About Us

The College Perspectives Mentor Program team combined has over 30 years experience working in college guidance and admissions, and has been working with high school students in Boston since 2013. Over the years we have seen the same patterns emerge over and over again: The college application process during junior and senior year of high school is incredibly stressful, and freshman year of college is a struggle. Some of the students we’ve worked have been lucky enough to have family members to show them the ropes and offer emotional and financial support during this time, and even for them the process has been daunting. For first generation college students, however, the application and enrollment processes can be even more difficult. In particular, we have seen repeatedly that as the challenges of freshman year add up, small obstacles can suddenly seem too overwhelming for students to handle on their own. After witnessing this pattern of behavior, we found that simply offering students advice, support, and friendship during this stressful transition period made a huge difference in their willingness to stick it out.

Thus the idea for CP Mentors was born. The goal is simple: to give students some extra guidance they might need to reach their goal of obtaining a college degree. To do this, we match juniors and seniors in high school with a mentor who is there to provide them with an extra layer of support as they navigate the college admissions process. Mentors range in age from late 20s to early 80s, and have a wide range of backgrounds and career expertise. But one thing they have in common is that they are all prepared to answer questions about the college process, offer advice for the future, or to simply lend an ear when things get stressful.

In 2022, we began partnering with the Catholic Schools Foundation to create the CP Mentors Fellows Program. With the support of CSF, we have begun working a cohort of students across four high schools in the Boston area (Cathedral High School, Cristo Rey Boston, Fontbonne Academy, and St. Joseph’s Prep). This has been a fun new challenge, and we are so grateful to CSF for their expertise and partnership.

Launching and running CP Mentors and the CP Mentors Fellows Program has been an exciting challenge, and could not have been accomplished without the help and support of an advisory group who offered valuable insight on a wide range of issues, and served as unofficial publicists and recruiters along the way. We now have an incredibly talented and committed group of mentors working with students in the Boston area, and as a team we feel we are in a position to do something special.