Help Meghan run the Boston Marathon for Bottom Line!

Bottom Line is the winner of the 2010 National College Access Network Award of Excellence and we are in the middle of an aggressive expansion effort that will bring us to New York City to open an office this summer.

Bottom Line works with low-income students who will be in the first generation of their families to go to college. Every year, we help 500 high school seniors from the city of Boston, and 150 students from Worcester apply to four-year colleges in our College Access program, and every year, about 98% of them get in. Our students who choose to go to one of Bottom Line's target colleges continue on to our College Success program, in which we maintain a relationship with them for 4-to-6 years until they get a college degree. Bottom Line counselors (myself included) work with our college students to provide services in four areas, broken down into our DEAL model: Degree, Employability, Aid, and Life.

I believe in the results of Bottom Line and the methods that we use to get them. Students in our Success program earn a college degree in four years at a 79% success rate. Just 48% of all Boston Public School graduates earn a college degree in four years. This means that students from the city of Boston who are in the Bottom Line college Success program are about one-and-a-half times as likely to earn a college degree in four years than their peers.

Please take the time to browse our website. Check out our "Success Stories," in which you can learn more about some of our outstanding students and how they have persisted in the face of many obstacles.

And, of course, don't forget to donate. My personal goal is to raise $7,000 for Bottom Line. A little from you will go a long way for one student.