OBT is one of the founding Community Based Organizational (CBO) members of CUNY’s Network for College Success (N4CS), which is a collaboration between CUNY’s office of K16 initiatives, CUNY colleges, and CBOs to increase college persistence and graduation rates. One of the most significant pieces of this work has been the N4CS data share, which has given OBT detailed information about how our alumni are doing at CUNY, substantially improving our ability to provide support to our enrolled college students. Recently, N4CS received funding to pilot an expansion of the partnership, and as a key member OBT was invited to participate in two focus groups about our work and how we’ve used the data.

In recognition of OBT’s contributions to this process, CUNY awarded OBT $2500 in funds to distribute to five alumni who are currently enrolled in college. In interest of fairness, the College Access team did a random “lottery” of eligible students who will receive the $500 award, which will be cash disbursements that can be used for not only tuition, but also books, supplies, or other necessary costs.

The students are overjoyed to get these bonus funds, and we are so glad that our commitment to this partnership – which has already had so many benefits for our work to support alumni – will be able to make such a difference for these young people.