Here’s what it’ll take to get College Possible in your Philly high school

“Around the Corner” is a PhillyCAM show that offers local social impact leaders the opportunity to share what impact their work is having on the Philadelphia area. 

There’s something wrong with the education system if your high school has only one guidance counselor for 400 students.

College Possible Philadelphia, the local chapter of a national college access and success nonprofit, doesn’t seek to solve big problems like that, but it does try to alleviate the pain from those situations.

By pairing small groups of students with academic “coaches,” it’s been working with low-income high school students in Philly for three years to improve their chances of not only enrolling in college, but graduating.

Think Philadelphia Futures, but way bigger: An estimated 29,000 students are being served in six states, with 830 currently being served in Philly, according to senior high school coach Ben Eischens (who works at a high school with only one guidance counselor like the one referenced above). Every student in the program gets both a junior and senior coach while still in high school and then a college counselor who checks in with them throughout their next four years.

“There are quite a few things that go into finding a new high school to work in,” Eischens said in his “Around the Corner” interview with Generocity Editor Julie Zeglen. “We typically look for an administration that really wants us there and that will welcome the program, and we also look for a receptive student body — a need for a program there.”

Learn more about the program below.

PhillyCAM is Comcast channel 66/966 HD/967 and Verizon FIOS channel 29/30 in Philadelphia.