Strive for College Management Team
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Michael J. Carter Michael founded Strive for College in his freshman year of college, and since then has grown Strive into a national movement with chapters at college campuses across the country. Michael raised over $200,000 during the recession and hired his first full-time employee for Strive while he was a junior in college. Since its inception, Michael has raised over $2.5 million for Strive and helped hundreds of low-income high school students gain admission to universities across the country. While in college, Michael taught at-risk middle school youth during the summer, ran the initial Strive model at his university, interned for a venture capital firm and Google, and did public policy research and analysis at American Enterprise Institute. He wrote his senior honors thesis on a history of admissions to elite universities in the US and UK. He received a full-tuition merit scholarship to attend Washington University in St. Louis as an Annika Rodriguez Scholar. Michael graduated cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in May, 2010. He also studied at Oxford University in England, and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.. Michael's work with Strive has been featured widely in the media, including Forbes, Education Week, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, and he has spoken on various panels, including at the Brookings Institution and as a featured speaker at the Points of Light National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Michael was named a 2011 Echoing Green Fellow, a highly competitive award given to those identified as some of the world's most promising social entrepreneurs. Michael was also named a 2012 Bluhm Helfand Social Innovation Fellow and a 2013 CNN Hero. Michael strives for a day when college students across the country mobilize to ensure that all qualified, underserved high school students who have earned the right to go to college make it there, and achieve their dreams. |
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Adessa Kiryakos Director of Programs Adessa graduated in December 2011 from San Jose State University (SJSU) with a B.A. in Behavioral Science, double major in Sociology. Having a passion and understanding the need for serving the community early within her college career, she began volunteering in an array of events and programs and eventually worked at the Cesar E. Chavez Community Action Center (CCCAC) on her campus. Having wished that she had a mentor to work with her and support her through her college applications and journey, she got involved with Strive for College in its early stages of development at the SJSU chapter through the CCCAC as a volunteer for a year. As the program grew so did her passion for its mission and her ranking from being a volunteer to running the SJSU chapter for two years. Through her work, she implemented ideas that soon became incorporated into the curriculum used nationwide. Growing the chapter from a few mentors to over 60 within the two years, she became experienced in providing training, guidance, and support in ensuring preparation for mentorship and leadership experience, as well as a college bound culture within the high school that the mentors volunteered at. With the success of the SJSU chapter, she wanted to continue serving Strive for College's mission. Once she graduated, she became the Bay Area Regional Director, where she oversaw many chapters in the area, including her alma mater. Now, with Strive for College's expansion to more regions, she is thrilled to take on the Director of Programs positions where she will be supporting the Regional Directors in their roles and fostering the Strive culture nationwide. |
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Neehar Garg Director of Strategy and Development Neehar joined Strive for College’s management team for the first time his junior year of college, just as Strive was beginning to expand beyond Washington University to chapters across the country. After graduating cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010 with degrees in economics and political science, he went to work as a consultant at Bain & Company. While there, his work spanned the energy, telecommunications, agri-business, IT services and foodservice industries. Strive is at an exciting point in its history, on the precipice of turning what is already a multi-city organization into a national movement. A former US Presidential Scholar, a national award given for scholarship and service to 120 students across the country, Neehar’s passion for helping provide students from all backgrounds fair access to higher education compelled him to come back and join Strive to help achieve its aggressive growth goals. |
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Ryan Hallagan Ryan graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Diego with B.A.’s in both English & Psychology. It was during his time in college as a Residential Assistant that Ryan first became passionate about higher education, as his talks with many of his residents convinced him that many students (and their families) must endure great hardships in order to realize their dreams. Soon afterwards, Ryan began working for The First Tee of Silicon Valley, where he created a comprehensive style guide for all marketing materials and devised a social networking strategy for the organization. In addition to this, Ryan worked extensively with many of the youth participants, including assisting senior participants apply for various scholarship opportunities. His time there further convinced Ryan of the need to make sure qualified students apply to and enroll in college. He is steadfast in his belief that a college education provides innumerable benefits for students and in turn helps shape the leaders of tomorrow that our nation will one day come to depend on. |
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Veronica Carrillo Assistant Director of Strategy and Development Verónica graduated from San José State University with a B.A. in Social Work and a minor in Spanish. Her passion for higher education began while working as an instructor for a Bay Area parent outreach program, which educated parents and children in various school districts about achieving a higher education. She has has also volunteered for organizations through the City of Fremont, which aimed at assisting parents, children and schools in promoting higher education. As a first generation college student, being a mentor, and now working for Strive national has given her the opportunity to understand that programs like Strive are crucial to the success of students. Through her three years of being a mentor for Strive for College at our San José State University Chapter, she had the opportunity to meet highly motivated mentees, who with some guidance and support from her they were able achieve attending college. Strive's mission, and the impact that she has witnessed Strive create in her mentees' future, is why she believes strongly in the Strive movement and in making the movement grow. |
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Megan Baker Assistant Director of Strategy and Development Megan graduated from San Jose State University in the spring of 2010 earning a Humanities and Arts degree with a B.A in Liberal Studies. During college she worked hard to make higher education accessible to all students through student government. She was elected student body President for the university in 2009 where she organized students across the state in efforts to keep tuition costs down. During this time she joined Strive and became a mentor at a local high school. Shortly after graduating Megan became an Intern at the Office of the Chancellor with the California State Students Association developing an internship program that fellow students of the California State Universities could obtain. She then became a Campaign Director for a non-profit, Fund for the Public Interest, where she worked to build membership and gain funds for organizations across the country. Megan is very passionate about higher education and believes everyone deserves the opportunity to attend which is why she is proud to be a part of the Strive movement. |
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Jamal McCullough New York Regional Director Since graduating from SUNY Albany, Jamal has dedicated his life to the education of our nation’s young people. He began his professional career as a counselor at Job Corp, a federal program dedicated to helping students aged 16-24 who were not successful in a traditional academic setting. In 1999, he began a teaching career with the New York City Department of Education in the South Bronx where he was born and raised. In his ten year career Jamal, worked as a classroom teacher, Dean, Supervisor of the Save Room, Athletic Director, and coached various teams. Jamal was attracted to Strive because of Strives commitment to place high school students in their best fit college. As an educator he witnessed a number of promising students apply and attend colleges, receiving very little assistance from both their parents and Grade Advisors. Many students would return home in their first year defeated, wishing they had taken the college process more seriously and were given more assistance. As the Director of New York, Jamal is excited and looking forward to helping qualified students apply, attend, graduate, and fulfill their version of the American Dream. |
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Nikole Moffet Bay Area Regional Director Nikole Moffett recently graduated from San Jose State University with a B.A degree in Psychology. In addition to academics, she was very involved on campus and took on various leadership positions. One of these positions was Volunteer Coordinator at the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center (CCCAC), in which she connected students with volunteer opportunities based on their interested as well as developed and maintain community partnerships. The CCCAC became the avenue for her role as the Assistant Chapter Director of the SJSU Strive for College Chapter. Her energy and enthusiasm helped SJSU’s Chapter to become one of the most successful chapters. Before she sprang into the role of Assistant Chapter Director, she started out as a mentor with the program. Through volunteering with Strive and other programs, she was able to see how there was a definite need to fix the education disparity. Her passion for supporting the community and its youth has been the driving force that led her to her work with Strive for College. A continuous advocate for education, Nikole is excited to engage in Strive’s mission to present resources and support to high school students Nationwide. |
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Christopher Grady Houston/Dallas Regional Director Upon completing his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University, Christopher embarked on a multi-faceted career in the music business that began creatively (a published songwriter and recording artist, performing hundreds of international dates), and transformed ultimately into business management (a venue’s chief operations officer, primarily concerned with all facets of marketing, promotions and new business development). But it was his work creating mentorship programs for young people to better understand all facets of the music industry that had the greatest personal resonance, and he yearned for a professional direction with a greater sense of purpose and therefore a deeper sense of satisfaction. Christopher believes that the college experience is one that should be made available to as many bright minds as possible - because it develops not only an applicable set of skills, but a positive sense of personal identity that inevitably contributes to the health and wealth of culture as a whole as well. He looks forward to sharing the Strive mission of providing a reliable avenue for college access to many future innovators and leaders in the Houston area. |
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Kristin Collins DC Regional Director Kristin graduated from Yale in 2009 with a B.A. in Political and Intellectual History. She worked in the U.S. Senate for two years developing a background in policy before transitioning into the nonprofit sector. Kristin directed the founding year of The Future Project in DC, a mentorship organization that helps high students to build social entrepreneurship projects. Before coming to Strive, Kristin took her passion for serving underprivileged youth to Peru, where she managed a leadership development program for young girls in Cusco. Kristin is dedicated to Strive's mission and eager to provide its invaluable support to youth in DC. |
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Garrett Fortin Americorps VISTA Program Associate As a VISTA at Strive, Garrett’s key role is to help Strive get better at what it already does through capacity building. In practice, this means adapting Strive’s existing communications and organizational systems to scale along with Strive as it adds new chapters and regions across the US. It also means enhancing Strive’s networking with funders and stakeholders by leveraging new technology and training the Strive’s staff to use these improvements. Garrett accidently fell into the international development community while at Grinnell College. After working with microfinance in Ecuador and good governance advocacy in Hungary, Garrett came to a realization: the best people to develop any community, indeed the only people who can truly develop a community, are the people of that community. The rest of us can only offer our help, giving that community the agency to choose its own path. With this in mind, Garrett resolved to work to understand the communities at home in the United States and to offer whatever help they might need. This drive pushed Garrett first into a Political Science degree and then into Americorps VISTA, which fights poverty in the US by working within communities. Garrett is inspired by Strive for College’s mission and by the incredible work of its staff and volunteers. By individually pairing mentors and mentees, Strive builds and supports a process in which communities help themselves, boosting both their expectations and academic achievement. Garrett is excited to work with such great people with such passion for education and enthusiasm to tackle big problems. |
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People who used to work at Strive have gone on to do amazing things, including:
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