National leaders come together to support Delaware nonprofit sending Black, Latino, and low-income students to top colleges across the country
TeenSHARP announces its first national advisory board, with plans for
regional and national expansion
Wilmington, Del.—University presidents, CEOs, a former state secretary of
education, and pioneering nonprofit leaders from across the country are among the
founding members of a National Advisory Board that will help a Delaware college
access organization expand the reach of its work to empower Black, Latino, and
low-income students.
TeenSHARP, a nonprofit founded in 2009 to open the door to elite colleges and
leadership opportunities for talented young people from marginalized communities,
announced its new advisory board on August 6.
“We’re honored and excited by the dynamic team of leaders that has chosen to stand
with TeenSHARP during this meaningful time in our history, and help us take our
life-changing work to the next level,” said Atnre Alleyne, who co-founded TeenSHARP
with his wife, Tatiana Poladko. “From Day 1, TeenSHARP has prided itself on being a
small-but-ambitious team that does whatever it takes to ensure our students
succeed. We’ve helped hundreds of students attend and thrive at top colleges and
we have exciting plans to reach many more students and families.”
The members of the National Advisory Board are:
● Tre Johnson – DEI Partner, Catalyst ED, and author of Black Genius, a
forthcoming release from Dutton/Penguin Random House
● Kira Orange Jones – Senior Vice President, Teach for America, and
Co-Founder, Systems Learning Lab
● Dr. Lindsay Page – Annenberg Associate Professor of Education Policy, Brown
University
● Dr. Carol Quillen – President, Davidson College
● Dr. Suzanne Rivera – President, Macalester College
● Christopher Ruszkowski – CEO, Meeting Street Schools, and former Secretary
of Education, New Mexico
● Rey Saldaña – President and CEO, Communities In Schools
● Andrew J. Seligsohn, PhD – President, Public Agenda
● Peter Shulman – CEO, Urban Teachers
● Xan Tanner – Co-founder and Board Member, Panorama Education.
For bios on each board member, please click here.
The announcement comes during a season of growth, innovation, and impact for the
nonprofit. TeenSHARP saw record-high enrollment—500 students—for the virtual
version of its annual college readiness bootcamp in June; placed the nearly 100
students in its senior class in top colleges despite the historically competitive
admissions season; launched text message and TV-based college awareness
outreach with the support of a CARES Act innovation grant; and is currently serving
more than 200 students in its Cyber SPARK summer program.
Come fall, TeenSHARP will welcome its largest cohort yet of students for its intensive
Saturday college prep program, Striver.
Against that backdrop, the National Advisory Board will help TeenSHARP and its
local governing board of directors accelerate its growth and expand its reach across
the country.
“I am honored to serve on TeenSHARP’s National Advisory Board,” said Macalester
College President Dr. Rivera, an advocate for social justice who has worked in higher
education for 25 years. “The work this organization does to prepare talented students
from historically excluded groups to succeed at top colleges is critical for assuring
higher education remains a ladder of opportunity in this country. I wish I had been
able to benefit from a program like TeenSHARP when I was in high school.”
Alleyne and Poladko—named among the most influential Delawareans of 2020 by
The News Journal and American Graduate Champions by WHYY in 2016—founded
TeenSHARP in a church basement in New Jersey in 2009 while in graduate school.
Since then, the nonprofit has emerged as a tremendous force in the Delaware Valley
region for developing young leaders and helping students access and succeed at the
most selective colleges.
“TeenSHARP’s unique 10-year commitment, bridging high school aspirations
through employment opportunities, is creating a true ladder to socio-economic
mobility,” said Peter Shulman, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Urban
Teachers. “By investing deeply and at the individual level, TeenSHARP is able to
unlock and grow the assets of our young adults who have been systemically
underserved for too long. TeenSHARP’s countless success stories serve as both
inspirational fuel for so many peer organizations and an embodiment of what we
know all young people to be capable of.”
This year, 89 high school seniors graduated from the program. All are headed to
four-year colleges, including Princeton, UPenn, MIT, Macalester, Pomona, Howard
University, University of Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, and many more. Six SHARPies are
headed to Cornell University, in a year when the school accepted just 8.7 percent of
record-high applicants. Ninety-five percent of TeenSHARP alums graduate from
college in four years, and 100 percent graduate within six years. The vast majority
graduate with $15,000 or less in student loan debt.
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About TeenSHARP: TeenSHARP is a regional organization headquartered in
Wilmington, Del., that is on a mission to prepare talented low-income, African
American, and Latino students to attend and thrive at the nation’s top colleges. This
mission is in service of a bold vision that one day the diversity of those occupying our
nation’s highly-skilled jobs and highest leadership positions will be as rich as the
diversity of our population. Founded in 2009, TeenSHARP has evolved into a leading
provider of innovative, at-scale college access and success support in the Delaware
Valley region (including Delaware, Philadelphia, and New Jersey). TeenSHARP has
achieved incredible results over the last ten years: 100 percent of TeenSHARP
scholars successfully pursue a 4-year college education, with 95 percent of the
scholars being admitted to selective colleges and universities every year.
