Message from the Executive Director

Dear Friends of Crossroads Foundation,

This is a great time to be in education. The stakes for our scholars have never been higher. They are at a crossroads in their lives, and Crossroads Foundation is prepared to guide and assist them on a journey that can lead to genuine success in college and in life. Crossroads takes students from underserved communities who aspire to go to college and sends them to Catholic high schools beginning in their freshman year. Our scholars not only get a first-rate education but we also provide them with a great deal of academic and social and emotional support services.

About a year ago Crossroads Foundation completed its first ever strategic plan. Our facilitator said she was looking forward to working with us because we were doing a strategic plan for the right reasons: not because we had to or felt that we needed to follow the business school dictates for a non-profit, but because our board came to the conclusion that after 22 years, it was time to take stock and plan for our future in the 21 Century. I was so fortunate to be a part of shaping this process as Crossroads’ new Executive Director. We have a rare treasure in American education today: a model that works!

I have my marching orders! Like the song says, “I can see for miles and miles, and miles...” What’s on the horizon?

We want to expand our services so that more young people can benefit from our services. We are planning to grow our roster from the current 93 scholars to 150 by 2018.

To reach our goal, we are starting by shoring up our foundation:

• We’ve expanded our Catholic feeder grade schools from six to 19.
• We are pleased to welcome to Crossroads new staff members who bring a vast reservoir of talent, integrity, passion and commitment to their jobs every day.
• Two KEYS AmeriCorps Service Members have joined Crossroads this academic year and they help bolster our academic support services and also are assisting Crossroads to implement important programs such as e-Folio for student career planning and e-Mentoring.

We completed the planning process with the renewed sense that the solutions we bring to the table for educating underprivileged youth from underserved communities are making tangible and profound difference in the lives of the young people we serve. We are seizing every opportunity to tell our story and to be part of the larger conversation about education. Crossroads has a new logo and branding that reflect our dynamic re-engineering into a more nimble, proactive organization that is in tune with research-based educational practices and programs.

We are broadening our foundation program areas to place more emphasis on college and career readiness and are embedding protocols in our counseling practices that teach scholars to take more ownership of their own learning. Words like grit, self-efficacy and locus of control are cropping up more in our conversations with and about scholars.

An Individual Learning Plan (ILP) is being implemented for each new scholar to ensure that they have ongoing opportunities to plan and achieve their academic, career and personal/social success.

Out-of-school learning activities also are increasing to enable more career exploration, including more internships and job shadowing opportunities.

Crossroads also is embarking on an ambitious program to begin preparing its scholars for SAT exams and skills for lifelong learning, beginning in their freshman year.

We revised our mission statement so that it now has a laser focus and for the first time ever we created a scholar vision statement that I’d like to share with you:

“Crossroads scholars are aspiring, resilient and productive students who will graduate and matriculate to higher education with a love of learning, a commitment to service, a strong sense of self and moral character so that they may be successful in college and in life.”

On the communications front, you will see a more extensive website with a calendar of events and more dynamic information to better communicate with our students, alumni, parents, educators, supporters and anyone who is interested in knowing more about Crossroads and how it is “turning students into scholars.”

To reach our students’ goals and our organization goals, we are counting on your support every step of the way.