined for-turn a profit and non-profit college prep companies span the gap betwixt privilege and poverty

Aug. 02, 2016

When Abraham Kwon and his 3 co-founders launched 12+, a nonprofit college prep program, in 2010, their mission seemed unproblematic enough: Creating a "college going culture" in Philadelphia loftier schools by helping underserved students prepare for and nourish college.

They launched with a staff of three in Kensington Health Sciences Academy. By terminal year, the system had a staff of fifteen, and were providing one,500 9th to 12th graders with free SAT and Deed test prep services, higher readiness counseling, wrap-around services, workshops, and mentoring.

In 2013, it was clear to the executive squad—all Penn alums—that they were having success with their students. What was less clear—every bit with other nonprofits—was how they were going to proceed funding their work at 12+, whose $350,000 to $400,000 annual upkeep by and large came from foundations and individual donations.

So the partners, already disruptors in the mostly aristocracy field of higher prep, started thinking almost some other disruptor, in another field: Tom's Shoes, with its one-for-ane business organization model that sends a pair of shoes to a person in need across the world for every pair information technology sells.

Already, recent college graduates who become 12+ fellows may also apply for part-time tutoring positions at Ivy. Soon, they plan to offer 12+ students part-time administrative jobs at Ivy, and Ivy students the adventure to volunteer in the urban center, helping to tutor their peers and learning how they can use their privilege to make a positive impact in the world.

"We thought, What if nosotros could somehow use the skills and expertise nosotros have every bit Ivy league graduates, as people who have worked in education, to start a for-profit company like to a KAPLAN or Princeton Review and charge for our services," says Albert Pak, former COO of 12+. "Then we could use a portion of those proceeds for 12+ and other instruction initiatives in the city."

Now the founders run two different, but intertwined, college prep companies: 12+ and Ivy Advantage University, a private start-up in Elkins Park that they bought in 2013, revamped and renamed. Ivy is a "ane terminate shop for the tutoring and test-prep needs" of students in the greater Philadelphia surface area. It offers private tutoring sessions, seasonal Sabbatum and Deed prep, and summer heart school enrichment classes, led by recent Ivy League graduates, to 60 to 95 students per year. This year alone Ivy students have received admissions to Princeton, Penn, Georgetown and the United states of america Naval Academy.

Ivy's clientele tend to be from affluent Korean-American families from high-quality suburban schools, the ones who first out ahead and stay ahead considering of the sorts of enrichment that Ivy provides. A total-length session—which includes 72 hours of class instruction and three total length practice test—runs from $1500 to $1800; private tutoring pricing varies. On average this brings in $110k per year for Ivy.

For the concluding 3 years, Ivy has provided $35,000 of that revenue to 12+ for its complimentary programming at Hill-Freedman World Academy, where the first class of seniors volition start in the fall; Kensington Health, where 65 per centum of higher-eligible seniors who took the SATs raised their scores by an boilerplate of 155 points, and 78 percentage were accustomed into a two- or four-year college; and Fishtown's Penn Treaty, where 100 percent showed improvement, and 83 percent got into college. (12+ helped the remainder of the students go positions in Job Corps or other job training programs.) Students at these schools are predominantly black and Latino, and have faced pregnant challenges to accessing quality education. They require boosted services such equally life-skills preparation and job opportunities.

Eventually, says Pak, who co-owns Ivy, the goal is for Ivy to funnel $100,000 a year to 12+, providing a base, which when added to the grants 12+ already receives, would securely sustain the non-profit. But having two unlike entities, with two very different populations, has also created a dissever opportunity that Pak says they promise to grow: A pipeline linking students and teachers to each other, to jobs and to volunteer opportunities.

Already, recent college graduates who become 12+ fellows may also utilize for office-time tutoring positions at Ivy. Soon, they plan to offer 12+ students function-time administrative jobs at Ivy, and Ivy students the run a risk to volunteer in the city, helping to tutor their peers and learning how they can use their privilege to make a positive touch in the globe.

"If you lot await at our students at Ivy and 12+ the difference is sometimes jarring, and that is because of the circumstances that they were born in and their own personal experiences," says Ester Park, a 12+ programme manager at Hill Freedman and Education Director at Ivy Advantage. "We're trying to bridge that gap where nosotros get [students] to think more open mindedly about how at that place are dissimilar people than themselves, but that we tin can work together to serve our communities."

The partners, already disruptors in the mostly elite field of college prep, started thinking about another disruptor, in another field: Tom's Shoes, with its i-for-1 business organisation model that sends a pair of shoes to a person in need across the world for every pair it sells.

Even without Ivy's philanthropic modify-ego, the company offered a new take on the standard test prep program. The teachers, like Park, are all young college graduates, who spend time connecting with their students, across the vocabulary and algebra on the page. This means smaller class sizes of no more than 10; and a program that aims to instill excellence and goodness in their clientele. "Our teachers see students where they are," says Pak. "They aren't hired just to come in, teach, and exit. There'due south a lot of money to exist made, aye, but there's also a lot of good that can be done through [exam prep centers]."

This goes back to Kwon'southward original inspiration for 12+, when it was called "I Little Did." A Penn pupil at the time, Kwon was volunteering with the contend team at Westward Philadelphia High School where, he told the Inquirer , the students "were asking nigh things that I idea everybody knew, things we take for granted." Questions like: "What are the SATs?" "Do I have to have them to become to college?" and  "How do you apply to college?"

While they've helped many students answer those questions since so, Pak admits that information technology'due south easy for staff to become lost in the systemic issues of poverty, poor schools and depression expectations. He reports having days—like so many other positive social modify agents, administrators and educators in Philadelphia—when he wonders, "Are we making a difference?"

His squad makes certain to remind one another that what they've already achieved is "noteworthy, and information technology's only going to go upward from here."

Right now going upwards from here ways graduating the first 12+ senior class at their newest school partner, Hill Freedman World Academy, and expanding the alumni program, Ascend, in guild to ensure as many students every bit possible transition successfully to higher the start fall later on graduation and stay on track. They're nevertheless considering expansion into a quaternary school depending on…you lot guessed it: funding.

Ultimately, Pak's promise is that the work being done at Ivy Reward and 12+ will be a positive message, specifically to college students who are coming up backside them: "Many of them are graduating with an incredible opportunity to make a difference in whatever community they are [a part of]. And at that place's a lot of piece of work to exist done."

Correction: A previous version of this article said that Albert Pak runs 12+; he is co-owner of Ivy.

Photograph header: Ivy Advantage co-owner Raymond John and CEO Frank Wang. (Photo by Patrick Clark)

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/standing-in-the-standardized-gap/

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