Dedicated to making college admission possible for
talented, motivated and economically disadvantaged students.

History

In the fall of 2004, recognizing that the Garfield Counseling Department, with a ratio of 400:1, was overwhelmed, the Garfield PTSA organized parent volunteers to assist in meeting the needs of seniors applying to college. About 40 students of diverse backgrounds sought out assistance from volunteers. However, many of the students from low-income backgrounds who needed additional help were not seeking it.

Even though Garfield hosts the federal GEAR-UP (Gain Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) which is aimed at helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds go to college, it was clear to GEAR-UP Coordinator Randy Riley that more intensive help was needed for most of his students. With support from the Garfield PTSA and Randy Riley, volunteer Julia Schechter applied for a VISTA volunteer to operate the College Access Now Program. In the spring of 2005, an MLK VISTA Service Member, Karly Feria, was granted to run CAN in the 2005-06 school year. Karly served as the founding Program Coordinator and returned as the Senior Program Coordinator in it's second year.

In CAN's second year, there was three full-time staff including: Sr. Program Coordinator (Karly Feria), AmeriCorps Student Leader (John Austin), and Program Director (Jennie Flaming).  With this much staff support, CAN was able to serve 32 seniors as well as a group of about 20 juniors.

As CAN is approaching it's third year, we will be expanding to serve Franklin High School along with Grafield High School students.  Incoming AmeriCorps VISTA (Frank Wagner) will be serving full-time at Franklin High School while AmeriCorps Direct Member (Jena Mattix) will be serving at Garfield High School full-time.

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