iMentor Chicago

iMentor pairs students from low-income neighborhoods with a college educated volunteer mentor committed to their success for 3 consecutive years. In Chicago Public Schools, the student to counselor ratio is 303:1 and we shrink that ratio to a 1:1 support relationship. Our mentors and staff, who are also certified college counselors, help to increase college entrance, persistence, and graduation rates. Our model ensures that each student – no matter their GPA or other standardized scoring – has the personalized supports to transition successfully to college.

iMentor increases college enrollment at low income schools by an average of 13 percentage points and students served are nearly 3x more likely to graduate college than their peers. In just 2 years, we’ve tripled our impact in Chicago from 207 pairs to 608. Only 18% of CPS students’ graduating college in 5 years so to truly unlock the talent and potential of Chicago’s youth we need to mobilize and activate our residents as mentors to join frontline educators and counselors in this work together.