CollegeSure Foundation’s Off to College Game Night: Enjoyable, Networking, Important Help for Baltimore’s Future Leaders

The CollegeSure Foundation’s Off to College Game Night introduced collectively Baltimore’s brightest college-bound college students and the professionals who champion their success — and it began with a recreation of basketball, a deck of playing cards, and a coronary heart for giving.

Now in its seventh 12 months, Game Night is extra than simply a night of enjoyable. It’s a community-driven occasion the place native leaders, donors, and advocates come collectively to make sure Baltimore City graduates depart for faculty with greater than desires — they depart with the necessities they should thrive.

The CollegeSure Foundation reaches roughly 800 center faculty college students, over 4,000 highschool college students, and greater than 1,000 faculty college students annually. The Foundation advises 50% of Baltimore City Schools’ seniors and 25% of graduates attending a four-year faculty on Pell Grants. Its College Completion Program (CCP) has achieved a 71% commencement price from Maryland four-year faculties — the identical because the statewide public four-year faculty commencement price throughout all earnings ranges. All CCP students are Baltimore City Schools graduates and recipients of the Pell Grant. By comparability, Baltimore City’s six-year commencement price for African American college students beginning at four-year faculties hovers between 23% and 28%, based on the 2014 BERC College Fact Book.

During Game Night, college students rotated between board video games, card video games, and basketball matches whereas connecting with Baltimore professionals who provided steerage, encouragement, and networking alternatives. The spotlight for a lot of college students was the Off to College Dorm Essentials Store. Thanks to beneficiant donations from area people members, on-line supporters, and Game Night attendees, the “store” was stocked with toiletries, bedding, towels, faculty provides, and reward playing cards. Each pupil obtained “CBF Bucks” to “shop” for the objects they most wanted — an intentional method that allowed them to make private selections somewhat than obtain pre-packed objects.

Contributions flowed in from all instructions, together with native drop-offs on the CollegeSure workplace, Amazon Wish List shipments, money donations used to buy necessities, and entry donations from professionals attending Game Night. Students additionally obtained particular prizes all through the night time courtesy of Under Armour.

Game Night started in 2018 as a easy Off to College Care Package Drive initiated by this author, Melisa Hypolite, the Director of Strategic Partnerships on the CollegeSure Foundation. I acknowledged that many Baltimore City college students have been leaving for faculty with out having all of the necessities they wanted for his or her dorm room. What began with family and friends rapidly grew when Councilman James Torrence and Alicia Wilson, VP of Civic Engagement and Opportunity at The Johns Hopkins University, joined the trouble, serving to remodel it right into a networking occasion that blends enjoyable, mentorship, and tangible help.

CollegeSure goals to broaden Game Night in 2026 by way of bigger company partnerships and a wider choice of objects within the Dorm Essentials Store. With the continued help of Baltimore’s neighborhood, the occasion can develop to serve much more college students making ready for this pivotal subsequent chapter of their lives.

Donations of dorm necessities, reward playing cards, and funds are at all times welcome — and your help goes immediately into the palms of scholars working arduous to alter their futures. To study extra about donating, mentoring, or taking part in subsequent 12 months’s Off to College Game Night, contact Melisa Hypolite at mhypolite@collegeboundfoundation.org.

This 12 months’s occasion was proof of what occurs when a metropolis believes in its younger individuals: they depart for faculty not solely with sheets, towels, and reward playing cards — but in addition with a stronger community, a way of belonging, and the information that Baltimore is cheering them on each step of the best way.