Today’s society places a premium on a college education. Research demonstrates that a college degree directly correlates with higher employment rates, higher job status, and higher wages. But a host of challenges confront today’s high school student in navigating the complex college search and application process. It’s an especially daunting task for students in under-resourced public high school where college counseling is spread too thin, or for those students whose parents don’t have college experience themselves.

Center for Student Opportunity and the College-Bound Coalition are here to support the college aspirations of traditionally underserved students and to advance school's college guidance efforts.

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Opportunities and resources for students and schools include:

• CSO College Center, an online clearinghouse of college programs and admissions information serving first-generation and other historically underserved students, is a tool and wealth of information for students and counselors alike. Engage your students on the website to learn from a library of information, research college programs and opportunities, ask questions to CSO counselors, and register student résumés on ConnectNow to send to colleges. This is a free and privacy protected service.
  
  
• Volunteer services from professional college counselors. CSO’s Counseling Outreach program leverages the volunteer support of professional college counselors to do pro bono outreach work in their community. CSO serves as facilitators to research partnership sites for counselors and provide infrastructure and resources once placed. CSO places counselors with under-resourced schools and community-based organizations nationally.
  
  
• Program Development consulting support. Through the College-Bound Coalition, CSO is a wealth of information on leading models and best practices in college preparation and guidance.  Whether it is improving an existing program or starting from the ground-up, CSO can leverage its knowledge-base and relationships with leading programs nationally to assist in crafting a program that fits your school's needs and interests.
  
  
• Receive Coalition eNews, regular eNewsletters that feature spotlights on successful program models, disseminates advice on best practices, and updates Coalition members of new CSO programs and service opportunities.
  

Please contact info@csopportunity.org or call (301) 951-7101 ext. 214 with questions or inquiries.