Entry level jobs in:

Washington DC


Every day we profile a new entry level employer, and every day we tag our posts to make it easier for you to find jobs and companies that interest you. The following companies have offered entry level jobs in Washington DC in the past, and they are likely to do so in the future.

Tishman Speyer

by Willy Franzen on September 24, 2008

Tishman Speyer Logo

A lot of you probably started college with a strong interest in real estate. It’s understandable if much of that interest has evaporated as a result of the direction that the real estate market has taken over the last two years. New York real estate seemed to be the last bastion of hope, but with the fall of some major investment banks and a lot of fear on Wall Street, even that seemingly unstoppable market is starting to slow down. Still, if anyone can weather this storm, it’s hopefully the firm that did the biggest real estate deal in US history (the purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village for $5.4 billion). The firm behind that deal is Tishman Speyer, and even they seem to be struggling a bit as of late. Still, they make moves with the long-term in mind, and they’re prepared (both mentally and financially) to take a short term hit. Real estate isn’t the hot place for careers right now, but it’s still a field that is loaded with opportunity. There will always be people making money off of real estate deals, and there’s no better place to learn how to do that than Tishman Speyer.

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U.S. Soccer Foundation

by Willy Franzen on September 21, 2008

US Soccer Foundation Logo

As an overweight asthmatic when I was growing up, I was almost certainly one of the least fit soccer player to grace the fields of Fairfield, CT (if only there was a video to share with you). I don’t remember having a particular affinity for soccer, but all of my friends played, so I played too; in fact, it seems like most kids play soccer growing up now. That’s a big achievement for a sport that has to compete with more entrenched sports like baseball, football, and basketball. Much of the success of soccer can be attributed to U.S. Soccer, the sport’s national governing body. One of the major successes of U.S. Soccer was to bring the FIFA World Cup to the United States in 1994. The World Cup generated quite a surplus, and the U.S. Soccer Foundation was started in 1995 as the charitable arm of soccer in the United States to put that surplus to good use.

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Chill

by Willy Franzen on September 20, 2008

Chill Logo

With the first day of fall just two days a way, you can definitely feel a chill in the air (at least if you’re in the Northeast like me). The leaves are already starting to change colors, and before you know it there will be snow on the ground. For many this is a depressing picture, but for those of you who love snowboarding, the coming of winter is filled with excitement. Snowboarding is all about seeing hope in the desolate bleakness of winter, and that’s the kind of attitude that Chill is looking for in Local Coordinators. The Chill program is a nonprofit learn–to-snowboard program for underserved youth run by Burton Snowboards.

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Point Carbon

by Willy Franzen on September 8, 2008

Point Carbon Logo

Carbon is everywhere – in trees, air, diamonds, your body, yet it typically seems pretty harmless. For the most part carbon isn’t something that you lock up under the kitchen sink to keep away from the baby, although breathing carbon monoxide will kill you, and there is the fear that we may be using carbon monoxide to cook ourselves. No matter what you think about “global climate change,” you have to recognize that attempts to limit carbon emissions are quickly becoming a major business concern. That means that businesses of all sizes are either going to have to invest significant resources in trading in carbon markets, or they’re going to have to outsource. If they’re going to outsource, Point Carbon is the place to go. They provide “independent news, analysis and consulting services for European and global power, gas and carbon markets” based on the information they get from their “experts in international and regional climate policy, mathematical and economic modelling, forecasting methodologies, risk management and market reporting.” If you’re interested in energy policy or markets, there couldn’t be a better place to work than Point Carbon.

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Men’s Health Network

by Willy Franzen on September 6, 2008

Men's Health Network Logo

To most college aged guys the words “men’s health” brings up images of jacked guys on a cover of a magazine that claims that it will help you “Lose Your Gut in 43 Days” and go on the “Red Hot Sex Safari.” Others might think of the retired athletes who now appear in commercials about prostate cancer, but for the most part 20-something males don’t think about health issues too much (and for good reason, most of us are completely healthy). I was taken aback when I started reading Adam Frey’s blog. Adam is a Cornell University (my alma mater) wrestler who competed in the NCAA championships this spring. A few days after his wrestling season finally ended, he was in a horrible car accident, but walked away from it mostly unscathed. He went to the hospital and had some precautionary tests done including a CAT scan. His body was completely unharmed from the accident, but that the doctors discovered that Adam had testicular cancer. Since his diagnosis Adam has been blogging nearly every day about his battle with cancer. His posts are inspirational, and his honesty is sometimes overwhelming. He is doing a fantastic job of bringing light to men’s health issues, much like the Men’s Health Network, which is a non-profit educational organization that aims to “significantly improve the health, longevity, and quality of life or men and their families.”

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

by Amy Gordon on August 23, 2008

USHMM Logo

Four summers ago I had the pleasure of interning for Jill Weinberg, Midwest Region Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, or USHMM for short. Admittedly, my job consisted of a lot of clerical work. I became remarkably familiar with Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, and the paper cuts that you get on your tongue from licking envelopes over and over again; however, I also gained unforgettable knowledge and experience relating to crimes against humanity and genocide, both historical and current. The internship opened my eyes to world events, introduced me to compassionate and intelligent people, and gave me an excellent taste of what it is like to work for a non-profit, charitable company.

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World Learning

by Willy Franzen on August 10, 2008

World Learning Logo

Did you spend any time abroad when you were in college? Did you love it? If you answered yes to those questions, then you can probably see the value in World Learning, a non-profit organization that “fosters global citizenship by connecting over 3,000 young ambassadors annually across cultural differences and social barriers.” They do this through three programs that they offer – The Experiment in International Living, SIT Study Abroad, and SIT Graduate Institute. World Learning also runs International Development Programs in 20 countries to “work with communities to design and implement development programs that address some of the main obstacles to human development.” If you terribly miss your abroad experience and want to help other students gain similar experiences, a job with World Learning might be the perfect solution to your post-graduation job search.

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National Audubon Society

by Willy Franzen on August 9, 2008

National Audubon Society Logo

John James Audubon painted birds. His seminal work, Birds of America, was a collection of 435 life-size prints. To this day, when you hear the name Audubon, you think of birds. Interestingly enough, John James Audubon had no direct involvement with the founding of the National Audubon Society. Audubon’s widow, Lucy, tutored a man named George Bird Grinnell and some of Audubon’s love of birds must have rubbed off, as Grinnell was one of the Audubon Society’s founders. To this day, the Audubon Society persists in its mission “to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.” The Audubon Society works to achieve this mission through a national network of community-based nature centers and chapters and scientific, educational, and advocacy programs.

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Exponent

by Willy Franzen on August 7, 2008

Exponent Logo

Imagine getting a job as a MythBuster, except instead of debunking urban legend, you’re investigating real life problems that plague businesses and sometimes hurt people. That’s what you could be doing at Exponent. Founded in 1967 by five Ph.D.-level researchers, Exponent was originally known as Failure Analysis Associates. They started out in the energy industry studying stress and fracture mechanics, but very quickly they were “investigating and analyzing accidents and failures of all kinds.” They eventually became The Failure Group, and were listed on the NASDAQ with the ticker FAIL. In 1998 they realized that they had outgrown their name, and changed again to Exponent, because it means “one who expounds or interprets.” We don’t usually get so deep into how a company chooses it’s name, but with the popularity of the FAIL meme (see also: FAIL Blog), we thought that you might be amused.

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National Public Radio

by Willy Franzen on July 27, 2008

National Public Radio Logo

A child’s first sign of teenage (pre-teenage?) rebellion often begins at the radio dial. The parent’s up-to-this-point unchallenged decision of what to listen to while in the car is called into question, and all hell breaks loose. If there are multiple kids in the family (or even just in the car), the negotiation can quickly becom more heated than a multi-lateral peace process in a war-torn nation. The parent will fight hard to maintain his or her right to National Public Radio, but the kid will persist in his or her challenge to hear something that feeds a suddenly “eclectic” taste in music. Often the parents cede this battle in hopes of winning in the future (bad idea!), which results in the parent’s driving the kids around the mini-van listening to rap music that would be a lot more offensive if the parent knew what some of the words meant. Eventually the rebellious tykes will grow up and realize that they too want to be more cultured, and they slowly, but surely come around to listening to NPR. Or maybe some kids just never speak up. They like NPR from the start. Maybe those are the ones who end up taking entry-level jobs at NPR.

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Bright Beginnings

by Willy Franzen on July 12, 2008

Bright Beginnings Logo

The July after I graduated from high school, I went on a weeklong church missions trip to Washington, DC. During the trip we interacted with two distinct groups of kids. There were the “street kids” – the kids who lived in the area of the church we were staying. They were fun to be with, but you could tell that they were headed for trouble. Living completely unsupervised lives, these kids would ring the doorbell of the church in the middle of the night, use language that most adults would be embarrassed to use, and often grope the girls – not a good sign of things to come for a 4 or 5 year old kid. The second group of kids were the kids we worked with in a nursery school program. They were some of the sweetest, most polite kids that I’ve ever met. It seemed obvious that the free nursery school program for these kids was working. Still, these children faced an uncertain future. As we were leaving the school to go to a local pool to teach the kids how to swim, many of the children said what’s up to a guy standing on the street corner. I thought it was nice that there was such a sense of community for these kids, until one of the teachers told me that this guy happened to be a crack dealer. Despite this startling fact, it still seemed that these kids were headed on the right track. I don’t remember the name of the nursery school program that I worked with, but Bright Beginnings appears to be doing similar work to help provide better futures for impoverished children in the DC area.

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Arena Stage

by Willy Franzen on July 6, 2008

Arena Stage Logo

Continuing with our patriotic weekend, we’re going to take a look at Arena Stage, a non-profit theater company that produces “huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit.” They put out all types of productions “from vast epics to charged dramas to robust musicals.” Located in Washington, DC, Arena Stage has been around 6 decades and was one of the first non-profit theater companies. They reach an annual audience of over 200,000 people (we reach more here!) and strive “to instill in the public a life-long love of and participation in the theater arts through [their] education programs.”

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GlobalGiving

by Willy Franzen on June 8, 2008

GlobalGiving Logo

Think about some of the reasons that you might be hesitant to give money to a non-profit organization. Somewhere on that list is probably something about not knowing where the money is going and how it will be used. You want to know that your money directly changed lives and didn’t pay for the new carpet in the organization’s headquarters. GlobalGiving is a new non-profit that aligns donors directly with projects instead of organizations.

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National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship

by Willy Franzen on June 7, 2008

National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship Logo

Steve Mariotti was living a successful corporate life when he decided that he needed a change. He didn’t buy a sports car, get a toupée, or start dating 20 year-olds. Ok, he could have done those things, but we have no reason to believe that he did he did. He chose to leave his job and to start teaching special education in the New York City school system. This presented obvious challenges. Teaching special ed can be hard enough in a community with extensive resources, but it must be near impossible in underserved public schools like those in New York City. Mariotti realized that one of the only ways that he could reach his students was by teaching them how to run a business. They loved the subject matter. As Mariotti developed a entrepreneurship based curriculum for his job as a special ed teacher, he realized that he could extend the reach of his educational successes. He founded the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship with the goal of bringing entrepreneurial education to low-income youth

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Pella

by Willy Franzen on May 7, 2008

Pella Logo

It’s hard for me to write this post, because I have a strong allegiance to Marvin, which is one of Pella’s biggest competitors. It started in 7th grade when I was working at my Dad’s architecture firm. The entire office was invited to a lobster lunch put on by some Marvin sales reps. My partner in crime (a friend of mine who was old enough to have the coveted title of intern) and I jumped at the chance to take a break from shooting rubber bands at each other and join the architects for a free lunch. We had to endure a long sales pitch about windows, like that South Park episode where the parents endure a time share sales pitch in return for a free skiing weekend, but when it was finally over, we chowed down. My then overweight 7th grade self put away a couple of lobsters and almost put one in my pocket for the ride home. It was by far the best day during my Summer job, but I’m willing to forget a couple lobsters and start pushing Pella, because they’ve truly impressed me with their college recruiting and entry-level hiring program.

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CustomInk

by Willy Franzen on May 2, 2008

CustomInk Logo

Today’s post is coming live (ok, not quite so live) from Cornell University, where it’s Slope Day! For those who aren’t familiar with Slope Day, it’s Cornell’s version of Spring Weekend. In other words, it’s the last day of classes, when college students do all those stupid things (and often take photographs of themselves doing them) that they’ll have to hide from employers on Facebook. It’s a really big, campus-wide party. If today is your Spring Weekend, we urge you to behave yourselves well enough that your actions today don’t ruin any chance of future employment. Still, we want you to enjoy the day and have some fun. You’ve worked hard and earned it. Instead of writing about a company that reinforces bad behavior, we’ve chosen to feature a company that supports one of our favorite Slope Day traditions – funny group t-shirts. CustomInk is an online provider of custom t-shirts.

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World Vision

by Willy Franzen on April 20, 2008

World Vision Logo

We apologize in advance to the fans of the New England Patriots and the Memphis Tigers (and any other team that has recently failed in a Championship game), because this is going to be a little bit painful for you. How can a post about a “Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice” be painful? Because World Vision is an organization that has worked out deals with major sports leagues (like the NFL, whose jobs we’ve featured) to administer the donation of Championship paraphernalia that was produced for teams that didn’t win a championship. The NFL had to take a gamble on producing Super Bowl Winner t-shirts for a team that was 19-0 going into the big game. That gamble didn’t pay off for them, but it certainly did for the people who World Vision helps.

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Common Core

by Willy Franzen on April 5, 2008

Common Core Logo

We’re going to try something a little different today. We want as many of our readers as possible to take a few minutes to take this test. After you’re done, report your score back to us in the comments section. This isn’t a competition to see who gets the highest score, so don’t be embarrassed if you don’t score very well. This test was administered to a large sample of American 17-year-olds, and the results, according to this report, weren’t too pretty. The results of the test tell a sad story about the state of cultural fluency in today’s youth. In fact, it looks to us as though the results are understated because respondents had a pretty good shot at guessing the correct answer due to the multiple choice format. This test and the report on the results were both put together by Common Core, a non-profit organization that wants every student to graduate high school with “an understanding of culture, the arts, history, literature, civics, and language.”

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Federal Reserve Board

by Willy Franzen on March 18, 2008

Federal Reserve Board Logo

“May you live in interesting times.” It’s allegedly a translation of a Chinese proverb, but Wikipedia can’t even figure out who actually said it first. Regardless, a job at the Federal Reserve Board should be extremely “interesting” over the next year (at the very least). With Bear Stearns almost falling into bankruptcy, and a lot of other investment banks in trouble, a job in finance doesn’t look nearly as attractive as it did a year ago. Still, if you’re interested in economics, finance, or a related field, a job at the Federal Reserve Board is a great alternative. Although connected to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Board is a different entity. If you don’t already know, the Fed, which is led by Chairman Ben Bernanke, is responsible for crafting the monetary policy that supports the American economy.

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National Wildlife Federation

by Willy Franzen on March 16, 2008

National Wildlife Federation Logo

The One Day, One Job team is partaking in the tradition of Spring Break (even if some of us aren’t in college anymore), so our posts are going to be on the shorter side for the next week or so. We figure, time off from school should give you plenty of time to do the research yourselves, right? Our compromise is that we’re going to give you more links, and less commentary. How’s that? I’m enjoying the wildlife of Puerto Rico, which includes ospreys, tarpon, egrets, iguanas (invasive, but still cool to look at), and a lot more, so it’s appropriate that today’s entry-level jobs come from the National Wildlife Federation.

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American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research Logo

When we first decided to feature non-profit entry-level jobs on weekends, we saw it as a way to do some good while adding variety to the types of jobs we feature each day. We didn’t realize that an impending (possibly already happening) recession might change the outlook for college students who are in search of a first job. We can’t predict how the economy will affect entry-level hiring, but we do know that non-profit jobs can be more stable during downturns. We’re not saying that a job at a non-profit is recession proof, but the nature of a non-profit (at least a well funded one) makes them a little less sensitive to a short-term recession. One example of a well funded non-profit that is hiring aggressively at the entry-level despite the threat of recession is the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, “a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare.”

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Institute of International Education

by Amy Gordon on March 9, 2008

Institute of International Education Logo

What do John Hope Franklin, Paul Samuelson, Linus Pauling, and Jonathan Franzen have in common? Besides having last names that begin with a male first name, they were Fulbright Scholars who have gone on to acheive greatness in their respective fields. John Hope Franklin received a Presidential Medal of Freedom (America’s highest civilian honor), Paul Samuelson is a Nobel Laureate in Economics, Linus Pauling received the Nobel Prize for his work in Chemistry, and Jonathan Franzen is a novelist who just so happens to have an awesome last name.

The Fulbright Program aims to promote peace and understanding through educational exchange. It was created in the aftermath of World War II through the efforts of Senator J. William Fulbright, and today, is considered to be one of the most prestigious academic awards world-wide. In fact, more Fulbright alumni have won Nobel Prizes than those of any other academic program.

Institute of International Education, aka IIE, manages the Fulbright Program, along with 250 other programs worldwide, and serves over 20,000 people from 175 nations each year.

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Trout Unlimited

by Willy Franzen on March 8, 2008

Trout Unlimited Logo

If you’ve visited our about page, you might have noticed that I (Willy) am a fisherman – a fly fisherman to be more precise. Those of you who are unfamiliar with fishermen might think that sport fishing has a negative impact on the environment, but the opposite is typically true. In fact, sportsmen often make the best conservationists – mostly because they have a vested interest in protecting the resources that are necessary to the enjoyment of their sport. For this reason many conservation organizations have been formed by groups of sportsmen. One such organization is Trout Unlimited, which aims to conserve, protect, and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.

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NASA

by Willy Franzen on March 5, 2008

NASA Logo

Typically young children are quite realistic about their career aspirations. They want to be firefighters, policemen, and teachers – professions that are in constant, steady demand. The more ambitious children might want a job as a doctor or veterinarian – still steady, but requiring a significant investment in education. It almost seems that as children we’re more realistic about life and careers than we are when we reach adulthood – except those kids who wanted to be astronauts. Since the beginning of the space program, there have only been 321 astronauts selected. Ever. There’s no surefire (or easy) way to become an astronaut – pilots, schoolteachers, doctors, scientist, and engineers have all been astronauts – but if selection as an astronaut is one of your life goals, you need to start preparing now. If you’re not ready for the commitment that it takes to be an astronaut, there are still plenty of entry-level jobs at NASA that will enable you to have a meaningful impact on the space program and NASA’s other endeavors.

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Navigant Consulting

by Willy Franzen on February 28, 2008

Navigant Consulting Logo

This time of year, many of the entry-level consulting jobs are already filled. It’s amazing and a little disappointing if you’re still in the job market, but a good portion of consulting firms fill all of their entry-level job openings six to twelve months in advance of when the new hires will start working. That leaves a lot of soon to be college graduates who want to get into consulting with limited choices. Whether you were turned down when you applied in the fall, never got around to applying, or just realized that you’re interested in consulting, the apparent dearth of consulting jobs probably has you considering looking at other fields in lieu of consulting. Don’t give up so fast! There are still a lot of great consulting jobs out there, you just have to look beyond the sexy names. As is typical in the industry, Navigant Consulting does most of their hiring through campus recruiting in the Fall, but they still have some entry-level job openings.

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Heldref Publications

by Willy Franzen on February 16, 2008

Heldref Publications Logo

Rocks and Minerals, Romance Quarterly, Preventing School Failure, Demokratizatsiya, Behavioral Medicine, and Historical Methods. No, this isn’t an excerpt from one of those spam e-mails with random words that don’t make any sense, but a small sampling of titles put out by Heldref Publications. As a non-profit publisher, Heldref Publications aims to provide a forum for scholarly discourse in the approximately 50 titles that they publish. These titles are geared towards academics in a wide range of fields, as you probably gathered from our first sentence. Those fields include “research and practice in K-12 and higher education, world affairs and political science, history, world literatures old and new, the arts, popular culture, psychology, social sciences, health, and the environment.”

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Blackboard

by Willy Franzen on January 31, 2008

Blackboard Logo

For those who don’t attend “Blackboard schools,” Blackboard is a company that develops software to facilitate e-learning. In other words, your professor can post a syllabus, grades, announcements, and readings on the Blackboard course site. When we first considered writing a post about Blackboard, we thought we’d try to appeal to the Blackboard lovers. We know they’re out there, but after a thorough search of Facebook, it seems that this demographic isn’t yet ready to publicly declare their love for Blackboard. We were expecting a group named Blackboard Addicts Anonymous for compulsive grade checkers, but instead found a host of other Blackboard related Facebook groups.

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National Trust for Historic Preservation

by Willy Franzen on January 13, 2008

National Trust for Historic Preservation Logo

On many college campuses there’s a constant battle between the old and the new. We’re not talking about Senior-Freshmen rivalries – that’s so high school. We’re talking about the state of constant construction that is as much a part of going to college as wearing flip flops in the shower. Administrators and trustees are left to decide whether it is better to make do with the quirky inadequacies of a building from a century ago, or to knock it down and build a new monstrosity in the latest architectural fashion. There is a fine balance that needs to be achieved between architectural and historic integrity and function. Unfortunately, it seems more and more common that campus decision-makers are deciding in favor of state of the art facilities built atop the graves of their obsolete predecessors (I guess you know what One Day, One Job’s stand on this issue is).

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SEED Foundation

by Willy Franzen on December 30, 2007

SEED Foundation Logo

The SEED Foundation is a nonprofit organization (and the last one we’ll be featuring this year) that builds urban public boarding schools to prepare kids in underserved communities for college. They opened their first school in Washington, D.C. in 1998 and will be opening their second in Maryland next year. Amazingly, 97% of SEED graduates go on to college, and 85% are on track to graduate after matriculating. Some of them might even be your classmates

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