The YMCA of Middle Tennessee celebrated high school seniors and program alumni in its Achievers program, recognizing their academic accomplishments at the annual YMCA Achievers Scholarship Celebration held May 6 at the Joe C. Davis YMCA Outdoor Center. More than 150 people attended the event. The top corporate supporter for this year’s event was Nissan, along with funding sponsors Clark Construction and Bass, Berry, Sims PLC.
Y-Achievers is one of several community-based programs offered through Y-CAP (YMCA Community Action Programs), an east Nashville-based outreach center committed to closing the opportunity gap for students in grades K-12. Achievers specifically help high school students from diverse backgrounds explore both college and career pathways, develop positive self-esteem, and make a plan for the future. A total of 262 students participated in the Achievers program for the 2024-2025 school year; 114 of those students are graduating seniors with plans to attend college or enter the workforce.
Program participants have access to YMCA Achievers Advisors, a team who works directly with students to help identify scholarships, vocational, technical and other post-graduate opportunities. Y advisors work to bridge gaps that students may encounter when seeking guidance counselor support. In Tennessee, the average student to counselor ratio is 403:1.
Y-CAP Executive Director Bev Revo said, “having access to advisors through our Achievers program has been a game changer for our students; we’re still awarding about $50,000 a year in scholarships made possible through donor support, but in this last school year, our team of advisors also helped students secure more than $2.3 million in scholarships.” Revo said the idea to imbed advisors into Achievers was the result of an ongoing program improvement process.
“We realized that many of our students qualified for scholarships, but lacked the support needed to navigate the application process, which can be tough. We believed that if we could help them through that step, our students would tap into far more existing scholarship funds than we could ever raise on our own.” Revo added that she’s grateful to AllianceBernstein, who also believed in the concept and provided the philanthropic support to create new Y advisor roles.
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