Starfish Initiative is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of at-risk and economically disadvantaged high school students. We assist students of exceptional promise overcome the barriers of poverty and develop cultural capacity and leadership skills that prepare them to graduate from high school and college. Our goal is to fill empty caps and gowns by improving graduation rates in Indianapolis.Starfish provides intensive one-on-one mentoring and coaching: Each Starfish Scholar is matched with an adult mentor who makes a two year commitment to meet with their Scholar every other week. These mentors serve as a life or college coach to keep Scholars working toward achievement of their goals- graduation from high school and from college. Thorough orientation and on-going mentor training enables mentors to form meaningful relationships with Scholars to enhance their success. For more information about mentoring, contact Starfish Intiative, at 317.955.7912 or info@starfishinitiative.org. Starfish offers leadership training and college access, admission and retention programming. Leadership Camp curriculum has included The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Yearly, Leadership Camp offers a new curriculum and simulates going away to college. We also offer free personality type and career interest inventories to guide our Scholars toward an earlier determination of an appropriate major in college and, ultimately, career. Starfish motivates low-income youth and parents to understand that college is an option: As an eighth-grade student, each Starfish Scholar meets the income requirements to receive a Twenty-first Century Scholars Scholarship from the State of Indiana. Starfish develops partnerships with colleges and universities to ensure that students are prepared to take advantage of this scholarship opportunity.

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Starfish Initiative has a simple mission: to help academically promising, low-income students graduate high school and move on to higher education, prepared to work toward and secure a degree. Headquartered in Indianapolis, we work toward this goal by providing high school students with individual mentors to help our students, our Starfish Scholars, handle the competing pressures of high school. Starfish Initiative also offers its Scholars leadership training, community service opportunities, a place to study and hang out, and much more. This school year, Starfish Initiative will serve approximately 255 high school students in 39 high schools in Marion County. Starfish Initiative is a United Way Agency and winner of the Better Business Bureau 2008 Charity Ethics Award.

Starfish provides intensive one-on-one mentoring and coaching: Each Starfish Scholar is matched with an adult mentor who makes a two-year commitment to meet with their Scholar every other week. These mentors serve as a life or college coach to keep Scholars working toward achievement of their goals – graduation from high school and from college. Thorough orientation and on-going mentor training enables mentors to form meaningful relationships with Scholars to enhance their success. Starfish offers leadership training and college access, admission and retention programming. Leadership Camp curriculum has included The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Yearly, Leadership Camp offers a new curriculum and simulates going away to college. We also offer free personality type and career interest inventories to guide our Scholars toward an earlier determination of an appropriate major in college and, ultimately, career. Starfish motivates low-income youth and parents to understand that college is an option: As an eighth-grade student, each Starfish Scholar meets the income requirements to receive a Twenty-first Century Scholars’ Scholarship from the State of Indiana. Starfish develops partnerships with colleges and universities to ensure that students are prepared to take advantage of this scholarship opportunity. We work with the families of our first generation college students to understand the commitment involved in completing college.