In many ways, Faces of America is a 21st century model for public-private-nonprofit partnership. The program is delivered by AFS-USA professional staff and volunteers working hand-in-hand with a consortium of community- and school-based nonprofit youth service organizations in urban centers from coast to coast.
AFS-USA is proud to partner with organizations such as Summer Search, Chess in the Schools, Liberty Leads, Kappa League and many others, to help young people from disadvantaged communities achieve their potential and gain access to learning opportunities that open their eyes to a world of possibilities.
For a full listing of our partnerships, please see below.
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Summer Search San Francisco
Linda Mornell, an adolescent therapist, originally founded Summer Search in 1990 in the San Francisco Bay Area with 14 students. In 1995 Katherine Kennedy joined Linda and began learning the unique mentoring methods based on self-examination and accountability. Together Katherine and Linda grew the program to serve 150 students annually, and in 1999, Katherine assumed the Executive Director position, expanding the program to include college counseling and bring on new talent to increase and diversify the staff. Today, San Francisco is the pilot site for new initiatives at Summer Search such as collaborating strategically with our North Bay and Silicon Valley offices to best serve their students and alumni across the Bay Area.
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Summer Search Silicon Valley
Summer Search Silicon Valley launched in September 2005 under the leadership of founding Executive Director, Kamba Tshionyi, and Board Chair, Ken Olivier with Magdalena Paul from the Barrett Foundation as founding board member. With the continued support of their funding partners and referring schools, they now serve 85 students from 17 East Bay, Peninsula and San Jose schools. Additionally, they support 81 students in several colleges and universities within and outside California. Under the leadership of their new Executive Director, Carlin Johnson Politzer, they hope to serve more than 200 students annually by 2015.
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Summer Search North Bay
Summer Search North San Francisco Bay was initiated in 1998 under the leadership of Vallejo High School teachers Joan McDonald, Helen Warlaw and Secondo Sarpieri, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the MacDonnell Foundation, who wanted to bring this resource to the expanding yet rural and underserved Latino population. Former Executive Director Jessica Vibberts and current director Kait Schroeder have been instrumental in spearheading innovative programming and initiatives that are adopted by the other sites.
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Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Chicago
Cristo Rey Jesuit High School offers a Catholic college preparatory education for the immigrant families of Chicago's near southwest side.
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Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund
The mission of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund is to give high school scholarship assistance and educational support to Chicago students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. DMSF seeks to make a life-altering difference in the lives of its Scholars by providing them with the best opportunity to succeed in high school and college.
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HighSight
HighSight is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide academic and social support to Chicago high school students. HighSight provides scholarships, tutoring, mentoring, leadership development and college readiness programs to enable its students to attend and succeed at the private high school of their choice.
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Kappa Leadership Institute - Chicago
The Kappa Leadership Institute - Chicago referred to as "Kappa League," is a non-profit program operated by and funded by the Edward G. Irvin Foundation and the Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation. The program is designed for high performing under-represented and/or disadvantaged young men in grades 9th - 12th who attend a high school within the Chicago land area, demonstrate superior academic potential, and desire a high powered "Leadership", "College-readiness" and "Mentoring" program that is challenging and extremely rewarding.
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LINK Unlimited
LINK Unlimited provides educational college preparatory opportunities for economically disadvantaged African American high school youth. In so doing, it integrates mentoring relationships, college readiness and leadership development to foster academic success, personal development and interracial understanding and harmony.
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Midtown Educational Foundation Metro Achievement Center for Girls
Midtown Educational Foundation is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. At MEF, we seek to impact the future of Chicago education by offering high-quality enrichment opportunities for students and their parents through our unique, holistic approach to after-school and summertime programs at the Midtown Center for boys and Metro Achievement Center for girls.
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Summer Quest
Summer Quest is a Chicago Public Schools pre-college program that helps motivated Chicago Public Schools high school students to participate in unique summer learning opportunities by providing pre-college counseling and need-based financial support. Summer Quest supports students through need-based financial aid, pre-college counseling, and ongoing alumni programming. By inspiring Chicago’s students to visualize what can be achieved through higher education, Summer Quest empowers youth to grasp their potential and create positive and sustainable change in their schools, families, and communities.
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Summer Search Boston
Summer Search Boston provides low-income high school students with mentoring, summer experiences, and college advising, so they gain the skills to succeed in college and dramatically improve their life prospects. Jay Jacobs and Fredericka Stevenson, founding board chair, established Summer Search Boston in 1996 as the first replication of the dynamic program founded in 1990 by Linda Mornell in San Francisco. Since 2005, Summer Search Boston has nearly tripled in size to serve 350 students in 2010. Under the leadership of Executive Director Debbie Krause and Board Chair Mark Smith, Summer Search Boston is continuing its growth to serve over 400 students by 2012, while targeting the students throughout the city with the highest level of need. Today Summer Search Boston is the largest of seven local program sites across the country, each growing to maximize its capacity.
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All Hallows High School New York City
All Hallows High School, founded in 1909 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, is an inner city, Catholic, college preparatory school for young men in the heritage of Blessed Edmund Rice that develops students who are prepared to realize their fullest potential; who can effect positive change in society; and who possess a lifelong desire to learn.
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Bankstreet College of Education Liberty LEADS
Liberty LEADS offers comprehensive educational opportunities both to high-achieving students on track for admission to selective colleges and to students who are struggling and / or at risk of dropping out of school. All students have access to a wide range of academic resources, college prep classes, counseling, mentoring and enrichment activities. In addition, Liberty LEADS offers all students a comprehensive support system based on ongoing relationships with caring adults who give every young person consistent and individual attention.
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Chess-In-The-Schools, Inc
Chess-in-the-Schools is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to improving academic performance and building self-esteem among inner-city public school children.
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Double Discovery Center
The Double Discovery Center now serves over 1,000 low-income and first generation college-bound New York City youth each year in grades 7 through 12. It houses two youth education programs, Talent Search and Upward Bound. Through these programs, students learn about colleges and careers, improve their academic work, and participate in personal development activities.
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Frederick Douglass Academy New York City
Frederick Douglass Academy II is a college preparatory secondary school focused on creating the next generation of society's leaders, who are committed to excellence in character, scholastic achievement and community service.
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Minds Matter
Minds Matter is a nationally recognized not-for-profit serving high-achieving, low-income students in cities across the United States. Their mission is to transform the lives of accomplished high school students from low-income families by broadening their dreams and preparing them for college success.
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Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO)
SEO provides superior educational and career programs to young people from underserved communities to maximize their opportunities for college and career success.
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Summer Search NYC
The mission of Summer Search is to find resilient low-income high school students and inspire them to become responsible and altruistic leaders by providing year- round mentoring, life-changing summer experiences, college advising, and a lasting support network. Summer Search New York City was founded in 2003 by Eden Werring, the former Executive Director of the North San Francisco Bay office and Stacey Thompson, an alumna of the San Francisco office and currently the National Director of Talent and Training. Today, under the leadership of Executive Director, Karina Kirsch the New York City office has undertaken a major program expansion to triple the number of students served throughout New York City.
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Urban Assembly School of Law and Justice New York City
The Urban Assembly is a nonprofit organization with a proven track record of creating and managing a community of New York City Public Schools dedicated to preparing students from under-resourced neighborhoods for success in four-year colleges, through innovative partnership-based programming.
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Summer Search Philadelphia
Summer Search Philadelphia is the newest of seven Summer Search sites around the country. In 2005, the School District of Philadelphia approached our national office and sought to replicate Summer Search's long-standing national model in Philadelphia. By 2006, Summer Search Philadelphia was established and in operation. In 2009, 100% of the students in that pilot-year cohort graduated high school and are currently enrolled in college.
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YES Prep South East Campus Houston
YES Prep Public Schools exists to increase the number of low-income Houstonians who graduate from a four-year college prepared to compete in the global marketplace and committed to improving disadvantaged communities.
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Summer Search Seattle
Summer Search Seattle opened in September of 2003 under the leadership of former Executive Director, Mia Ellis, and former Board Chair, Cecile Delafield. Today, the Seattle office has a staff of nine and a local advisory board of twelve. Students come from the Seattle, Bellevue, Shoreline, Lake Washington, Tukwila, and Highline School Districts. The goal is to grow to serve 250 students annually by 2013 with a 16-20 member advisory board.
