RMHUC in Partnership with Minds Matter Denver
Harvard alums are contributing to the mission of an outstanding mentoring organization that prepares high-achieving, low-income, high-school students for success in college.
September 2015
Silvia Popoca, a Minds Matter Denver student at North High School, attended the Harvard Summer School's Secondary School Program in 2015. Her cost of attending was partially underwritten by the RMHUC. Here is her report on her experience.
July 2015
Minds Matter of Denver (MMD) is one of twelve Minds Matter chapters across the country. It is a mentoring organization for low-income (qualifies for the Federal free or reduced lunch program), high-achieving (GPA 3.5 or higher) Denver Public School high-school students. Mentoring sessions occur weekly during the school year throughout the sophomore, junior, and senior years. Each incoming sophomore is assigned a pair of mentors who stay with the student all three years.
Minds Matter is fundamentally college preparatory mentoring, with focus on reading, writing, test taking, critical thinking, public speaking, etc. Minds Matter also is part of the application and scholarship process for the students to get to college.
All Minds Matter students go to college-based, summer programs during their post-sophomore and junior summers. They attend programs all over the U.S. to go to college classes. These programs are important for many reasons: they help the students learn how to acclimate to the college environment, they give them a try at a certain school and program, and of course these programs help the students enhance their college applications as seniors.
Minds Matter of Denver is 100% volunteer run. Since the chapter's inception in 2004, MMD students have had a 100% success rate of graduating high school on time, 100% success in getting into a 4-year university, and 100% of them have received college scholarships.
We recommend this video featuring interviews of mentees, parents, and mentors about the program: Minds Matter Video
Silvia Popoca, having just completed her sophomore year at North High School, is spending seven weeks this summer at the Harvard Summer School's secondary school program. Two RMHUC members contributed to Minds Matter Denver to help her attend, and the Club matched almost $2000 in these and other contributions. (You can see Silvia at 5:16 in the video referenced above.)
For the 2015-16 academic year, the Club will help MMD in two ways:
- We will co-host information sessions for prospective mentors, inviting all Harvard alumni and associates to learn about the program.
- We will help fund one student to attend the 2016 session of the Harvard Summer School.