Promise Fellows
AmeriCorps Promise Fellows spend a year nurturing the promise of individual students in middle and high schools throughout Minnesota.
Much More than Just a Tutor
AmeriCorps Promise Fellows serve as caring adults who use evidence-based, data-driven solutions to support, mentor, and build positive relationships with young people in 6-12th grade on their path to high school graduation.
Much more than a tutor, you’ll work one-on-one with students who are struggling in school using the proven Promise Fellow Model for youth support. You’ll foster your students’ unique talents, honor their voices, and help them prepare them for graduation and beyond.
The work will be challenging, and you’re guaranteed to grow and change along the way. But all year long, you’ll have the support you need: financial assistance, mentorship and leadership training, and the extraordinary community of other Promise Fellows, present and past
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Where You’ll Serve
Promise Fellows serve in schools and community organizations across Minnesota — large, urban school districts like Minneapolis Public Schools, and small, rural schools, or community organizations like YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs. You might serve with a group of Promise Fellows, or you might be the only AmeriCorps member on site. Wherever you serve, you’ll have both a site-based and Alliance-based team of support to help you have the best year possible.
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Who You’ll Serve
AmeriCorps Promise Fellows each work with a “focus list” of 30 students that are identified based on data related to the attendance, engagement and work completion data.
Students on your list are typically those that are struggling to engage in school and may lack connections to caring adults, academic support, or opportunities to become engaged in their community.
The AmeriCorps Promise Fellows program prepares caring adults to help individual Minnesota young people in grades 6 to 12 get the education they need to start off strong in life.
The Rewards of Service
Watch Promise Fellows describe a typical day in their year of service, and listen to student Essence Blakemore tell he story of how a Promise Fellow named Jamie changed her life:
Increased Student Attendance
In 2022, the Alliance contracted with Dr. Ethan Van Norman, Ph. D. (Lehigh University) to conduct an Impact Study of the 2021-22 AmeriCorps Promise Fellow program, focusing on the program’s impact on school attendance. Results from the Impact Study showed significant attendance gains for students served by Promise Fellows.
The study found that, on average, students that participated in the program attended an additional week, or roughly five days of school, relative to students that did not participate in the program.
The largest effects were observed among high school students and the analysis also indicated a larger benefit for Asian American, Latinx and multiracial students; with each of these student demographic groups showing an increase of approximately 10 additional days of school attendance each year.
Ma Xiong
Promise Fellow, Patrick Henry High School, Minneapolis
Marisa Tejeda
Promise Fellow, High School for Recording Arts, Saint Paul
Toe Mahasongkham
Promise Fellow, Harding High School, Saint Paul
Emily Spoden
Promise Fellow, Northfield High School
Marcos Macias
Promise Fellow, White Bear Lake Area High School
Sarah
Promise Fellow, Simley High School, Inver Grove Heights
Kierstin Karlsrud
Promise Fellow, Minnesota Internship Center, Unity Campus
Ready to change young lives for the better? Apply for the Promise Fellows program today.
Start Your Application
Ready to change young lives for the better? Apply for the Promise Fellows program today.
