With a rising demand for a college degree and an increasingly complicated college search, application, and selection process, there are a number of interventions designed to ease the college-going process for adolescents and their families. One such intervention, the College Ambition Program (CAP), is specifically designed to be a whole-school…

This chapter discusses the collaboration between a national college access program, the National College Advising Corps (NCAC), and its research and evaluation team at Stanford University. NCAC is currently active in almost four hundred high schools and through the placement of a recent college graduate to serve as a college adviser provides…

Despite decades of policy intervention to increase college entry among low-income students, substantial inequalities in college going by family income remain. Policy makers have largely overlooked the summer after high school as an important time period in students' transition to college. During the post-high school summer, however, students…

In this chapter, the authors describe nearly a decade of research examining postsecondary outcomes of students in the Chicago Public Schools conducted by the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR). These analyses include both long-term trends in college going and findings on the dimensions of students' postsecondary transition…

This article describes the role that schools are playing in supporting career development for young people. It examines the history of career-related programming in schools, including school-to-work programs, career and technical education, the college and career readiness movement, and current school reform initiatives. This understanding of…

The article provides a brief review of theory and research on the roles of guilt, shame, and sympathy in predicting moral behaviors. Two models are presented and contrasted. The guilt-based model proposes that guilt and shame jointly predict prosocial and aggressive behaviors. In contrast, the sympathy-based model suggests that perspective taking…

Educational transitions and the transition from school to working life present substantial challenges for youth in modern societies. In addition to the drastic changes taking place in their personal lives as they navigate the educational ladder and the transition to work life, young adults today face profound changes in society as well. In…

The benefits of understanding and pursuing one's purposes in life are well documented. However, few studies have addressed potential interventions for enhancing purpose. This article presents the results of an empirical investigation testing whether reflecting on and discussing one's core values, life goals, and purposes in life has benefits for…

Students from underrepresented groups who seek to become the first in their family to attend college confront economically and racially stratified education systems. This article reports findings from an evaluation of First Graduate, an organization that offers college advising, mentoring, tutoring, and case management to first-generation students…

Whether relational or goal-directed interactions are most useful in youth mentoring has been frequently debated, but until recently, little work had been done to understand how such interactions manifest to create viable relationship styles. The authors' findings in the first study they explore in this article support Karcher and Nakkula's…

Lunch buddy mentoring is a particular kind of school-based mentoring program: college student mentors meet twice weekly during school lunch with mentees, and a new mentor is provided each semester. The program is designed to benefit elementary school children who are highly aggressive or chronically bullied. Novel to lunch buddy mentoring is a…

This chapter reports findings from the evaluation of an academic mentoring program for late adolescents that highlight the role of exposition to structured activities and mentors' use of some behavioral strategies. Specifically, different types of interactions in mentoring (such as discussing personal projects, resolving academic problems, and…

Policy has traditionally emphasized the completion of academic requirements as the gateway to postsecondary education. There is, however, growing understanding that youth need to develop a wide range of knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal resources for career success, civic engagement, and lifelong learning. It also is necessary to address…

The social power of music can effect stable and positive changes in individual health and communities that have significant health risks. Two observers, a medical student and a music student, discuss respectively the ideals and challenges of this principle put into practice. Their reflections about the role of music as social therapy and space for…

Democratic partnerships of universities, schools, and an array of neighborhood and community organizations are the most promising means of improving the lives of our nation's young people. Over the past two decades, many colleges and universities have been experiencing a renaissance in engagement activities. Universities, once ivory towers, have…