This is the Organization Presentation for Center for Student Opportunity's proposal to the College Knowledge Challenge for funding to support the I'm First app

2. There’s something special about being first…

3. Just like the Wright Brothers, Neil
Armstrong, and Barack Obama, first-
generation college students are breaking
barriers and beating the odds to make it
to and through college.

4. More than 15 million students are
enrolled in postsecondary institutions.
Of that 15 million, nearly 30 percent (4.5
million) are low-income, first-generation
students.
Source: National Postsecondary Student Aid Study

5. Unfortunately…
• Only 36% of first-generation college students aspire to a
bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 78% for whom at least
one parent has a bachelor’s degree
• 45% take the SAT or ACT, compared to 82% for whom at least one
parent has a bachelor’s degree
• Only 26% apply to a four-year institution, compared to 71% for
whom at least one parent has a bachelor’s degree
• Only 29% of first-generation students enroll in any postsecondary
institution immediately after high school graduation, compared to
73% of students whose parents have a bachelor’s degree
• Only 11 percent will graduate with a bachelor’s degree within six
years, compared to 55 percent of non-first-gen students.
Source: National Postsecondary Student Aid Study

6. For students who don’t have a family history of
higher education, being among the first
generation in your family to attend and
complete college requires support, advice and
encouragement sometimes not found at
home, school, or the community.
Center for Student Opportunity’s I’m First app
will become that community by offering
support, advice and encouragement to the next
generation of students who will be first.
WWW.IMFIRST.ORG

8. About Center for Student Opportunity
• National nonprofit based in Bethesda, MD
• Founded in 2005
• Mission to empower first-generation college students
to and through college
• We create tools and resources to help first-generation
college students and their supporters—
parents, counselors, and mentors—on the road to and
through college
• We partner with over 160 colleges and universities to
strengthen and build awareness of their efforts to
serve and support first-generation college students

9. Program History
• For six years we have operated
CSO College Center, an online
college search tool for first-generation
college students
• In 2012, inspired by the It Gets Better
project, we conceived and began
developing I'm First, a national
campaign and web application designed
to celebrate and support first-
generation college students
• I'm First will be a complete re-branding
of CSO's online programs and will
replace CSO College Center

10. Program History cont’d
• CSO annually publishes and distributes the College
Access & Opportunity Guide, a unique college
guidebook designed to help first-generation college
students make their college dreams a reality.
• Since 2008, we have sold and distributed 20,000
books to schools and youth-serving organization
across the country.
• We award $2,000 four-year renewable scholarships
to first-generation college students who attend CSO
partner institutions.
• The now 34 scholarship winners blog on our site to
chronicle their college experiences and give advice
to aspiring first-generation college students. The
blog will be a key feature of the I'm First web app.
• In recognition of our innovative scholarship
program, we were recently recognized by Fastweb
and the National Scholarship Providers Association
as 2012 Scholarship Provider of the Year.