Bottom Line

Boston College Students answering questions

On Saturday, March 16, Bottom Line students and staff came together for Bottom Line’s first ever College Expo!  The event was an opportunity for Bottom Line high school seniors in our Access Program to learn more about the target colleges that Bottom Line works with in our Success Program directly from our college students.  Almost 100 high school (Access) tudents attended the Expo and got to speak with more than 50 Bottom Line college (Success) tudents representing all 20 of our Massachusetts target colleges.  

Although the College Expo was an event catered toward our high school seniors, it also allowed our Success students the opportunity to give back to Bottom Line as volunteers.  The tables at the college fair were staffed by current Bottom Line Success students representing our target colleges.  The Success volunteers answered our Access students’ questions about topics ranging from majors to dorm life and housing to studying abroad and more.  The College Expo was a great opportunity for our Access students to hear more about Bottom Line target schools from other Bottom Line students that were in their shoes just a few short years ago. 

Students from Suffolk University

In addition to the college fair portion of the Expo, Access students had the option of attending two workshops.  The first workshop, led by Access counselors, helped students identify the important factors to consider when deciding which college to attend once they have received all of their acceptance letters.  Access counselors stressed to students the importance of visiting the colleges that have accepted them, if possible, before making their decision. 

In the other workshop, Success counselors explained how Bottom Line’s Success Program works and what students can expect should they choose to attend one of our target colleges and join Bottom Line’s Success program.  This was great for the students who attended from the West End House Boys & Girls Club in Allston who will be joining our Success Direct program.  This is an exciting new initiative for Bottom Line to recruit students from other college access programs “directly” into our Success Program.  Our goal for next year is to recruit 410 first year students from our Boston and Worcester Access programs and 115 Success Direct students from other access programs join our Success program for the 2013-2014 school year.  This workshop was a first step towards reaching our recruitment goal. 

UMass Boston table

The College Expo gave Access and Success students an opportunity to interact with one another and allowed our Access and Success staff to collaborate in the planning and execution of the event.  The College Expo highlights Bottom Line’s core values of relationships and responsibility.  Our students and staff collaborated building relationships across programs, and the students who attended the Expo gained additional knowledge to help them make a responsible college decision this spring!

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— Michaela Kinlock

Success Counselor, Boston MA