• Agenda
  • Initiatives
  • Reports
  • Events
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Leadership and Governance
    • Our Members and Partners
    • Communities
    • History
    • Klaus Schwab
    • Media
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • World Economic Forum USA
    • Privacy and Terms of Use
  • EN ES FR 日本語 中文
  • Login to TopLink

We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our updated Cookie Notice.

I accept
    Hamburger
  • World Economic Forum Logo
  • Agenda
  • Initiatives
  • Reports
  • Events
  • About
  • TopLink
  • Search Cancel

Report Home

<Previous Next>
  • Foreword
  • How to Read This Report
  • A Framework for Government Action
  • Index to Policy Case Studies
  • 01 The Impact Investing Working Group of the Presidential Investment Council, Senegal
  • 02 The National Innovation Council, India
  • 03 The Department for Social Prosperity, Colombia
  • 04 The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, United States
  • 05 Big Society Capital, United Kingdom
  • 06 The Venture Capital Trust Fund, Ghana
  • 07 The Investment and Contract Readiness Fund, UK
  • 08 Mi Chacra Emprendedora, Peru
  • 09 Program-Related Investments, United States
  • 10 Community Economic Development Investment Funds, Canada
  • 11 Social Benefit Bonds, Australia
  • 12 The Micro-Credit Company Pilot Programme, People’s Republic of China
  • Social Innovation Models Explained
  • Index to Social Enterprise Case Studies
  • Case Studies: Education
  • PlanetRead
  • First Book
  • Lumni
  • College Summit
  • Case Studies: Health
  • Naya Jeevan
  • Aravind Eye Care System
  • Health Leads
  • CIES
  • Case Studies: Employment and Enterprise Development
  • Education for Employment
  • Friends International
  • Hapinoy
  • Endeavor Global
  • Case Studies: Urban Development
  • Cinepop / Hormiga
  • Waste Concern
  • INCLUDED
  • BioRegional
  • Case Studies: Rural Development
  • Landesa
  • SELCO
  • Proximity Designs
  • Hybrid Social Solutions Inc. (HSSi)
  • Acknowledgements
Breaking the Binary: Policy Guide to Scaling Social Innovation 2013 Home Previous Next
  • Report Home
  • Foreword
  • How to Read This Report
  • A Framework for Government Action
  • Index to Policy Case Studies
  • 01 The Impact Investing Working Group of the Presidential Investment Council, Senegal
  • 02 The National Innovation Council, India
  • 03 The Department for Social Prosperity, Colombia
  • 04 The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, United States
  • 05 Big Society Capital, United Kingdom
  • 06 The Venture Capital Trust Fund, Ghana
  • 07 The Investment and Contract Readiness Fund, UK
  • 08 Mi Chacra Emprendedora, Peru
  • 09 Program-Related Investments, United States
  • 10 Community Economic Development Investment Funds, Canada
  • 11 Social Benefit Bonds, Australia
  • 12 The Micro-Credit Company Pilot Programme, People’s Republic of China
  • Social Innovation Models Explained
  • Index to Social Enterprise Case Studies
  • Case Studies: Education

  • PlanetRead
  • First Book
  • Lumni
  • College Summit
  • Case Studies: Health

  • Naya Jeevan
  • Aravind Eye Care System
  • Health Leads
  • CIES
  • Case Studies: Employment and Enterprise Development

  • Education for Employment
  • Friends International
  • Hapinoy
  • Endeavor Global
  • Case Studies: Urban Development

  • Cinepop / Hormiga
  • Waste Concern
  • INCLUDED
  • BioRegional
  • Case Studies: Rural Development

  • Landesa
  • SELCO
  • Proximity Designs
  • Hybrid Social Solutions Inc. (HSSi)
  • Acknowledgements

College Summit

Social Enterprise: College Summit

Social Entrepreneur(s): J. B. Schramm

Founded: 1993
Sector(s): Education
Location(s): United States 
Website: www.collegesummit.org

34

The Innovation

Identify students who exert the greatest social influence in any high school and enlist them to persuade friends and fellow students to apply to college.

The Innovation Explained

College Summit partners with high schools in low-income neighbourhoods to raise their college enrolment and persistence rates. Together with the principal and teachers, they nurture a college-going culture in these schools to dramatically increase the percentage of high school seniors attending college. This is based upon a truth parents know well: teenagers are more heavily influenced by their peers than by parental figures or teachers. 

Using this insight, College Summit maps the social networks in each school and encourages the students who are leaders of those networks (roughly 10% of each class) to become Peer Leaders. “We’re not after the top academic performers necessarily,” explains J.B. Schramm. “We hone in on the influencers and work with them to get them to apply.”

Peer Leaders attend College Summit’s four-day residential camp, where they interact with Peer Leaders from other schools, complete college applications and receive leadership training. Peer Leaders return to their schools energized and motivated to encourage a college-going culture among classmates and spearhead college application campaigns. At the same time, all students in the school take part in a college and career-planning course. “We explore what kind of lifestyle they want to live in the future, and help them understand how the choices they make in school affect the future options they have,” says Schramm.

This year, College Summit is working with nearly 50,000 students from 180 high schools in 13 states in the United States, 90% of whom are African-American or Latino. University enrolment rates have increased by 20% over the baseline rate for participating schools, while their college persistence rate of 75% matches that achieved by students from all income groups.

Why This Matters

Studies demonstrate that economic growth is driven by the college attainment rate of the adult population. Yet over the past two decades the United States has fallen in international rankings from first to twelfth position in the population percentage that achieves a university-level education. In low-income school districts, 50% of ninth grade students never graduate from high school, further contributing to the growing gap between the rich and poor.

Additionally, the US Government’s educational reform is focused on transparency and holding public schools accountable. This is “shifting the goal … from high school graduation rates as the goal, to sending more students to college as the goal,” according to Schramm. “And influential students are the most under-utilized educational resource in schools. School districts with scarce public funding available can’t afford to leave the biggest tool of potential education reformers on the side-lines any longer.”

Practical Advice

Empower students to be active drivers of change instead of passive beneficiaries. “Rather than thinking of young people in school as vessels to be filled with knowledge, think of them as drivers of change,” says Schramm. Peer-to-peer influence has a greater effect than any top-down programme. 

Develop strategic corporate relationships that leverage a company’s core expertise. College Summit collaborated with Deloitte to build a data management system for high school principals; it tracks how many of their students complete their federal financial aid forms and submit college applications. “We were able to bring those scorecards to policy-makers and show them how schools can make progress when young people set higher goals for themselves,” explains Schramm. “This is a great example of how a company can apply their technical, quantitative skills in a strategic way, resulting in policy influence.” 

Back to Top
Subscribe for updates
A weekly update of what’s on the Global Agenda
Follow Us
About
Our Mission
Leadership and Governance
Our Members and Partners
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Communities
History
Klaus Schwab
Our Impact
Media
Pictures
A Global Platform for Geostrategic Collaboration
Careers
Open Forum
Contact Us
Mapping Global Transformations
Code of Conduct
World Economic Forum LLC
Sustainability
World Economic Forum Privacy Policy
Media
News
Accreditation
Subscribe to our news
Members & Partners
Member login to TopLink
Strategic Partners' area
Partner Institutes' area
Global sites
Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Open Forum
Global Shapers
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
EN ES FR 日本語 中文
© 2019 World Economic Forum
Privacy Policy & Terms of Service