Nonprofit pairs first-gen college-bound students with mentors

Recent Harvard University graduate Maame Forson hugs her Campus Bound Scholars mentor, Michelle Fatibene, during the organization’s Annual Scholar Award Celebration on June 1 at the Bedford Hills Community Center. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

By LOGAN KREISBERG

As college students across Westchester pack their family cars, purchase dorm supplies and prepare to leave the nest, a local nonprofit is working to ensure a group of first-generation students arrive on campus with more than just what fits in a duffel bag. 

Campus Bound Scholars, a nonprofit headquartered in Katonah, pairs low-income, first-generation college students with mentors who stay with them through graduation, helping them navigate the college years.

The organization steps in where many college-access programs leave off. Rather than helping high school students with admissions, Campus Bound Scholars begins working with scholars after they have been accepted to college and supports them through graduation.

Campus Bound Scholars currently supports 43 undergraduates, adding about 10 new scholars each year. Students also receive a $125 monthly award and $300 to help purchase dorm essentials.

But the founder and director of Campus Bound Scholars, Amy Peck, said financial assistance is just one piece of the program. At its center is the relationship between each scholar and mentor, who typically remains with the student throughout their college years.

“You’ve just got this person who is on your team no matter what,” Peck said. “And that’s just so reassuring to kids.”

That support can become particularly important once the excitement of move-in fades. For Jackie Glusky, a Fox Lane High School graduate, guidance from her mentor became particularly important just weeks after she arrived at SUNY Oswego. 

As a first-generation college student attending school five hours from home, Glusky said she entered freshman year unsure of what to expect. She was adjusting to dorm life, a new campus and being away from her father and friends for the first time. 

Then, two weeks into the semester, she broke her foot. 

“I was really emotional,” Glusky said. “That was actually the point where I wanted to come home. I thought this was not meant for me.”

With a large campus difficult to negotiate on crutches, Glusky said her mentor helped her stay calm and focused on staying in school. Her mentor encouraged her to get a knee scooter. After taking the advice, Glusky said, it was “smooth sailing.”

Not every challenge students encounter has such a simple solution. Peck said mentors regularly help scholars face academic struggles, financial aid and the uncertainty that can accompany being the first in a family to attend college. 

Those difficulties can sometimes threaten a student’s ability to stay in school. While Campus Bound Scholars reports a graduation rate far above the national average for first-generation students, not every scholar completes college. Peck pointed to challenges such as imposter syndrome, homesickness and financial setbacks that can make the path to graduation less certain.

As the organization encountered those challenges, its approach evolved. Campus Bound Scholars began as a one-year program designed to ease the transition to college, before expanding its support to two years, then three and eventually through graduation. Now, Peck said, the organization is increasingly focused on what comes after students earn their degrees, helping scholars prepare for internships, interviews and careers.

“Our definition of success is that the student not only graduates but has what we call ‘career launch’ success,” Peck said. “They graduate and they land in a career for which they were trained or for which they want.” 

For Glusky, that description of success meant returning to the classroom. After graduating from SUNY Oswego in 2021, she stayed in Oswego for a year to substitute teach before returning to Westchester. She spent two years as a teaching assistant before becoming a second-grade teacher, a position she has now held for three years.

This year, Glusky returned to Campus Bound Scholars in a different role. Nearly a decade after entering the program as a mentee, she was paired with a student of her own. Now 27, Glusky said she recognizes some of the same nervousness in her mentee that she felt before starting college, and hopes being closer in age will help her offer guidance from her own experience.

“Without the Campus Bound Scholars and the Rewarding Potential Scholarship, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Glusky said. “I’m just so thankful and grateful for all their guidance and words the last few years.”