With digital mentorship, Bloomberg is making higher education more accessible

“I’ve wanted to be a doctor since I was ten years old,” recalls Leicester, UK-based student, Georgina. “But I didn’t know how I would be a doctor.”

Georgina’s story is a familiar one for many college-bound students — particularly those from less-advantaged backgrounds, who more often than their peers lack the critical mentorship to navigate the labyrinthine college and financial aid application processes that await them in their crucial next decisions in life.

Many of the anxieties and questions these students face are also common ones, too. “How do I apply for financial aid? Is this university out of reach for me? What makes a compelling college entry essay?”

Through Bloomberg’s partnerships with Sutton Trust in the UK, our CollegePoint program in the US, and Junior Achievement across Asia, we’re helping students prepare for college, and supporting the career readiness of high-achieving students who need it most.

Leveling the playing field

The Sutton Trust is dedicated to improving social mobility by closing access gaps faced by high-achieving, yet under-served students in the UK through summer schools, career exposure programs, and policy influence.

This summer, the Sutton Trust pivoted their summer school program virtually with the Sutton Trust Online platform. With support from Bloomberg and by harnessing the skills of Bloomberg employees, Sutton Trust accelerated the development of their online program, which enabled them to support over 6,000 lower-income students with university choices.

Skill-based volunteering is an important component of the program as well. 62 Bloomberg employees supported Sutton Trust beneficiaries through CV reviews, career insights and mentoring over the course of the program.

“Education is a real driver of social mobility and is the bedrock of opportunity,” says Sutton Trust CEO James Turner. “The Sutton Trust works all the way through from the early years of a child’s life through university and into the workplace to try to make a difference, to try to expand opportunities to more of those young people who may not otherwise have them.”

“Mike Bloomberg, our founder, has always been committed to addressing and ending educational inequality and promoting organizations like Sutton Trust that really support social mobility,” says Jemma Read, global head of Corporate Philanthropy at Bloomberg LP. “We are thrilled to connect students with the mentorship and guidance they need to be able to access university education, which will in turn help them unlock their full potential.”

For Georgina, the Sutton Trust Online program helped her understand the steps she would need to take in order to pursue a medical career. She also had the opportunity to improve skills she’ll need at university like time management, leadership and teamwork. Through Sutton Trust Online’s portal of academic content from more than 300 institutions, Georgina was one of thousands across the UK to gain insight into university life.

“What stuck out to me were some of the lectures,” Georgina shared. “One in particular was about ‘mending a broken heart,’ where we saw a real life video of open heart surgery. And it felt amazing to us. It inspired me to want to be a doctor even more.”

One-on-one support

When the Sutton Trust was looking to expand their program online for the first time this past summer, they reached out to Bloomberg to learn more about the US-based CollegePoint program.

In the US, every year tens of thousands of talented students from low- and middle- income families do not apply to the leading selective colleges or universities they are qualified to attend– a troubling statistic that, in 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies sought to change with the launch of CollegePoint.

CollegePoint provides free virtual advising to these students, helping them apply to, enroll in, and graduate from top colleges. Through one-on-one support from expert advisors – provided by phone, text, and email — students get support making college lists, revising their college essays, navigating the financial aid process, finding and applying for scholarships, and making a college decision. To date, CollegePoint has reached over 70,000 students.

Virtual advising made the CollegePoint program not only sustainable, but also continually effective, throughout 2020. CollegePoint advisors were there for their advisees even more this year through the pandemic, providing the high school class of 2020 more intensive summer advising to ensure they ultimately enrolled and attended college in the fall, despite disruptions. Nearly 7,000 students from the class of 2021 are already enrolled in CollegePoint, working with 800 advisors – along with new support for laptops and hotspots, so that these talented students can regularly connect with their advisors and complete their college applications.

You can see Gina’s CollegePoint story here.

Improving access to technology

Pandemic conditions exacerbate some obstacles to education, and introduce others.

Talented students across the world may simply lack the hardware — tablets, modems — and stable internet access to keep up with remote learning. Their homes may not be conducive for quiet study for any number of reasons. While digital and broadcast programs can be a solid substitute for on-site learning, it takes for granted many basics that hundreds of millions of students across the world, from rural parts of the US and Africa to city centers across Asia, simply do not have. Lack of access to these increasingly essential educational tools means students run the risk of falling behind.

In its efforts to support a more inclusive future economy, Bloomberg has provided Internet access to over 850 students and families in India, Japan and Singapore; and 160 tablets for students in 32 underprivileged schools in Hong Kong. Bloomberg is also funding online programming to directly reach 3.2 million students across Australia through our partnership with AIME, as well as 26,000 female students in India, and over 3,000 students in China.

Bloomberg employees have also contributed to this effort, taking part in hundreds of online sessions to virtually mentor students across Asia as part of the company’s employee volunteering program.

Ten years from now, Georgina sees herself sitting at an office desk in a GP clinic. The Sutton Trust’s digital program demystified university life for her, and she is already thinking ahead to how she may be in a position to pay it forward through her experience.

“I want to be there for patients and be a figure that they can rely on,” she said. “I also want to be a part of the Sutton alumni network, just to help people widen the participation into areas such as medicine.