2020 Annual Report & Our Graduates

www.studentpartneralliance.org / 1 908-522-0405/ [email protected] 2020 Annual Report 02

Student/Partner of partner contributions goes Alliance 100% toward student scholarship support

Student/Partner Alliance (S/PA) is a number of scholarships since non-profit organization, 2150 inception in 1993 which provides economically disadvantaged, but motivated youth of S/PA scholarship recipients who gained admission to from NJ’s urban cities with private 100% college in the past 7 years high school tuition assistance and mentoring support to help them to earn their high school diplomas and pursue college opportunities.

2020 Annual Report 03 S tatistics 7 SCHOOLS

Benedictine Academy Cristo Rey - Newark Hudson Catholic High School Immaculate Conception High School Marist High School St. Benedict's Prep Saint Vincent's Academy

Our Model

We are affiliated with urban high schools that provide a college preparatory education with high expectations in a safe, structured environment, thereby increasing graduation rates and chances for success in college and future careers.

S/PA is unique among Northern NJ scholarship organizations because we provide both tuition assistance and mentoring support for urban youth.

Why Mentor?

Did you know? Young people who are at-risk for not completing high school but who have a mentor are 55% more li kely to be enrolled in college than those who don’t have a mentor, 81% more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities, 78% more likely to volunteer regularly and more than twice as likely to have held a leadership position in a club or sports team. (www.mentoringeffect.org)

10%

90% of S/PA students come from homes with family incomes of less than $40,000 annually

90% 30%

70% of S/PA students come from single parent households

70% Our Funders

The Achelis & Bodman Foundation PNC Bank American Express Foundation Rotary Club of Summit/New Providence Anonymous Fred C. Rummel Foundation Boffa & Company William E. Simon Foundation Bristol-Myers Squibb Sobel & Co., LLC The Della Rosa Family Foundation Mary Reinhart Stackhouse Foundation Robert and Joan Dircks Foundation The Summit Foundation Mary A. & Thomas F. Grasselli Endowment Sweetie Pig Foundation Foundation Ann Earle Talcott Fund E.J. Grassmann Trust Turrell Fund Hyde & Watson Foundation US Bank Investors Bank and Foundation George A. Ohl, Jr Trust of Wells Fargo Legacy Care Wealth, LLC Withum Smith & Brown, PC Liberal Finance Services Link Family Foundation Edmond & Virginia Moriarty Foundation Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. PSEG Foundation

Our President

A note from our President, Emmett Daly, Managing Director, Piper Sandler, & Co.

As President of S/PA for the past 11 years, with your support, we have once again delivered on our promise of a good education and mentoring to many students from nearby urban areas. This year, I am proud to say, S/PA confronted head on the challenges our students and families faced from COVID-19.

Our Board and many loyal friends quickly established an emergency fund and raised over $130,000 to support emergency tuition assistance for our students whose parents were financially strained due to the impact of COVID-19. Our Board recognized this dire need and responded quickly and compassionately. I am inspired by this group and appreciative of all our S/PA friends who participated. As each day goes by, we hear from more students with parents who are sick or can't find work and are struggling to feed their families. Students in the program are already low income and now face even greater financial strain from the COVID-19 shutdown. We are working with our schools, partners and mentors to get the assistance where it is most needed and were able to help over 50 students and their families so far.

During these times, we are committed to supporting our students and keeping the consistency of their education a priority. 49 seniors are graduating this year and you all achieved success in your college searches. We salute your hard work over the past four years; we admire your persistence in continuing to work hard in an unprecedented and very different learning environment. We know that you will succeed and we are very proud of you!

Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. There continues to be a great demand for our program and after reviewing 150 applications this spring, we look forward to welcoming a new class of 51 students in the fall. We are all working from home; we will continue our program remotely as long as we need to.

Graduates - We congratulate you all! Supporters - we thank all of you! We wish you all good health and a relaxing summer holiday.

As 2020 continues to be a year of great challenges, S/PA reaffirms our commitment to helping students in NJ. For 27 years we have been a source of support for students and families and we are proud to continue these efforts.

Sincerely,

Emmett Daly, President of the Board Our Graduates

Messie Lawson Isaiah Thompson undecided

Lisbeth Valdez Kristen Willson Rutgers University Penn State University

Cristo Rey - Newark Hudson Catholic High School

Jaquel Best Fairleigh Dickinson University Ivan Gonzalez Centenary University

Krystal Nunez Reina Lal St. Peter's University Fairleigh Dickinson University Our Graduates Hudson Catholic High School

Aurel Pasku Will Eustache St. Peter's University Fairleigh Dickinson University

Jonathan Marte Jamari Gordon Villanova University William Paterson University

Kiye Smith Maniyah Kemp-Smith Penn State University William Paterson University

Immaculate Conception High School

Amilkar Love L'nai Bryant University of New Rider University Haven Our Graduates Immaculate Conception High School

Brianna Mateo Elana Mitchell-Mills Smith College Rutgers University

Marist High School

Kayla Plummer Zoelle Bennett Rowan University College of St. Elizabeth

Adisi Shakur Angelo Lazaro Bloomfield College New Jersey City University

Sade Lopez Desron Mincey Temple University New Jersey City University Our Graduates Marist High School

Bakare Adetokunbo Josue Vasquez New Jersey Institute of Rutgers University Technoogy

St Benedict's Prep

Paul Granizo Hephzibah Ajay University of Notre Dame Rider University

Anthony Augustin Kevin Jackson University of Delaware Saint Vincent College

Jonah Baez Logisan Lorance Rutgers University Our Graduates St Benedict's Prep

Nathaniel Rodriguez Katherine Chen Rutgers University SUNY Binghamton University

Luis Saeteros Graciela Avila-Calle Montclair State Montclair State University University

Nicolas Serron Montclair State Nayelis Fernandez University Montclair State University

Julian Tapia Dejah Delisle Stockton University Caldwell University Our Graduates Saint Vincent Academy

A'Tanaya. Lora Laetitia Valembrun Drew University Howard University

Mariana Luna-Martinez Montclair State University

Kasandra Maldonado Caldwell University

Nadaizah Muhammad Montclair State University Our COVID-19 response

The Board of Student/Partner Alliance(S/PA) swifty established an Emergency fund to provide additional assistance. Below please find a selection of thank yous from our students and their parents:

"Wow! Thank you so much. This is truly appreciated. I was not sure how I would be able to pay this tuition. This is a blessing especially during this stressful time. Your generosity is truly appreciated. I hope to be able to pay it forward someday."

"We are extremely thankful...it’s very hard to convey emotion through email at the moment but thank you thank you thank you to everyone who is involved and help ed for this to happen! It’s a huge relief and burden off our shoulders, again thank you so much and we hope in the future to be able to help out as we were helped. Stay safe."

"Thank you so much for this opportunity. I’m so grateful and thankful to everyone that had something to do with the decision!"

"OMG! This is my ray of sunshine when things were becoming cloudy! This news brought morning tears....Thank you guys, THANK YOU!"

"Oh my god. I'm crying as I am writing this. I have been so stressed out wondering how I was going to take car of this balance during these difficult times. Thank you so much! God bless you all and I hope that you and your families and all those of Student/Partner Alliance are safe and well too." Our COVID-19 response

"I hope that one day I will be able to help students like myself achieve their goals as you have helped me. With that said, please stay safe and thank you again to you, my sponsor and the entire Student Partner Alliance family for helping my family during this time of need."

"Thank you, it's been rough. This has brought tears to my eyes. I've been out of work since March 26 after contracting COVID-19. I just finally got my first unemployment check after filing over 2 months now, and been worried about her tuition becauseI just didn't have a way to pay it off, I am grateful in every way. God bless you guys and thanks again."

"I received this email regarding further assisting us paying off the balance of this year's tuition. I just wanted to reach out and let you know how grateful I am for the extended help. I truly thank you and appreciate it."

"I am very grateful for your assistance with tuition. It has helped tremendously. Thank you and your staff for being there for us!"

"Thank you so much. This is truly a blessing. Your program has helped in more ways than you know."

"Thank you so much. We have had a very tough time. I appreciate this help so much. God bless you all. Thank you."

"We are extremely excited and grateful for the financial help being provided towards her education. She is very excited to begin a new school year as a freshman and to meet her mentor, which I know will be a huge asset in her success."

Our Board of Trustees

Thomas A. Cash - Chairman of the Board, Co-Founder/Chairman- Essex Lake Group

Emmett J. Daly - President of the Board, Managing Director, Piper Sandler, & Co.

Christopher Birosak - Treasurer of the Board, Partner and Investment Committee Member Star Mountain Capital

Thomas V. Mulligan - Secretary, Retired – Development Director Community Agencies Corporation of NJ Protestant Community Center

Christopher Beltran - Talent Acquisition Specialist, Mountainside Medical Center

Mark Boffa, C.P.A. - Accountant, Boffa & Co.

Robert Fowler - Financial Advisor, FCG Advisors, LLC

Margaret F. Gallagher, - C.P.A. - Principal, Withum

Timothy J. Heine, ESQ - General Counsel, American Express

Danna Jacobs - Founding Partner/Managing Member Founding Legacy Care Wealth, LLC

Debbie Nagpal - Retired - VP Municipal Finance, Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Bruce Reitz, Jr. - Retired - VP Mutual Fund Operations, Alliance Bernstein

Father Robert Sandoz, OFM - President, Cristo Rey - Newark

Ann Stachenfeld - President, The Sweetie Pig Foundation

Mark Tanner - Retired - VP & Project Manager, Alliance Bernstein

Christine Waldron, C.P.A., Chief Strategy Officer, U.S. Bank

Virtual Operations and Events

Student/Partner Alliance pivoted all programming to virtual in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our staff and Board quickly adjusted to remote working using Zoom to hold our staff and Board meetings, and ultimately holding a Virtual Mentoring training session with Patrick Fennell from Empowerment Solutions on Zoom.

We will continue to utilize online technology to support our mentors and students going forward.

We transitioned our XIVth Annual Bunk's Golf Tournament to a virtual fundraiser, a primary fundraiser for supporting students at Immaculate Conception. In 2020, we will be accepting 10 new students at Immaculate, and this virtual fundraiser is reliant on past supporters to reach our goals. Below please find a picture of last year's winners. We look forward to seeing all the golfers out again next year

Monday, June 14th, 2021 Galloping Hills Golf Course