TAKE MY MONEY
Yes, you.
Take it.
Take my money.
I NEED YOU TO TAKE IT RIGHT NOW.
Snatch my debit card out of my hands and swipe it. Or insert it in the chip reader. Or tap it, WHATEVER.
Slip a $20 out of my wallet like you’re me in middle school and I’m my innocent, trusting mother.
Write a check from my account and hold my hand down while I sign it.
THIS IS NOT A JOKE.
TAKE MY FREAKING MONEY.
Today, I’m matching every donation made to Making Connections (a college readiness program for students of color and first-generation high school students) up to $1,000.
TAKE A COOL GRAND FROM ME YOU CUNNING BANDITS
SNATCH IT OUT OF MY HANDS
DRAIN MY EFFING ACCOUNT I AM BEGGING YOU.
https://givingday.uw.edu/amb/katykatikatemc
(You are about to see that link a thousand times and I’m not even sorry so buckle up, chers and cheries.)
What is this “Making Connections,” you want to know?
Pour yourself a hot cup of SIT DOWN DARLING while I tell you 5 reasons Making Connections ain’t your average college readiness program.
Making Connections is HOLISTIC.
Oh I know, you hear “college readiness program” and you think “okay so it’s tutoring, maybe some SAT prep, sure sure sure I know exactly what that is.”
You thought wrong, sucka! Making Connections is a HOLISTIC preparation program. Which means it treats its students like WHOLE PEOPLE.
Here’s a question:
What keeps students, especially first-gen students and students of color, out of college?
Sometimes the obstacle is student stuff. SAT scores. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s grades. And of course, Making Connections has resources and support systems for ALL that, including workshops on applying to scholarships, tutoring, and test prep.
But sometimes the thing that keeps students out of college? It’s people stuff.
Sometimes the obstacle is fear.
Sometimes (79% of the time, actually, for MC), a student is the first in her family to go to college and doubts she’s smart enough or worthy of the financial investment. That’s why MC has leadership retreats and alumni mentors who are BIPOC.
Sometimes the obstacle is imagination.
If you’ve never been to a college campus how can you picture yourself there? If you can’t imagine designing prosthetics, writing code, creating information systems, assisting or performing surgery, then you can’t start fighting to make that dream a reality. That’s why MC has chaperoned college campus visits (YES, even for schools all the way across the country), and career exploration days for students starting in middle school - if you can see it, you can dream it, and dammit, you can do it.
She did!
Dream it! Do it! Double it! DAMMIT TAKE MY MONEY!
https://givingday.uw.edu/amb/katykatikatemc
Making Connections put students first, ALWAYS.
SO MANY PROGRAMS selects students who fit their program.
MC builds the program to fit its students.
A student heard about Girls Who Code - - BAM, MC chapter started.
A student needs transportation to the Women’s Center to get tutoring - - SHAZAM, bus pass secured.
A student stays late to work on college essays - - KAPOW here comes an army’s worth of takeout.
A student needs help explaining college admissions to their parents - - BLOOP see you at your kitchen table tonight, kiddo, we’ve got your back.
And finally? Best of all? My favorite part of how MC puts students first, always?
There is NO. ACADEMIC. PRESCREENING. for students who want to join MC. NONE.
If a student is committed to their future, it doesn’t matter if they have a 4.0 or 2.0, if they’re soaring or struggling, laser-focused or lost in the woods.
MC puts STUDENTS first, not stats, not systems, not BS.
Which is why they look at a lost, struggling, 2.0 student, and ask, “Why not you? Why not now?”
79% of MC Students are First Generation Americans
Imagine moving to Japan, Nigeria, or Honduras to give your 15-year-old kid a chance at a kickass life.
Imagine learning the language, finding a job, securing safe housing, navigating a new city, figuring out how the health care system works.
Now imagine trying to learn what your child needs to do to go to college in Japan, Nigeria, or Honduras, a place where you’re still learning how to speak the language and pay your bills. What does the application process look like? Are there entrance exams? How do you pay for it? And before any of those questions, what classes should your child take? Should they do clubs or sports or get a job or volunteer?
Imagine how many locks you’d have to pick to open enough doors for your child to realize their potential.
Now imagine you have a skeleton key.
Making Connections is that key.
An MC student submits her first-ever college application at the Alene Morris Women’s Center.
DRUMROLL PLEASE!
TAKE. MY. MONEY.
https://givingday.uw.edu/amb/katykatikatemc
100% of Making Connections students go to college.
100%. Of Making Connections students. Have graduated from high school and attend an institution of higher education. Since 2007.
This, in a world where A THIRD of non-native English speaking students didn’t finish high school in 2018.
This, in a school system where only A THIRD of public schools have any kind of college admissions counseling program.
This, from a program without any academic prerequisites for students who commit to MC.
100%.
WHICH BY THE WAY is the amount I’m matching you when you donate here and TAKE MY MONEY
https://givingday.uw.edu/amb/katykatikatemc
Making Connections is housed by the University of Washington,
but the program is NOT FUNDED by the UW.
Making Connections is scrappy as hell.
MC walks the budget tightrope every damn day, and the Covid pandemic made it impossible for us to hold our annual fundraising gala in 2020.
The Making Connections board at the 2019 gala.
In 2019, the gala raised $207,000.
In 2020, the gala raised $0.
2021? $0. Again.
We’re two years in the hole, scrapping it up to fund access and holistic care and a lifeline for remarkable, committed students to visit colleges and mentorships, for computers and bus passes and food and retreats.
So we’re applying for grants. Leaning on powerhouse volunteers. Thanking the UW every day for the literal roof over our heads.
But we need you, too.
I need you.
I need you to keep this program in place, walking beside the young people who will absolutely change the world.
I NEED YOU.
TO TAKE MY MONEY.
Hack my Venmo.
Yank out the car stereo and sell it on Craigslist.
Cash in the collector’s coins my great-grandpa bought from a lady on TV.
Send in those heels I never wear to an online consignment store.
Send in ALL THE HEELS.
And then email your friends and tell them this blogger is giving away FREE MONEY TODAY so your friends can take some, too.
MAKE me give this program $1,000 today.
Thank you so very much.