On Thursday, September 12, over 600 individuals joined College Now at the Great Lakes Science Center for the biennial Bag Lady fundraiser. Bag Lady is a fundraiser at which attendees bid on brand new, like-new, and vintage luxury handbags and accessories, as well as unique experience packages, to benefit the College Now Mentoring Program.

Attendees at Bag Lady 2019 enjoyed an afternoon of food and drink while browsing merchandise displayed throughout the Science Center's NASA exhibit, which was truly out of this world. After shopping and bidding, everyone then attended a brief program headlined by a panel featuring Margot Copeland and two College Now scholarship alumnae, Leah Hudnall and Shelby Roberts. Margot interviewed Leah and Shelby about their postsecondary experiences, including how each of them worked with College Now during their educational journeys. Shelby shared how College Now helped her through the experience of transferring colleges, as well as the loss of a close family member, while Leah explained that her connection to Cleveland and College Now was a huge factor in her postsecondary success.

The program also featured a successful Fund-A-Need campaign, with College Now CEO Lee Friedman explaining how donations of various levels can help support College Now scholarship recipients (for example, $1,000 buys books for one student for an entire year of school!). The program then concluded with Bag Lady co-chairs Suzanne Aral-Boutros and Trina Evans announcing the winners of the KeyBank Red Bag raffle and the "Fill Your Closet" Nordstrom gift cards raffle, sponsored by California Closets.

This year's Bag Lady event raised over $400,000 for the College Now Mentoring Program. College Now would like to once again thank the events' sponsors, including KeyBank, the exclusive title sponsor, supporters, and attendees for helping make this an extremely successful event!

Photos by T & S Hughes Photography

College Now was recently named as the lead applicant for Ohio campuses selected to join Degrees When Due, a national initiative of the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), to help students who have some college credits complete their degrees.

As the state liaison for Ohio, one of twenty states participating in Degrees When Due, College Now will coordinate the efforts of the eight Ohio colleges and universities selected as they learn best practices in degree reclamation and provide targeted support while re-engaging students who have paused, or "stopped out." Bowling Green State University, Cleveland State University, Lorain County Community College, Sinclair Community College, Stark State College, University of Akron, University of Toledo, and University of Cincinnati, Blue Ash, are participating in Degrees When Due with College Now.

College Now has been working to increase adult educational attainment in Northeast Ohio, and this initiative will expand that work across the state at a time when it is extremely important, as Ohio has a state attainment rate of only 38 percent and a statewide attainment goal of 65 percent by 2025.

You can read more about Degrees When Due and College Now's involvement in the initiative on Cleveland.com.

College Now's Adult Programs and Services team also recently hosted its first Adult Scholars Summit for recipients of College Now's Adult Learner Scholarship. Attendees met at the Brooklyn branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library and shared stories and received professional development advice. You can read more about the event on College Now's blog.

Photo from the National College Access Network (Jennifer Mulhern of The College Board presents the 2019 To & Through Award of Excellence to Stephanie Bunsey of College Now Greater Cleveland, who accepted the award on behalf of the (Re)Connect to College Program)

Earlier this month, the (Re)Connect to College program, a collaboration between Cleveland State University and College Now, won the 2019 To & Through Award of Excellence at the National College Access Network's (NCAN) 2019 Annual Conference. (Re)Connect is focused on "recruiting, retaining, and graduating stopped-out students." Read more about the program and the award on NCAN's website.

Thank you for your support!

Need a book recommendation? This year, our Advising Programs and Services team is reading The Path Made Clear by Oprah Winfrey to help shape their work with students. You can pick up a copy for yourself on Amazon Smile!