Volunteers Help High School Students Prepare for SAT

This spring, 15 LexisNexis employees volunteered to provide support and encouragement to a group of promising Black and Hispanic high school students in New York City. The students were selected to participate in an SAT prep program offered through the New York University Stern School of Business' Association of Hispanic and Black Business Students (AHBBS) Alumni and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) (New York Chapter). The SAT Test Prep Scholarship (STEPS) Program provides opportunities for students who could not otherwise afford it to attend a 12-week Kaplan SAT prep course.

The STEPS program was the brainchild of Oslene Carrington, Vice President of Marketing and Sales Programs at the American Arbitration Association. An MBA graduate of NYU's Stern School of Business, Oslene was eager to find a way to give back and to engage her fellow Stern alumni in the process.

Recognizing that good SAT test scores are key to getting into college, and realizing that low-income students have very limited access to test preparatory programs, Oslene partnered with Learning Leaders - a non-profit and the largest school volunteer program in the City as well as a partner of the New York City Department of Education - to identify students, based on income and grades, and to assist with development of the student application process. Oslene then engaged the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, also a non-profit, to provide a place through which supporters of the STEPS Program could contribute. Meeting with the executives at Kaplan, she was able to negotiate favorable rates for the STEPS students' prep courses.

"I sent lots of letters and emails to NYU alumni as well as corporations looking for volunteers and financial contributions for the program," Oslene said. She was ultimately able to discuss the program with Dawn Conway, Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at LexisNexis. "Our employees are always looking for ways to use their professional knowledge and skills in volunteering," shared Dawn. "This provided a wonderful opportunity to do that."

There are currently 27 STEPS students in the 12-week Kaplan SAT prep course and each has a mentor (15 are employee volunteers from LexisNexis Cares). "These kids have a lot going on in their lives, and even though they have good grades, it's hard being a teenager in NYC...they need moral support as they go through this process," Oslene shared.

The LexisNexis and other volunteer mentors provide encouragement and a listening ear to students. Volunteers regularly check in with Oslene, who acts as the liaison between the mentors, students and Kaplan. Mentors also call the students weekly to give them pep talks and discuss how they are doing.

Some students in the STEPS Program come from far and wide originally - Ecuador, Nigeria, Haiti and the Caribbean Islands - and many of their parents are not fluent in English.

"Getting these kids exposed to people who will help them think big is so important," Oslene said. "Their parents aren't from here in some cases, and school guidance counselors often aren't encouraging them to think about their future. It's important to show them opportunities that other people in their lives may not be putting in their heads, for whatever reason."

In addition to the prep course, the STEPS program provides each student with information about scholarships and other resources to help them find funding for college. Kaplan provides three supplemental classes - college essay writing, financial aid 101, and extra work on the essay writing portion of the SAT as well. 

The STEPS program is new. Students will take the SAT on June 5, and hopes are high that the students' test scores will improve significantly over their Kaplan practice test scores. And for the volunteers, the experience has been very rewarding.

"I am so grateful that Dawn Conway considered STEPS to be part of the LexisNexis Cares employee volunteer program," Oslene commented. "And I know that the students are as grateful as I am for the organizations' and volunteers' collective generosity."

If you are interested in participating in the STEPS program, please contact Sherri Morgan