This past school year, PSP scholars and mentors have gone above and beyond to keep in touch, grow as scholar/mentor groups, and continue preparing for college—all virtually and remotely.

Scholars and mentors reflected on their past year together and created visual journals about their experiences. The submissions were astounding. They identified high points—many PSP-related events and moments with their mentors— in their lives as a PSP scholar through a virtual world.

This video captures just a few of these high points of both scholars and mentors.

Since the pandemic began, PSP has updated and changed our programming to meet our community’s needs in a holistic way. While our primary mission is to support students on their path to college and career, we’ve always taken the approach that that success comes when students get to experience a full range of learning opportunities both in and out of the classroom.

This year, students and mentors together with the PSP team rose to that challenge.

 “Thank you PSP for giving me so many opportunities…. Especially this year, my senior year, with the college applications and financial aid workshops. They were a huge help.” – Vanessa, Graduating Senior

Mentors have kept their scholars’ spirits up by offering encouragement, referral to resources, and providing a sounding board as scholars navigate school online and work towards their college goals. Mentors’ preparation and coordination of virtual mentoring activities is often left unseen, but so is their own processing of worldwide events. Month after month, PSP mentors stepped up to the challenge to offer engaging and interactive activities to scholars. PSP thanks its mentors for their tenacity, creativity, and strong advocacy for their students.

Being a mentor during COVID has been a time of transition for us all. Communicating more often via text and Zoom has allowed myself and my scholars to keep in touch and explore new ways of doing fun and creative things. I was very touched when my mentees texted me on Mentor Day and their words were very meaningful to me. I am excited to continue to mentor Aaron, Frankie and Daniel now on their journey in high school. I know they have not been able to experience their freshmen year in high school to the fullest but hope that the next few years will be filled with many opportunities, growth, happiness and abundance.    -Chris (Mentor) 

PSP staff led workshops and creative activities each month to engage students and mentors in new ways. Students learned about college applications, study skills, goal setting, networking skills, and even learned how to do origami.

Additionally, PSP transformed our annual College Success Retreat into an online event. Rising 11th and 12th grade scholars and their mentors participated in a three-month retreat filled with weekly workshops, discussing topics such as choosing a college, scholarships, financial aid, and more. We also grateful to our partner, The Plus Me Project, as they led our scholars in crafting their stories and applying it to their college application journey. Learn more about the retreat here:

Click here to read more about the college retreat.

This past spring, the PSP community got together virtually to celebrate the graduating class of 2021. Executive Director Lisa Ruben noted “I’m incredibly proud of how much each of our graduates achieved not only over the past year and a half, but their entire six years as PSP scholars.”

This has been a particularly difficult year for making long-term decisions about college and life, and PSP mentors of seniors had many frank conversations with this year’s grads to help them make the right decision for them. Every single PSP graduate has demonstrated that they truly have what it takes to be successful in this world – the focus, the commitment the drive and the resilience to overcome incredible and – truly one of a kind conditions.

Click here to read more about the Class of 2021. 

PSP thanks our scholars and mentors for being open, consistent, and always-ready to mutually engage with PSP.