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Episode Notes | Transcript | AskTheGuest

 Hi Fives (5 Highlights)   Click for 3-Minute Listen

Shanita Nichols is the Managing Director of Development at Bottom Line.

Founded in 1997, Bottom Line addressed the low college graduation rates of first generation students. What started supporting 25 students back then, Bottom Line today, has robust programs for College Access and Success that supports over 7000 students.

Shanita Nichols, in addition to being the MD, is also an alumnae of the Bottom Line program.

Shanita joins us on our podcast to tell us What Bottom Line is, Its origins, Programs it offers, College Advisors, Partners, Success Stories and What’s Next.

Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:

  1. Origins of Bottom Line
  2. Ecosystems and Partners
  3. College Advisors
  4. Process Challenges
  5. Shanita’s Bottom Line Story

Episode Notes

Episode Title: Shanita Nichols on Bottom Line: College Access, College Success, and Educational Equity.

When Shanita Nichols was a senior in High School, Bottom Line guided her to an affordable college for her undergraduate study.

Founded in 1997, Bottom Line addressed the low college graduation rates of first generation students. What started supporting 25 students back then, Bottom Line today, has robust programs for College Access and Success that supports over 7000 students.

Today, Shanita Nichols is the Managing Director of Development at Bottom Line.

Shanita joins us on our podcast to tell us What Bottom Line is, Its origins, Programs it offers, College Advisors, Partners, Success Stories and What’s Next.

In particular, we discuss the following with her:

  • Shanita Nichols Background
  • Origins of Bottom Line
  • Ecosystems & Partners
  • How Bottom Line Benefits Students

Topics discussed in this episode:

  • Introducing Shanita Nichols, Bottom Line [0:44]
  • Hi Fives - Podcast Highlights [2:11]
  • Professional Background [4:51]
  • Origins of Bottom Line [6:51]
  • Ecosystems and Partners [9:28]
  • College Advisors [12:32]
  • Student Being Helped [15:23]
  • College Access Process [16:38]
  • Family Participation [18:29]
  • Process Challenges [19:57]
  • Help with Costs [22:36]
  • Success Stories [24:17]
  • More on Bluprint [27:22]
  • Shanita’s BL Story [30:04]
  • What Next? [32:55]

Our Guest: Shanita Nichols is the Managing Director of Development, National at Bottom Line.  Shanita graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics/African American Studies from Smith College. Shanita received her MBA from Simmons University.

Memorable Quote: “And one of the most impressive things that the research has found was that our impact was consistent across time, advisors, human characteristics. So I think the key is to all of this, the secret sauce is our curriculum,...” Shanita Nichols.

Episode Transcript: Please visit Episode’s Transcript.

Suggested Episodes: College Experiences (Alumni)

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Episode Transcript

Transcript of the episode’s audio.

<Start Snippet> Shanita N  0:14  

We just got our results back within the last year. And it shows that you know, bottom line does have an impressive significant impact on college attainment and degree attainment. Our students are at morth percent likely to graduate within six years, and about 23% more likely to graduate within four years.

Venkat  0:44  [Introducing  Shanita Nichols, Bottom Line]

That is Shanita Nichols, Managing Director of Development, National at Bottom Line, a college program to help underrepresented students, to go to College and Graduate from College.

Hello, I am your host, Venkat Raman.

Founded in 1997, Bottom Line addressed the low college graduation rates of first generation students.

What started supporting 25 students back then, Bottom Line today, has robust programs for College Access and Success that supports over 7000 students.

Our guest Shanita Nichols, in addition to being the MD, is also an alumnae of the Bottom Line program.

Venkat Raman  1:39

Shanita joins us on our podcast to tell us What Bottom Line is, Its origins, Programs it offers, College Advisors, Partners, Success Stories and What’s Next for Bottom Line.

Before we jump into the podcast, here are the Hi-Fives,  Five Highlights from the podcast:

Shanita N  2:11  [Highlights - Hi Fives]

[Origins of Bottom Line]

We were founded in 1997 to address the low college graduation rates. For first generation students from low income backgrounds. We were once a small organization serving only 25 students in its first year. Bottom Line supports nearly 7000 students.

[Ecosystems and Partners]

I don't know if you ever heard the saying it takes a village to raise a child. Bottom Line really embodies that because our ecosystem or the communities we serve. So that is our students, their families, the schools, our community partners, our individual donors, our board, our leadership, our corporate and foundation partners.

[College Advisors]

With our advisors like this is a role where you know, it's a two to three year role. We have a lot of alums, they'll come back with us. And a lot of it is just you know, word of mouth. So it is a full time position. We have a rigorous training, because we train our advisors on our two models from Access and Success.

 

[Process Challenges]

I think a lot of it is the financial burden. You know, people look at college, especially now like everyone is so like, tapped into like, oh, you can do a trade. And, you know, people are not looking at college as the like the next step. So I think just understanding that as long as you know, it's a fine, it's affordable, you can really create a successful future where when you graduate, you won't be like, you know, drowning in debt.

[Shanita’s Bottom Line Story]

I started Bottom Line my senior year, they were very influential in my whole college like application process. They even encouraged me to go to Smith College. That's where I went undergrad. And I was not familiar with the college. I was like, Okay, I'll check it out. We've been on a tour. And I really, you know, enjoy the the campus and it wasn't too far away from home, but it wasn't too close where I can feel like I could get away. So that was like the first thing being very influential when making an affordable choice.

Venkat Raman  4:16

These were the Hi5s, brought to you by “College Matters. Alma Matters.”

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Venkat Raman  4:27

Now, I'm sure you want to hear the entire podcast with Shanita.

So without further ado, here's the podcast with Shanita Nichols!

-----------------

Venkat Raman  4:38  

So if you're ready, we can jump right in.

Shanita N  4:41  

Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

Venkat Raman  4:44  

Fabulous. So let's start with a little bit about yourself. Tell us. Give us a little bit about your background.

Shanita N  4:51  [Professional Background]

Sure. I mean, I think to truly understand like my background, I think it's important to align with my personal goals because that really has dictated my trajectory of work. So like my life mission is centered around the advocacy of educational equity and providing resources to underserved communities to ultimately break generational curses. And as a first generation college student, I know firsthand the positive impact of education and how it can change the trajectory of a person's life. I'm born and raised in Boston, but I currently reside in Atlanta with my husband and two year old son. My background stems in financial services, corporate community relations and nonprofit management. I have an MBA from university focusing in corporate social responsibility, and general management, and a Bachelor's of art from Smith College, where I majored in economics and African American Studies. I've been with bottom line five years this July, and prior to this, I was, I was in the corporate sector. And a fun fact about me. As you have mentioned, I am a bottom line alone. So I did receive our Access and Success Services, which were fundamental in the start of my success. So bottom line plays a special role in my life, both personally and professionally.

Venkat Raman  6:10  

You are with Bottom Line, now you're playing a pretty major role. What is that role? What do you do?

Shanita N  6:17  

What do I do? I am the Managing Director of Development for our national team. So I manage our grant and funding pipeline for the National region. So Bottom Line, we have three other regions. So we have Boston, New York, in Chicago, and I manage the portfolio for our national fundraiser.

Venkat Raman  6:42  

Maybe we can start a little bit with a brief history of Bottom Line, how did it come about? And what you can share with us?

Shanita N  6:51  [Origins of Bottom Line]

Yeah, I can share Well, we were founded in 1997, to address the low college graduation rates. For first generation students from low income backgrounds. We were once a small organization serving only 25 students in its first year. Bottom line supports nearly 7000 students across Massachusetts, New York and Chicago. And recently, we have piloted a virtual program and expansion to Ohio. So our traditional core programs are our Access Program, which serves high school seniors, and the success program, which serves college students for up to six years of school. And the Access Program is designed to support students in choosing colleges for which they are well suited academically, and personally, and which are portable. So it guides students do the college research and lists making application preparation, financial aid and financial college decision. The Success Program ensures that students have the best possible opportunity to graduate from college and embark on a meaningful, thriving career. Our success advisors support our students through the entire range of challenges that our students may face on the path to graduation. So that's academic, financial and personal, and we help them prepare to succeed in the job market. And I'll just add in a shift in our program, because COVID, everybody went virtual, so our original program is person to person, our visors meet with our students directly, but all of that shifts, so everything moved to a virtual platform. So this kind of shifted our thinking of how we can use technology to be innovative and reach more students outside of our traditional three regions. Yeah, so now we are piloting a virtual program called Bluprint, which uses a virtual chat bot, as an advisor to work with students who are not in our regions. So this is something we're piloting, we are just expanded last year in Ohio, serving a small cohort of students to try to test and pilot and see if this is a program that will be sustainable for us. And we can use this to reach more students across the nation.

Venkat Raman  9:11  

You know, before we can dive deep into these different programs, so what what is the ecosystem of Bottom Line. Who are the folks who are partners, stakeholders, in terms of helping you with your mission?

Shanita N  9:28  [Ecosystems and Partners]

Yeah, well, I don't know if you ever heard the saying it takes a village to raise a child. Bottom line really embodies that because our ecosystem are the communities we serve. So that is our students, their families, the schools, our community partners, our individual donors, our board, our leadership, our corporate and foundation partners.

Venkat Raman  9:49  

How do colleges participate? I mean, are they part of the equation or do you keep them at arm's length? How does that work?

Shanita N  9:58  

So colleges are Mmm, they partner with us. Ultimately, because we have the same goal, we're all trying to make our students graduate in our, on our path to success. So it's a mutually beneficial partnership partnership. And we are a resource to students enrolled in their institution. So it's only logical for us to have some sort of partnership with institutions. So we have a list of target colleges in each region that we will say, are our traditional partners and target the target college as defined by one a large number of bottom line students and 10 of that institution. So for example, in Boston, we have about, let's say, 20 Target colleges, and say, Boston University, Boston College is one, right. So we probably could have about 20 students going through that. So that's going to also help us figure out, you know, where all of our students go on, because it'll be more efficient for advisors to travel to one place to serve the students. The second criteria is the location, and in reasonable proximity to a bottom line office, because our advisors are going on campus and working with the students. Yeah, so that is something we take in mind. And third, there's a need for college retention service. So obviously, the school wants their students to persist and graduate. And, and fourth, and most importantly, the college is affordable. You know, our goal for our success program is that our students graduate with less than $30,000 in debt. So I think, you know, we think about our, so every student that goes to a college may not be a target college. And it's just because, you know, sometimes institutions ecosystem, they don't, they don't have the capacity to partner with us, but we try to work with them to make sure that they know we're here where a resource that is, you know, serving their students. So it just depends on the college. But ultimately, the goal will be to, you know, partner with colleges, because, you know, we can, you know, share information, which can ultimately like help our students make sure they're persistent in college, and we can catch any like warnings, like early on.

Venkat Raman  12:16  

You mentioned college advisors, advisors right. Now, are these, how do you find these people? And, you know, how does it work? How are they structured within your organization?

Shanita N  12:32  [College Advisors]

So our advisors make a majority of our staff, and they are paid staff, full time staff. It's really like a fellowship job. You know, it's we look for people who are probably early in the career who want to spend two to three years, we're very transparent. With our advisors, like, this is a role where you know, it's a two to three year role. We have a lot of alums, they'll come back with us. And a lot of it is this, you know, word of mouth. So it is a full time position. We have a rigorous training, because we train our advisors on our two models from access and success. So it is a very, you know, hands on job. And we really value our advisors because they are ultimately the connection to our students because they work with them firsthand.

Venkat Raman  13:21  

Did you say there's a one on one relationship with a student? So an advisor would so I mean, just one or more? Multiple? Yeah,

Shanita N  13:30  

Definitely more, there's definitely more students. So I can I'll talk about so we have our two programs, so access that's high school. So those advisors they typically meet with 60 to 65 students. That's like their case. They meet with their students on average about eight times per year. Yeah. All advisors receive comprehensive training that's provided by both our national team and our pro in our local program leadership when they first accept their roles. We supplement our advisors direct support for both student events, as well as as students events are like college essay day, a college interview night, which students can work with volunteers to practice interview skills, as well as resources to help our students succeed. So our advisors are more we consider them generalists. Like they don't know the answers to everything. Sure, work with our partners in a way that can help our students support them. And also, our advisors are very incremental in recruitment, they will present at high schools around the city. We work with different community partners to enroll their students into our program. So why is this really play? Incremental and in all of this, and then our success program, it's a little bigger. This is your college program. Advisors typically serve between 80 and 85. Students. Yeah. And they meet with their students about two to three times per semesters. Okay, and the same thing success of viruses they receive comprehensive and robust training from our national local teams is characterized by the sense of bootcamp when they first start their tenure, and they and they get regular trainings after

Venkat Raman  15:16  

The students - how do you do you find them? Do they come to you? Or is it a combination?

Shanita N  15:23  [Student Being Helped]

It's a combination. Honestly, a lot of it is like word of mouth will get students say, Oh, my cousin went through this program, or I have a friend who was in his program. So a lot of it is word of mouth, but we partner with a lot of the high school. So our students will, our advisors will go to different for different high schools in our local regions, and present our bottom line, as you know, the counselor guidance counselor that public schools have tapped out. Yeah, they're probably serving 100 to 300, 400 students. Yeah. So, you know, we can be a resource to help have, you know, intensive one on one, one on one advising with those with the students. So we will present at different schools, we also have community partners, who will send their students to us. So there are a lot of access programs, and that's high school that workers needs to get into college. But there are not a lot of, you know, programs that stay with students throughout the tenure of their college journey. So we'll get students from different pro community programs that they stopped serving them after their senior year.

Venkat Raman  16:29  

For the Access Program, what does a typical process look like when you engage with a student?

Shanita N  16:38  [College Access Process]

Yeah, so we work with students, we support them in their high school year. Yeah. And our Access Program is organized around our LEAD model. And LEAD is an acronym. So our writers are working on them with so the L stands for list. So they help them create a list of colleges that meet the students personal criteria that they plan to apply, then the E is for essays. So that's writing an edit editing application essays. And with individual tailored support from the advisor. The A is for applications. Yeah, so preparing all college applications correctly and submitted, the more time helping them with their aid, the financial aid process, as you know, that's going to be critical to their college journey. And then D is for decision. So determining which of the colleges that the students will be best will be a best fit for them. So, and also, one of the biggest things that I think is unique about bottom line in our curriculum is that we focus on affordability. So we've been around 25 years, we use Salesforce as our database. So we we have a lot of information on that and what you know what, what potentially a student will graduate with if they go to specific schools. So we don't, you know, push our students to go to one school to the other, we just want them and their families to make an informed choice knowing the financial responsibility. So if God ability is big, because you know, we work with students who are low income, and we don't want find the financial burden to be a reason why they want to persistently college journey.

Venkat Raman  18:20  

Are families involved in this process today, get involved is that kind of depends.

Shanita N  18:29  [Family Participation]

For the most part, I will say in our Access program, we invite our families to be involved. We have different events that when we celebrate like our students on like, decision day and acceptances, but we really want our students and their families to know about the financial commitment. So, you know, we get all of the paperwork is, and we and we send packages, and like, you know, we tell the students to share with their family on what we project would be like their total debt when they graduate. So we really try to include the families and the responsibility of making the decision. And I think it's important because a lot of it is a shared responsibility, you know, when you go to college and depend on your parents, so what is this gonna look like, for that family? If that student goes to college A, B, or C?

Venkat Raman  19:25  

You guys, we've been doing this for 25 years now it looks like at least 25 Plus, you said 7000 students. So what kind of challenges do you face? I mean, I'm sure a number of different types of challenges, but just characterize a few that you typically run into,

Shanita N  19:41  

that our students may run into or like organization

Venkat Raman  19:44  

like you guys while you try to get, you know, get things going for a student. I mean, what are the things they have to overcome? Right? I just yeah, just in terms of what kinds of things will people run into you run into, they run into?

Shanita N  19:57  [Process Challenges]

I think a lot of it is the financial burden You know, people look at college, especially now, like everyone is so like, tapped into, like, oh, you can do a trade. And, you know, people are not looking at college as the like the next step. So I think just understanding that as long as you know, it's a fine, it's affordable, you can really create a successful future where when you graduate, you won't be like, you know, drowning in debt. So I think the financial part is like a big piece. And then I think just the second part of it is more around is called even attainable. Yeah, one who was in college, and it may seem like a far reach that families may have not attended colleges. So it's like this imposter syndrome, like, do I even belong here, you know, like, Is this for me, so I think just letting our students encourage and motivate them that they could, college is attainable, and is that something that they are meant to succeed in. So I think those are like some of the challenges that our students you know, will face, going through the process. And then even staying in college, you know, the college systems institutions are really not designed for, you know, low income students to succeed. So this is why it's important that our success advisors work with them one on one, because they haven't go to college, and it's going to be a culture shock. Yeah, it's gonna be like, gonna be rigorous curriculum that they're not used to. So, you know, scheduling, just time management, so all these little things that, you know, are going to come up and it's like our advisor base supporting them, and then like, their personal and just, you know, family life and their mental health, you know, COVID really took a toll on our students like mental health, and just the capacity of learning. And we've provided resources to our students to help them get the professional help that they need to address any mental health issues. But our but our advisors really work with them to if we can't provide a word than to connect them with a resource that can. So it's a really, you know, thorough, intensive relationship. And I think that the key to our program is the advisors.

Venkat Raman  22:18  

Now, you mentioned cost, right financial affordability. Now, what specifically do you guys do to help them? are you pointing them to different sources guiding them? I'm assuming you don't have your own programs to help the students right? Or do you do?

Shanita N  22:36  [Help with Costs]

So we do have emergency assistance for our students who are in our program. So, for instance, when COVID happened, everybody's working from home, I mean, everybody, all the students were in school from home, we faced students who, you know, they didn't have Wi Fi, so we have, you know, emergency services for to help students get basic needs that may have prevented them from, you know, going to class or attending class, I'm so we have, we have emergency assistance for our students, that they can, you know, reach out and apply to, but overall, we try to help our students with getting scholarships, and ultimately make an affordable choice. So, you know, we want our students to be well informed and aware of the college they're going to and what that financial commitment would be. So we, that's why I say affordability is big for us, because we show our students to make sure they understand like, Okay, this semester, I'm going to have to pay $2,000, you know, like, so they know, and is it, they know what their commitment isn't, by the time they graduate, they may only be in debt of 20,000. So just really putting it in the bigger picture for our students and letting them see the whole picture. I think it's very just amazing that we can do that, because I think it helps our students really make a good decision. Because I feel like a lot of times when you go to college, you just like trying to get in, yeah, looking at the four years or if it takes you five or six, like you're just like, Okay, so we're really, you know, trying to provide the full picture so that they less, so it'd be less surprises for them in the long run.

Venkat Raman  24:12  

How about some success stories? I mean, we'll talk about you in a minute.

Shanita N  24:17  [Success Stories]

Yeah, I mean, I think just our students, they are a testament to why we continue to do this work, and why like their resilience and, you know, our advisors be like a real litmus ally to them is very, like, influential to like their success. So yeah, I mean, a few students stories that come to mind is, you know, I can just like, you know, pulled off. Some students like success, like some quotes from students that I have. So one student in our Chicago region said, I'm happy that bottom line cares about helping students with their cause. Jeremy. But I also like to say, I but I also like that they really care about the students who they are and how they identify themselves. Another student said, I feel that comfort and full support, knowing that I can have that one on one support with my advisor to help me on whatever I need an application process. So I mean, I think there's a lot of stories where we see of course, they'll go into, you know, they'll start in our high school program. And then they'll join, you know, once they are finished with access, they'll go to college, and they'll join our success program. And then to the program will help students get internships and jobs, so we can help them learn there for and you know, so we have a lot of stories of like, I got this job, because bottom line helped me get internship. Even with me, my first job out of college was because I had an internship, my junior year through bottom line, bottom line. So I'll share another quote from a student. And he said, my bottom line experiences has been unique. I've gotten to be a student in need, and a resource for those that have been or are in situations similar to myself. But I was unsure of what life would be outside of high school bottom line has been there with ongoing support that has benefited myself and other first generation college students. Awesome. So we have a lot we have. And then one other cool, like, she's like, we have some cool alums who are doing some really great things, we have a chief of communications, working for Michelle Wu and our Boston reason. And that's just like great just to have you know, someone and that role advocating for just Inner City, Boston, but also being an alum. We have like a range of students, I mean alums in different fields. So it's nice to see a full circle. And they also like stay involved and give back.

Venkat Raman  27:09  

We're gonna you know, at the outset, you mentioned this Bluprint, which sounded like a very interesting way to scale. So before we get to your story, tell me a little bit more about the blueprint. Where are you guys going with that.

Shanita N  27:22  [More on Bluprint]

So Bluprint, ideally, we want to use this as a mechanism to reach students that are not in our traditional program. So in our access program, our high school program, about 40% of students do not go into our success program. And that's because they don't go to a target college. So if they go to a college is not one of our target of the program. Okay. So we have about 40% of the students not being served. And we really feel strongly that like some bottom line is better than no bottom line. So when COVID hit, you know, if we were looking at how to be innovative, how to use technology to expand our reach, and we partner with organization called mainstay, that is the Chatbot technology that we're using. And we are pretty much testing this and creating the bot, the box name is Blue, to make to make it sound and be like bottom line. So it's really a virtual advisor. So it's virtual first. So if a student has a question or anything, they can text, the the bots. But if there's any time where they feel like the bot is not working and not answering, they can, you know, ask for an advisor, and an advisor will reach out to them a live person. So bluprint, and is a pilot program. It's using the innovation of artificial intelligence, with technology, and a highly trained bottom line adviser to deliver our proven model. Yeah. So it's through primarily text messages. And it sends out reminders and nudges that connects them with the resources of answers to like routine questions. So things like oh, did you complete your fastboot? Did you submit job? Did you register for classes? So really trying to get an idea of where the student is at? And are we have a lot of eyes on the back end, like tracking those conversations, to make sure that there are no red flags.

Venkat Raman  29:29  

That's, that's beautiful. I mean, I think I think it has huge potential and it's definitely a wonderful way and plus, you know, the great thing is you have real advisors at the back end who are available. So, you know, you can make the scale and also have a nice touch. If there is an you know, an exception or a problem

Venkat Raman  29:57  

Let's get to your story. How did Oh, Bottom Line make a difference?

Shanita N  30:04  [Shanita’s BL Story]

I mean, Bottom Line really is just like the ultimate, I feel like partner that you could have. Or you pretty much go into a situation blindsided. So you may not have the answers, but bottom line does. And I think the biggest thing that they can do is connect us to the resources that we wouldn't traditionally have. So a lot of like our success program, our college program is around making sure our students have professional networks, because a lot of you know, it's about who you know, and getting into those, you know, those fields and those opening those doors by creating those, those professional networks. But for me, I will say, I started bottom line my senior year, they were very influential in my whole college like application process. They even encouraged me to go to Smith College. That's where I went undergrad. And I was not familiar with the college, I was like, Okay, I'll check it out. We went on a tour. And I really, you know, enjoy the the campus and it wasn't too far away from home, but it wasn't too close where I can feel like I could get away. So that was like the first thing being very influential, making an affordable choice. And to make sure that financial, the financial burden wouldn't prevent me from graduating. And then throughout throughout college, they were very critical. Because, you know, there's no like guidebook. Yeah, and I feel like bottom line is the guidebook. So like, we track KPIs to make sure that our students are on target. So there's certain milestones that each year that it has to hit. So I think having those set really has kept us on track. So you know, making sure I'm register for classes, make sure my passwords and is there anything else that's going on? I need a resume, how do I need a mock interview? So just being really influential? And asking the questions that nobody would ask or that maybe your family may not know what x resources, I think was very instrumental to just my success throughout college. And also, you know, getting me my first internship with my enemy, my first job, I think, bottom line has been, you know, I owe a lot. So just bottom line for opening those doors for me, and pushing me and preparing me to be the best and to take on any obstacle. So I think it's been very just, you know, but one thing about bottom line is, we may have students who may, who, you know, may not be responsive, yeah, we're not going to give up on you. It's like that family member that doesn't go away. Yeah.

Venkat Raman  32:52  

So what's next for Bottom Line?

Shanita N  32:55  [What Next?]

Well, Bottom Line, you know, is just, ideally, the goal is to grow, you know, we really feel and now we are scientifically proven. So we just completed a seven year RCT, which is a randomized controlled trial. So this is like, very big because this is like what people do and scientists are like, for testing to see if something works or doesn't. So we are one of like the only college programs who has an RCT that tested to see, you know, our impact on an average degree. And we just got our results back within the last year. And it shows that, you know, bottom line does have an impressive significant impact on college attainment and degree attainment. Our students are at morth percent likely to graduate within six years, and about 23% more likely to graduate within four years. And one of the most impressive things that the researchers found was that our impact was consistent across time advisors characteristics. So I think the key is to all of this, the secret sauce is our curriculum, and the consistency that our curriculum provides students no matter what region they're in, or what's going on with them. They're getting the same type of work, the same type of service. They also found that if bottom line was spread out more broadly, we can help create, we can help minimize educational gap. So with this RCT and our proven model, we really feel like we have an answer. So for educational equity, so ultimately, to honor and to continue to honor our mission, we will love to expand and to grow across regions and cities throughout the US. We just recently received a very transformational gift $15 million from MacKenzie Scott. And yeah, so that was very, you know, it was very fortunate for us to get it. And it just shows to it just a test of like the great work that we're doing, and what people think of bottom line. And not just like bottom line, I think it's like our students and our partners and our families that can celebrate your success, because it definitely takes a village for us to get to this point. Yeah. So with this, this transformational gift, our goal over the next, you know, by 2020 30, is to be five for seven more cities working within our Boston, New York Chicago region to see what is capacity look like giving infrastructure to that model to serve students at the capacity, like what that number is, we also are going to use this to grow our national infrastructure. So I'm excited for what is the pump the bottom line, I think that this gift, really just kind of kick started, like, what we can go where we can go. But that's just the start of that we still need to create more funding opportunities and create more partnerships in the cities that would want to go to to be sustainable. But I'm excited to see like how we can really reach more students, like continue to honor our mission, and ideally help, you know, just eradicate the educational equity gap.

Venkat Raman  36:29  

Sounds fantastic. I mean, you guys have a great foundation in place based on all the stuff you're saying. And I think you're right, the future looks right.

—---------------

Venkat  36:44

Hi again!

Hope you enjoyed our podcast with Shanita Nichols of Bottom Line.

In particular, we learned that Bottom Line offers:

  • Programs to Help Students get to College and Graduate from College;
  • Their Bluprint Pilot is testing how to scale and expand their programs beyond the cities they currently service;
  • Proven Successes in college degree attainment through the Randomized Control Trials; and
  • The 7000 students that they help today!

Finally, It tells you how much Bottom Line meant to Shanita when she was going through her College Process, that she is now helping thousands of students like her, to succeed!

For your questions or comments on this podcast, please email podcast at almamatters.io [podcast@almamatters.io].

Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast today.

Transcripts for this podcast and previous podcasts are on almamatters.io forward slash podcasts [almamatters.io/podcasts].

To stay connected with us, Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify or visit anchor.fm forward slash almamatters [anchor.fm/almamatters] to check us out.

Till we meet again, take care and be safe.

Thank you!

Summary Keywords

Podcast for High Schoolers, US Colleges,International College Programs, College Podcast, College Counselor, High School Students, College Admissions, College Application, International Students, College Programs for the underrepresented, Applying to US Colleges, College Success, College Access.


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