Our Impact
'22-23 Aspire Impact Report
Read more about Aspire's impact over the past year
An Aspire Success Story: Eric & Eliza
Imagine being an 8th grade student, not only trekking through the rat-race of high school admissions, but dealing with the complexities of autism and failing in the subject that used to be your strength—Math. Now, imagine two months later, regaining your confidence with consistent A’s in Algebra, as you face those dreaded high school applications.
.That was the story of one recent Aspire student, Eric Cortez. A Boy Scout who loves the outdoors and had once said Math was his greatest strength, Eric struggled to connect with the new concepts, as Math became more abstract and theoretical. His family had even tried bringing in two other private tutors, but without much impact.
Then Eric started working with Eliza Sherpa. Eliza is one of Aspire’s many great educators who not only excel in making complex subjects understandable, but in inspiring confidence and building a connection. Within weeks, she made what seemed like abstract, irrelevant concepts interesting and engaging. Within two months not only did Eric regain his confidence, but he was succeeding more than he ever had before. Every month, stories like that emerge across every subject area and grade level. Recently, students in one of our test prep courses improved their SAT scores by an average of 280 points!
Those students are not only empowered themselves, they are then mobilized to mentor younger students in literacy through Community Reading Buddies Trained in an award-winning digital literacy platform, Booknook, our youth mentors empower our K-3rd grade Buddies to grow in their reading by an average of four months in just eight weeks!
But there’s still a very long way to go to close the literacy gap. There are still tens of thousands of students in the Bay who need that kind of support. For every $1,000, we’re able to empower four students every week for an entire semester.
Our 10-Year Vision
Whether it’s through a professional tutor or youth that have been trained to tutor and mentor, our vision is simple:
No Bay Area student will be held back for lack of educational mentorship.