College Track at 25

Dear College Track community,

As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of College Track in 2023, we have been reflecting on the journey of this organization, from our first cohort of 25 ninth graders in East Palo Alto, to our nearly 5,000 alumni, high school, and college scholars around the country today. Twenty-five years since our inception, College Track’s mission—equipping students confronting systemic barriers to earn a bachelor’s degree in pursuit of a life of opportunity, choice, and power—remains as urgent and vital as ever.

To transform a struggling education sector, we continue to push for real equity—practices and policies that identify students from all walks of life as assets to every campus and field of inquiry. To heal our fractured democracy, we advance self-determination and full participation, particularly within vulnerable communities that are so often shut out. To move through and past the sweeping damage resulting from a climate in peril—a global crisis that impacts our very existence—we ground ourselves in the voices of those most affected.

Looking ahead toward the next 25 years, we know that many challenges are on the horizon within the communities that College Track scholars call their own. As we rise to meet them, we will take our cue from the students and communities we serve. In many ways, College Track at 25 is the same as College Track on Day One: a community fueled by an unwavering belief in educational equity and dedicated to transformative change in the lives of our scholars. That certainty and resolve has defined us from the beginning, and it will continue to define us in the years to come.

Thank you for standing with us as we embark upon these next 25 years.

Laurene Powell Jobs
Co-Founder & Chair of Board of Directors

Shirley M. Collado, Ph.D.
President & CEO