UPchieve and Verizon Join Forces to Promote Educational Equity
As a small nonprofit with big dreams of democratizing access to academic support, UPchieve considers partnerships with companies like Verizon essential to our vision of closing the opportunity gap once and for all. With Verizon’s backing, we were able to expand our online tutoring services to meet the remote learning needs of 2X more low-income students during COVID-19 school closures.
Verizon has been an extraordinary example of a mission-aligned partnership and a source of inspiration for how we’ll work alongside our corporate community for years to come. In this blog, we reflect on how our partnership with Verizon has amplified our impact on education so far, and what prospective partners can do to join the fight.
Some simple math: funding + volunteers = more students served
UPchieve aims to support low-income students nationwide in graduating high school and attending college by connecting them with high-quality, 24/7 online tutoring and college counseling. In order to accomplish our goal, we need both funding and volunteers. Verizon demonstrated their strong commitment to educational equity by contributing both pieces of the formula to reach more students. In addition to donating $150,000 last winter, Verizon also dedicated one thousand Verizon employees to volunteer as virtual Academic Coaches on our tutoring platform through 2020.
As a result of Verizon’s funding, UPchieve was able to establish twice as many student enrollment partnerships with schools and nonprofits over the course of this school year. Their funding also helped us launch our open student enrollment process, which enables students living in certain zip codes to create free accounts, even if their schools aren’t partnered with us. Finally, Verizon’s huge commitment of volunteers gave us the confidence we needed to scale UPchieve to twice as many students, and the results so far have been astonishing.
“This dude's amazing” & other student feedback for Verizon volunteers
Verizon volunteers work one-on-one with students on our platform to help them with homework, test prep, college planning, and more. After each tutoring session on our platform, students may leave optional feedback for the volunteer who worked with them. So far, students have found their sessions with Verizon volunteers to be game-changing! Here are just a few of the comments students have left them:
“Martha was amazing and I cannot thank her enough for all of her help and I love her strong dedication to her work!!! Amazing!!” - Hailey, Algebra Student, NC
“Amazing coach he knew exactly how to break it down God bless Joseph” - Jahkim, Algebra Student, CA
“I want to thank Briana for her help!” - Beatriz, Algebra Student, FL
"This dude's amazing 10/10" - Benjamin, Calculus Student, NJ
While the consequences of COVID-19 on education equity have been disheartening, the commitment of corporate partners like Verizon reinforces our hope in a future where all students have an opportunity to succeed. With their support, we will continue our work to ensure all students have the support they need on their academic journey.
Takeaways for prospective corporate partners
Our corporate partnerships harness the potential of virtual volunteering to empower our partners’ employees to make a difference in students’ education—no matter where they live or how long they can volunteer. Learn more about our employee engagement opportunities and contact our team here.