Step Ahead Idaho Inc.

“Expenses advertising 750 office supplies & software 3,326 insurance 1,759 bank & cc processing fees 2,352 dues & subscriptions 60 non-investment depreciation 4,040 total 12,287”

“Equipment & furniture 23,642 23,642 less accumulated depreciation 6,809 10,849 total 16,833 12,793”

“Step ahead idaho addresses the community need for more comprehensive, affordable college admission counseling by providing free college drop-in advising, free workshops, and fee-for-service workshops.”

“Step ahead idaho addresses the community need for more comprehensive, affordable college admissions counseling with a three-pronged approach, free college drop-in advising, free workshops, fee-for-service clients and paid workshops. Free college advising drop-in centers. Before covid-19, we operated two college advising centers: a pop-up drop-in at the downtown ymca and a stand-alone center adjacent to the hillcrest library. These drop-in centers are completely free of charge and designed to be a place where students can get counseling and advice on any aspect of the college-going process. We typically see 50-60 students each month. We staff this site ourselves and train volunteers to assist us. The ymca and the library charge no rent for us to use these facilities, and our projected resources budget for these sites is 30,500 per year. There are 14 public high schools in the treasure valley, and more than 10 private and charter high schools that serve over 25,000 high school students. As the treasure valley experiences rapid growth, our capacity to serve this increased, diverse population of learners will also expand. In response to distance learning during the pandemic, and due to our inability to work with students in person, we've shifted our drop-in availability to free zoom sessions. Twice per week, our staff hosts free appointments for students and families who want help navigating the college application, financial aid, and college essay writing process. Free workshops. Before covid-19, we strived to reach out to the larger community with free talks at our new hillcrest location and events that provide information to targeted groups. Among our most heavily attended sessions are: how to choose a college, what to know about applying to selective schools/military academies/the ivy leagues, navigating financial aid, boise school district health professions expo and how to be a recruited athlete. In the last year, our outreach has extended to providing workshops at the hispanic leadership conference, leadership boise, boise school district evenings about health and stem-based careers, sessions for financial planners interested in providing better college affordability advice for their clients, and college-readiness clinics for over 1500 junior high and high school students. Our resources budget for this aspect of our services is 10,000 per year. The pandemic has shifted our focus to working with individuals and their families for now so our assistance is targeted and personalized, and to working in partnership with organizations like college bound to deliver programming that is designed for fewer students at one time via different digital learning platforms. Fee-for-service clients & paid workshops. We offer several private advising options for students, including one-on-one advising and intensive essay- writing workshops -all on a sliding-scale, fee-for-service basis. Over ten years, we have grown from serving a handful of students to over 200 one- on-one each year. During the year, we held several workshops at our hillcrest center, including spring workshops that were grant-funded for juniors seeking help in developing college application literacy skills, learning how to build a good match college list, navigating financial aid, and understanding the application timeline. Over the summer, we also held hybrid/socially distanced and simulcast digital college essay writing classes to idaho's rising seniors. These sessions were our best attended since we began offering this service in 2015. We also work in tandem with school districts in the treasure valley to teach classes on college readiness, college applications, and college essay writing. We delivered programming to students in 4 school districts. Our resources budget for this aspect of our services is 14,500 per year.”