2021 was our first full year of programming in a pandemic, and I’m proud to announce that we exceeded the organizational goals we set for ourselves in 2020.
Through OppNet Fellows, we are serving more than 1,000 young people across our six-year program. One-hundred percent of our Fellows graduated high school and 100% of them were accepted to college: 99% to four-year colleges, and 1% began at two-year schools. And we’re so excited to report that 82% of our Fellows Class of 2020 secured interest-aligned employment or graduate school admission within six months of college graduation. OppNet continues to support our Class of 2021 to ensure they secure post-graduate placements and will have final information on their positions in early calendar year 2022.
We expanded our Career Fluency®Partnerships geographic reach and now collaborate with 44 Partners across 14 states and 21 cities. To date, we’ve trained 750 of our partners’ staff members in our Career Fluency® curriculum, which reached over 10,000 students across the country this year alone!
We launched a brand new program Opportunity Ignited, our consultative practice serving employers who want to build more inclusive workplaces. Hitting the ground running, in this inaugural year we partnered with 13 alternative investment companies, trained 52 mentors, and placed 20 Fellows at these firms. We’re actively recruiting new partners now!
As 2021 closes, OppNet remains energized by our dedicated Fellows, staff, partners, our Alumni Leadership Council, Student Board of Directors, and our Board and Associate Board members. Through this collective effort and our continued commitment to centering racial and social equity, we move into 2022 poised to thrive. Thank you for being a part of this work, and a part of our OppNet community.
P.S. On a quick final note: OppNet will be closed the last two weeks of December to allow for our diligent and dedicated staff to relax and restore at the end of the year. We hope that you can find time to recharge, too!
AiLun Ku
President and CEO
CAREER FLUENCY® PARTNERSHIPS
Last month, OppNet and TandemEd hosted a virtual community celebration to commemorate our two-year partnership centered around advancing racial equity among Black communities in Detroit, Newark, and New Orleans. We held citywide workshops for counselors on culturally-relevant, student-centered college and career exploration in Detroit and New Orleans, and created a paid summer internship program that reached some 800 young people in Newark.
WELLNESS AT OPPNET
Last month OppNet’s Wellness Team joined with Bottom Line to host a virtual conversation addressing myths and misconceptions around COVID-19 vaccinations. Students and their family members came together to hear from a panel of medical professionals who provided invaluable expertise on the benefits of vaccinations, as well as career exposure for students interested in working in healthcare.
OPPORTUNITY TALKS
OppNet is honored to have been joined by Denise Woodard, Founder & CEO of Partake Foods, a line of nationally distributed foods for those with dietary restrictions. Since launching in 2017, Denise grew Partake Foods into a multimillion dollar company with products in over 7,000 locations nationwide, helping to open doors for more Black and female entrepreneurs across the food industry. To watch Denise speak on the importance of mentorship, click here.
OPPNET BOARD UPDATES
OppNet is excited to announce our two new Associate Board Co-Chairs: Adriana Salazar and Parker Rhodes! Adriana Salazar is a Managing Director at Cowen, and Parker Rhodes is an Executive on the Investor Relations and Fundraising team at Cinven. To read more about their work, click here. We are grateful for their leadership!
THERE'S STILL TIME TO MAKE AN IMPACT IN 2021!
Since our founding in 2003, we’ve grown from serving 10 students to over 1,000 this year in our New York City- based Fellows program, expanded our student-centered model nationally through our network of community-based partners, grown our network of corporate supporters, and provided our students access to workplace skills, summer internships and enrichment programs with 200+ employer partners. This is all thanks to you, our steadfast community of friends, partners, and volunteers, and we invite you to join us again this year by making an end-of-year gift to support all of our work.
Your support matters and makes our efforts to reach and serve more young people year after year possible. We hope you will make a gift today.
