What is icouldbe.org?

2. What is icouldbe.org? Mentoring the Next Generation • icouldbe.org is an award-winning organization that is pioneering innovative technology solutions to solve the educational and career needs of today’s students. icouldbe.org has served more than 6,000 teenagers in the United States and has recently expanded its global reach to Tanzania. • icouldbe.org partners with companies to engage employees to become mentors to teenagers and guide them through a dynamic, online curriculum that allows them to focus on career advice, the best uses of high school, how to manage their money, how to prepare for continuing education. • icouldbe.org guides youth towards the careers they want and deserve • All mentoring is virtual and safe, carried out on the icouldbe.org’s site • E-mentors volunteer when it is convenient for them – day or night

3. Our Strengths icouldbe.org has been consistently noted for the following strengths: • Pioneers in safe online mentoring • National and international presence • Student-driven curriculum • Scalable and sustainable corporate partnership model • High Impact, Low Cost program model • Measurable impact

4. The Case for Mentoring America’s Youth Need More Guidance Imagine being the first in your family with the aspiration to attend college or to pursue an advanced career. What if you didn’t know anyone who could help you to make the sort of decisions that would help you to achieve your dreams? With no access, where would you start? Imagine that you and 700 of your peers all must rely on 1 guidance counselor at school for help in discovering how to go best go about navigating your options? At 699 to 1, where would you go? How many of the dreams of potential investment bankers, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, elected officials, lawyers, doctors and educators have never been realized simply because there wasn’t a caring professional adult available to help, to talk and to listen? The Facts: • U.S. taxpayers spend $100,000 to put every American child through K-12 public education, yet only $80 goes to helping individual students explore career possibilities • Over 700 students per 1 public high school guidance counselor • A high school student receives less than 3 hours of career counseling over 4 years • Over 16,000,000 U.S. youths need a mentor • 6 out of 7 youths who need a mentor don’t have one

5. Case for Action • The global economy is changing the nature of work and the kinds of jobs young people will enter. • Students need higher levels of knowledge and skills than ever before to succeed in today’s workplaces. • Few states require high school students to take courses they need to succeed in college and the workplace.

6. A high school diploma is not the last educational stop required Share of new jobs, 2000–10 • Jobs that require at least some postsecondary education will make up more than two-thirds of new jobs. Source: Carnevale, Anthony P. and Donna M. Desrochers, Standards for What? The Economic Roots of K–16 Reform, Educational Testing Service, 2003.

7. Too many U.S. students drop out of the education pipeline Source: National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Policy Alert, April 2004. Data are estimates of pipeline progress rather than actual cohort.

8. The top reason dropouts identify as the major factor for leaving school • 47% of high school dropouts reported the number one reason they left school was: • Classes were not interesting • When asked what this meant to them, two dominant themes appeared: • School was not relevant to the real world. • Not one adult in school spent one-on-one time with them to explore what was important to them. Icouldbe.org provides mentors who bring real-world relevancy and one-on-one attention to students in need and prevents kids from dropping out. Source: Civic Enterprises, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts, 2006.

9. “icouldbe.org has helped me learn who I am and what I think about my career ideas. It helps me learn my position on certain ideas. My mentors tell me to make sure I’m comfortable and financially ready for college and to make sure I enjoy what I do. They tell me about financial aid and about scholarships that are available for every single person in the world. So icouldbe.org has really helped me.” – Pixiedust (mentee) Why icouldbe.org? …directly from the smiling faces of our of mentees

10. icouldbe.org’s Curriculum Interactive, Individualized & Practical • icouldbe.org’s new student-driven curriculum gives an unprecedented level of control to our mentees. Our curriculum is designed to help students: • improve their writing skills and online self-presentation • understand the wide variety of topics that they can explore with our community of mentors • increase self-esteem, confidence and critical thinking skills • Mentees then choose their own path through the options that we provide, focusing on: • how to get the most out of high school • how to choose and apply for a college or university • how to start explore and plan for careers or • how to manage their money and use the internet.

11. icouldbe.org’s Curriculum Dynamic, Student-Driven • Mentees can create an individualized path that is appropriate for and interesting to them. After designing their course of study, mentees are: • familiarized with our emphasis on the larger world around them • introduced to real opportunities for community service and involvement • Then, they begin traveling through the prerequisite and elective units of our curriculum under the guidance and supervision of our team of mentors. The units in our curriculum often differ in form and arrangement and regularly prompt our mentees to take full advantage of our discussion boards and some of the best educational and career resources found on the Internet.

12. Mentee Safety Standards Ensuring Mentees & Mentor Safety is our Primary Concern icouldbe.org: • Meets the national guidelines for online mentoring • Is a member of the National Mentoring Partnership • Complies fully with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) • Filters all student and mentor conversations before delivery • Uses login ids, not real names • Ensures that no personal information exchanged • Conducts mentor background checks including: • Criminal background check • National Sex Offender Background Check • Employer Verification Check

13. Partnerships Illustrated Partnering Towards Innovation icouldbe.org computer access, teachers, students funding, industry expertise tech, expertise, program mgmnt, evaluation tech, curriculum, expertise, program mgmnt Sponsors e-mentors, professional and personal guidance Schools teens, community investment and marketing opportunity

14. The Program icouldbe.org Snapshot • icouldbe.org can provide corporate sponsors with the employee volunteer opportunities, e-mentoring expertise, technology platform, e-mentor recruitment materials, access to mentees, website training, program management, program analysis and evaluation. The website features: • Safe online community (powerful filtering software & background checks) • Year-long, student-driven curriculum developed by icouldbe.org • Ability to communicate with multiple mentees/mentors • Personalized homepages and email accounts for each mentor • Online mentor training and orientation • Monthly and annual reports on website usage, student impact & mentor involvement • 24 hour access to the icouldbe.org website • Ongoing website development and maintenance • Annual evaluation and assessment report

15. Our Impact icouldbe.org has 1,800 volunteer e-mentors from 45 states and 20 countries serving 1,500 students from across the U.S. • Received 2002 Computerworld Honors, which identifies organizations from around the world whose visionary use of information technology produces and promotes positive social change • According to most recent surveys: • 97% of e-mentors would encourage other professionals to become icouldbe.org e-mentors • 90% of mentees are satisfied or very satisfied with their overall icouldbe.org experience. • Teachers and mentees agree that icouldbe.org significantly improves mentees’ writing skills and self-esteem • 100% of teachers say they would like to renew their partnership with icouldbe.org • Results show that icouldbe.org: • Provides busy professionals a rewarding way to give back to underserved youths • Provides a valuable resource to instructors, schools and after-school programs • Expand mentees’ knowledge of range of careers/post-high school options. • Help mentees consider professional careers that may be of interest to them • Expand mentees’ knowledge about steps required to attain specific careers • Enhance mentees’ self esteem by forming strong, supportive relationships with e-mentors • Lower mentees’ apathy toward high school studies.

16. Our Premiere Partners "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs • America’s Promise: icouldbe.org is a member of this national network, founded and chaired by Colin Powell, dedicated to expanding and creating youth initiatives. • E*Trade Bank: In order to meet its CRA requirement, E*Trade Bank has partnered with icouldbe.org to have hundreds of employee e-mentor volunteers serve hundreds of youth in 15 cities across the country. • Goldman Sachs: The Chicago office uses icouldbe.org to provide critical services to its partner school on Chicago’s South Side. • Office Depot: With a commitment to "Caring and Making a Difference" in the communities in which its employees live and work and in which it conducts business, Office Depot is empowering icouldbe.org to serve hundreds of underpriveleged youth in Florida and Chicago. • Tiger Woods Learning Center (TWLC): Funded by the Tiger Woods Foundation, icouldbe.org serves hundreds of underpriveleged youth at TWLC’s new, state-of-the-art facility in California. • Youth, I.N.C. (Improving Non-profits for Children): A non-profit organization that seeks to improve the operations and develop the capacity of non-profits serving youth, Youth, I.N.C. has assisted icouldbe in designing, marketing and managing a yearly fundraising event entitled, “A Celebration to Benefit New York Kids.” They have also helped us to identify potential board members.

17. Next Steps • icouldbe.org has been very successful in developing mutually beneficial relationships with companies, schools and after-school programs. These partnerships help us to create innovate ways for professionals across the country to empower the youth we serve. • Thank you for your time and consideration. • Sincerely, • Kate Schrauth, Executive Director • kate@icouldbe.org • 20 West 120th Street, Ste. 4 • Harlem, NY 10027 • 646.734.8133 • www.icouldbe.org