Sponsors for Educational Opportunity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing supplemental educational and career support to young people from underserved communities. SEO has been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including five four-star ratings by Charity Navigator, the College Board's 2011 CollegeKeys Compact Innovation Awards, and selection as one of the top-performing non-profits in the country by Social Impact Exchange's new giving platform, S&I 100. Henry Kravis was named chairman of the organization in 2014.
History
Founded in 1963 by Michael Osheowitz with a mission to provide talented and motivated young people from underserved and underrepresented communities with access to superior educational and career opportunities. SEO was one of the first mentoring and college preparatory programs for these communities in New York. The current program model was implemented in September 2006. In 2014 Henry Kravis was named chairman of the organization. In April 2015 SEO raised over $3.5 million at its annual awards dinner.
Programs
Today, SEO is made up of four distinct programs: SEO Scholars, SEO Career, SEO Law and SEO Alternative Investments.
SEO Scholars
SEO Scholars is an eight-year program that gets low-income public high school students in New York City and San Francisco to and through college. In high schoolthe program provides 720 additional hours of academic instruction—the equivalent of 2.5 years of additional English instruction and 1.5 years of additional math instruction on Saturdays, in the summers, and after school. In college, Scholars receive on-going, one-on-one academic, personal and career support. SEO Scholars exceed math SAT scores of all college-bound seniors nationally, eliminating the achievement gap, and 100% are accepted to four-year colleges. For more information, visit www.seoscholars.org.
SEO career
SEO Career is the nation's premier pre-professional development program providing Black, Hispanic, and Native American undergraduates with pre-internship development, training, and internship support across multiple lines of business. SEO Career currently partners with over 40 organizations offering summer internships, and has a 35+ year track record of matching talent with opportunity. Participants receive the coaching and technical training needed to compete for paid internship opportunities with SEO partner organizations with the goal of landing a full-time offer at the conclusion of the internship. SEO Career accomplishes this effort through two stages of its program: SEO EDGE and SEO OPEN. Through SEO EDGE, students receive the education, development, growth and exposure necessary to develop a competitive pipeline of interview-ready candidates for targeted internship opportunities. SEO OPEN prepares interns to secure full-time offers and become best positioned for retention and advancement through opportunity, preparation, experience and network. SEO Career launched in 1980 and has over 7,000 alumni to date. in 2015 and 2016, more than 80% of SEO Career interns received full-time offers from SEO partners.
SEO Law
The SEO Law Fellowship is a selective program targeting Black, Hispanic, and Native American incoming law school students who have both exceptional promise and demonstrated accomplishments in their undergraduate and professional careers. The Fellowship provides incoming law students exemplary training to enhance academic performancein law school, and a paid internship with a top law firm during the summer before law school. The SEO Law Fellowship is the only paid pre-law academic and internship program for underrepresented minority students in the USA. For 30 years, SEO Law has served as a pipeline linking talented pre-law students of color to elite global law firms. Over 1,300 interns have gone through the SEO Law Fellowship program since 1986, and many of our esteemed alumni have gone on to become successful lawyers, advocates, and business leaders.
SEO Alternative investments
SEO Alternative Investments provides education, exposure, training, and mentoring opportunities to talented professionals historically underrepresented in the alternative investments sector. The initiative includes: the SEO Alternative Investments Fellowship Program ; the SEO Private Equity Clinic for undergraduates interested in finance careers; internships with alternative investments firms; and the SEO Alternative Investments Conference. In 2015-16, nine Fellows were chosen from 89 applicants; 129 undergraduates attended the SEO Private Equity Clinic; 13 interns were placed with alternative investments firms; and 500 individuals attended SEO's 2016 Alternative Investments Conference. Since inception, nearly 90% of eligible fellows have received full-time job offers in the alternative investments sector.
