OneGoal – Massachusetts Welcomes New Class of Students into Program
Carmen Ortiz, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, delivers keynote address
BOSTON, Feb. 4, 2019 – Nearly 300 high school juniors officially joined OneGoal – Massachusetts on Saturday, Feb. 2 at the University of Massachusetts Boston. An educational nonprofit working to close the college degree divide between students from low-income communities and their peers from high-income areas, OneGoal – Massachusetts has been serving the region since 2015.
“OneGoal is a community of teachers, students, school leaders and education advocates working hard to dismantle systems of oppression that too easily discourage our next generation of leaders from earning a college degree,” said Patty Diaz-Andrade, founding executive director of OneGoal – Massachusetts. “A college education is possible for you, even if it won’t be easy.”
Notable attendees included University of Massachusetts Boston Interim Chancellor Katherine Newman, as well as Carmen Ortiz, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, who delivered the keynote address.
“As a first-generation college graduate, I know how important it is to have a college education in order to explore the different opportunities life has to offer and to realize your dreams,” said Ortiz. “OneGoal does an exceptional job of providing a support system that helps guide and empower students to achieve their goals through a college education, and I am proud to be a part of their team.”
OneGoal’s unique three-year, teacher-led program includes an in-school, credit-bearing class taught to a cohort of students in junior and senior years of high school, and continues with one-on-one remote support from the same teacher through their first year of post-secondary education.
OneGoal has been serving the state of Massachusetts since 2015 and will serve more than 1,000 students by the end of the 2018-19 school year. In addition to partnering with 12 high schools in the school districts of Boston, Revere, Fall River, New Bedford and Lawrence, the organization works with a number of postsecondary institutions to ensure that students are supported through the transition to their postsecondary pathways, with the skills, mindsets, and network of support needed to persist through graduation.
“OneGoal provides crucial support and powerful inspiration to young people in the Boston area who are setting their sights on going to college,” said Newman. “UMass Boston is proud to partner with them and to welcome their ‘apprentices’ to our campus. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with OneGoal.”
About OneGoal
OneGoal is a coalition of teachers, students, school leaders and education advocates working to close the degree divide and ensure all young people have an equitable opportunity to achieve their greatest postsecondary aspirations. We collaborate closely with public schools in low-income communities, providing teachers with a robust curriculum, technology, training and coaching to implement our three-year model with a group of 25 students (called Fellows) per cohort. Teachers (called Program Directors) support the same group of Fellows beginning in 11th grade and bridge the gap through their first year after high school graduation. In communities where students typically have a 22 percent chance of graduating from college, 81 percent of OneGoal’s high school graduates enroll in a postsecondary institution and 86 percent of those who enroll persist one year later. OneGoal works in Chicago, Houston, Massachusetts, Metro Atlanta, New York and the Bay Area. For more information, visit onegoalgraduation.org.