Mission: University

Just a quick update to share a recent success. As many of you may have heard, this past Thursday was termed July Bonus Day here on Global Giving, with lots of matching money available for new large donations. The money didn’t last long, it was all claimed in less than three hours, but our Mission: University campaign ended up doing quite well.

Overall, our fundraiser received $11,603 in new donations. As well as $3801 in free matching money! For a total of $15, 052 in just one day! Crazy. That covers 75% of all second year fees for all of our Mission: U kids. Which is so awesome.

The campaign total now stands at $37,697 (as soon as the match is added) so we’re looking good. Thanks so much to everyone who got involved.

We’ve also had many college visits for our students. Clifford met with his BioTech Department Head at Uttranchal University; Kamal toured his PE sports facilities at Jaspal Rana Institute; Sunny took the first step towards becoming an architect at Dev Bhoomi University; Basanti inspected her hostel at Swastik School of Nursing; and Job launched into his first full week of classes at Ewing Christian College!

School begins in the coming few weeks and last minute preparations are all being made. It’s a huge step for these kids and an exciting time for all of us as this dream becomes a reality..

Thanks once again for stepping forward and supporting these kids. Education is the key to life here in India and together we're giving our Mission: University students the chance to aim higher and dream bigger than they ever imagined.

John

As the month of June comes to an end, I wanted to give you all a snap shot of where the project stands at the moment. At more than $22,000 raised, we are well past year one and moving to get year two fully funded. Thanks to each and every one of you. Whether from large or small donors, this project only happens because people like you care about these kids.

Of the ten kids we started out with...turns out two will be ineligible to attend school this fall. Coreena and Ellie, need to retake exams in 12th class and will then be preparing to be part of the Mission: University class of 2020 if they choose to be. 

Of the remaining eight...

Clifford will be attending Uttranchal University studying BioTechnology this August.

Sunny will be attending the prestigious Dev Bhoomi University, one of only two schools in our state recognized by the Council of Architects in Delhi.

Jessica will be attending Graphic Era University, majoring in Journalism & Mass Communications. She had to make an entrance video which can be viewed here if you're interested. 

Kamal was accepted to Jaspal Rana Institute for Education and Technology to become a physical education teacher.

Sonia and Reeva were both accepted at Himgiri Zee University where Sonia will work towards a BA in Social Work and Reeva will study Travel & Tourism Management. (Reeva had a change of direction mid stream.)

All of these schools are in Dehradun, which is a beautiful college town in the mountains, cooler in summer, lite snow at times in winter. The kids are excited to have some familiar faces not too far away. The attached map was made to help them orientate and have it all feel a bit more real.

A bit further south, Basanti was accepted at Swastik School of Nursing, which is a huge deal as nursing students typically require a science back ground, and Basanti studied art in 12th class.

Job is our last undecided. He recently took an entrance exam for Ewing Christian College in Allahabad and is waiting to hear results. If he gets in, he'll be in a prestigious Government insitution studying history and political science...but we'll just keep our fingers crossed for now.

School begins for most all kids mid August so we still have some time. For now, thanks again for helping to make this happen. The kids are so psyched to get started and be the first in their families to attend college!

With love,

John

Though it may be the worst named company in college counseling history, we recently had the pleasure of hosting a team from iDreamCareer.com to help us with our Mission: University project. As we're a little late to the game this year, the focus for our 12th class graduates was locating quality affordable universities and applying. We also included our current 12th class students as well as our current 11th class students, putting them all through an aptitude and career assessment test to get them thinking about college and what they might like to do much earlier. Next year...we won't miss any entrance exams or scholarship opportunities. We'll be ready.

The whole process was extremely exciting and had the entire mission buzzing about the idea of college. Children in much younger grades were overheard talking about careers and universities. All of it is creating a new culture of higher education with higher expectations here at the mission. It's a beautiful thing to be a part of.

Acceptance letters will be coming out soon so we'll (hopefully) be passing along some good news soon. We've been paying admission fees for some of our students so we're definitely getting close. Thank you to all of you for getting involved and helping make this dream a reality. 

Hey everyone, 

Just a quick update on the Mission: University project. There are many pieces to this puzzle, but so far everything is coming together nicely.

On the money side, we are now 75% of the way to fully funding year one! It's always amazing to see people step forward on behalf of these beautiful kids, so we thank you all for that. And the Mission U kids thank you as well. 

On the University side: we have several students accepted to top schools in North India with many more applications submitted or about to be submitted. 

We've also enlisted the help of a professional college coach who is doing one-on-one counseling with all of our kids to determine the best career options and the best schools for the best value. Best of all, not only will he be working with our ten most recent high school graduates, he's also including our current 12th class students and our current 11th class students to get ahead of the game. 

It's been an amazing experience to see this project come together. Though we're only a few weeks in, we're already launching our 2nd year fundraising effort...so the campaign total is being raised to $40,000. Most undergraduate degrees in India are three years, so the ultimate total we are looking for is $60,000. But we'll take it one year at a time if need be.

Thanks so much to everyone who has gotten involved. For all of these children, they will be the first member of their family to attend University. We are not simply giving them an education. We are changing the course of their family history. And we could not do it without you.

Love from India.

John