Watch Three Green Dot Students Along Their Road to College

We debuted these vignettes at our regional back-to-school kick-off event, All Green Dot Day. The theme of the videos, "The Road to College," is reinforced by the signs hanging over the doors of each Green Dot classroom. It is a celebration of everything our students become and can become because of the hard work of our educators, staff, and families. Regardless of where or what they teach or live, they are all important partners in our students' journeys on their road to college.

This journey may start before a child reaches Green Dot, but the road is certainly advanced, step by step, by their Green Dot experience. While each child walks his or her own path, they are accompanied and celebrated by thousands of others on the same road, and supported, hand in hand, by each of educators and staff.

If the road to college begins in the classroom, where does it lead? Well, to college, clearly, but we don't promote college for college's sake. Ninety percent of children in the nation's lowest earning families escape the poverty of their youth with a college diploma in hand. At that point, the road from college leads anywhere and everywhere! In some cases, the road leads our graduates back to Green Dot to inspire, to counsel, to teach, and to lead our students to and beyond college themselves.

While the obstacles or "off-ramps" our students face may vary, there are undeniable commonalities on their paths: Our students must be able to see themselves on a college campus, and know they belong there. They must understand what it takes to get there, and they must be encouraged along the way.

In these videos, we encounter three students in different grade levels -- one middle school student, one recent high school graduate, and one alumni -- from three different cities across the Green Dot network. As we begin a new school year, we celebrate the opportunity it offers to usher our students one step further along their road to college.