Student Success

Guest Correspondence

The Education Foundation of Sarasota County believes that enriching the educational experiences available to Sarasota County students, teachers and schools strengthens all factors of the community and transforms lives.

Central to our work is a shared view that success is not limited to one route per lifetime. Rather, success is achieved when students can proficiently develop and complete their own viable plan for life after high school, and they know that learning does not end with a diploma but is essential to adapt and thrive in a world constantly in flux.

Whether the plan is attending and completing traditional university or technical college, earning a trade certification, directly applying 21st century skills training in a career-path job, or pursuing multiple options, we believe the number of students prepared to complete their personalized plans will grow as our honed approach is imbedded.

Our shared vision is to see more graduates step confidently onto the next stage of their life journey-- qualified, prepared and motivated to succeed in college, career and life.

Currently, the gap is wide between the goal and the reality. Too many students graduate without a plan or the know-how to develop a plan for the next step after receiving a high school diploma. Too few Sarasota County students graduate with the necessary coursework and life skills to succeed in college and/or a vocation.

In response to these needs, the Education Foundation is working closely with our district to open and staff school-based career-and-college centers, called Student Success Centers, to supplement and enhance the personalized guidance of a one-on-one school-based counselor.

Beginning in August, the Education Foundation will have two fully operational Student Success Centers located at North Port High School and Riverview High School. These centers, which are an extension of the Education Foundation and will be staffed and supported by us, will offer resources to improve students’ readiness for college, career and life. Resources include personal advising, writing skills workshops, financial literacy courses, resume/interviewing skills classes and leadership development, just to name a few.

We have developed a new comprehensive website, LaunchYourPlan.com, that offers students access to postsecondary planning information in the format that is most familiar to digital natives. From their phone or laptop, students and parents easily can navigate the website and explore topics including year-by-year checklists for high school students, scholarship opportunities and more.

It is our duty, as an educational thought leader, to explain and advocate for a readiness mindset with the public and to help convey its meaning and importance. Students deserve the opportunity to reimagine their aspirations and understand that achieving success in the 21st century will look different from their parents’ experience.

We will continue to seek input from our community as we hone our approach, and we invite anyone interested in supporting this vision to contact us. We are assembling a volunteer corps to help strengthen our work and we need many hands helping us accomplish this audacious goal. When we succeed, we expect that more Sarasota County students will be ready and motivated to advance from high school onto a postsecondary pathway, fully prepared to participate in our society’s economic and cultural prosperity.

Jennifer Vigne is president of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County.

« View The Saturday May 5, 2018 SRQ Daily Edition
« Back To SRQ Daily Archive

Read More

What Will Single Member Districts Really Mean?

Among the litany of issues Sarasota County voters consider this year will be whether to switch to single-member districts when electing county commissioners. It’s fairly easy to see why this inspires sharp partisan divide. Democrats lament no one from the blue team has won a seat on the com

Jacob Ogles | Oct 13, 2018

District 72 Remains Region's Hottest House Race

An unexpected contest and surprising upset this year turned state House District 72 into the center of the political world in February. This November, voters weigh in again, and while the race this time will be one of many in the region, it remains one of the marquis battles in the region.

Jacob Ogles | Sep 22, 2018

Letting Go at Ringling

We have had the great pleasure at Ringling College of Art and Design this past week of welcoming the largest incoming freshman class in the history of our institution. That’s right, over 500 new young people, representing 42 different states and 30 diverse countries, arrived in Sara

Dr. Larry Thompson | Aug 25, 2018

Good and Graham Swinging for Glass Ceiling

As the woman who could become Florida’s first female governor stumped in Sarasota this week, she turned to the region’s biggest Democratic star for a boost. State Rep. Margaret, D-Sarasota, took the stage at the Francis Thursday to throw her personal support behind gubernatorial candi

Jacob Ogles | Jul 28, 2018