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Post-Secondary

Developing structured pathways for post-secondary success, including college and career.

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12 Plus

12+ ("Twelve Plus") is a non-profit organization that partners with high schools to help redefine what is possible beyond graduation. 12+'s innovative, school-based PLUS Centers supply the tools and resources, while its teams of dedicated Fellows provide the individualized support to help every student succeed - not just a select few.

12+'s comprehensive programs serve all 9th-12th grade students enrolled within each of its partner schools and focus on freshman transition, leadership development, postsecondary access and preparedness, financial aid guidance, and alumni support for recent graduates.

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Bard High School — Early College

Bard has designed and launched Camden Reach, a partnership with Camden, New Jersey's public school system. In this pilot project, juniors from five Camden high schools take a college class each semester in addition to their regular coursework. The goal is to offer classes to students who might not consider college, allow them to earn free credits, and, perhaps most importantly, let them prove to themselves that they can handle college-level work.

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Camden College Signing Day

Each year, Camden Education Fund's Citywide College Signing Day celebrates the graduating senior class from district, charter, renaissance, and parochial schools who have committed to attending a college, university, trade or technical program, or the military.

College Signing Day is part of Reach Higher, an initiative started by former First Lady Michelle Obama to encourage and activate educators, counselors, and other adults to help first-generation and low-income students see college as an option.

In 2023, CEF awarded nearly $15,000 in scholarships and giveaways.

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FAFSA Challenge

The FAFSA Challenge is a citywide competition across district, renaissance, and charter high schools. Each year, Camden Education Fund is excited to celebrate the high school with the highest percentage of seniors to complete the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

The winning high school is crowned at College Signing Day and receives a $25,000 prize.

The prize can be can be used for anything that celebrates the senior class, including laptops/iPads, end of year celebrations, or swag.

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Mastery Pathways

The Career Pathways Program, a partnership between Mastery Schools of Camden, Camden Education Fund, and Camden Works, is being funded by a $130,000 grant from the Camden Education Fund.

Twenty Mastery seniors are enrolled in the program, with each student interning two days per week at one of three internship sites: The Michaels Organization, Resin-Tech, and ActionPak. The seniors participated in a career preparation course in the fall and then complete a paid internship with a local employer in the spring. Those successful in their internships will graduate with full-time offers for employment.

Black Lives Matter. Read Our Statement Here.

We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis. George’s story is the story of too many Black Americans – Ahmaud Arbery, Breona Taylor, Trayvon Martin, and so many more, named and unnamed by the media— brutally and senselessly killed.

This loss of Black life and our persistent failure to bring those responsible to account expose the most grotesque, painful truth about our nation: the enduring legacy of white supremacy.

We will not heal until things change.

Camden Education Fund stands in solidarity with the Black community.

We remain deeply committed to bringing resources to support our public schools and the extraordinary youth-serving organizations in Camden, as we believe these are the institutions with the greatest potential to show our children, daily, that their lives and dreams matter.

The reality is that all organizations – ours included – have so much more work to do. We will hold ourselves accountable to building an organization that advances equity, promotes understanding, and dismantles racist structures.