Marcia Eisenstein - Enterprising Leadership Incubator

College Connection: ELI student Marcia Eisenstein created a pilot program for college-bound public high school students in Durham

Growing up in rural Kentucky, Marcia Eisenstein attended a high school where her fellow students had more pressing socioeconomic concerns than paying for college. One of only four students to attend an out-of-state institution, Eisenstein says she was fortunate that her parents were familiar with the application process and able to help her through every step of the process. It highlighted for her the fact that few resources existed to help her less fortunate peers learn about their higher education options.

Now Eisenstein is addressing that problem for a group of high school students here in Durham. Last spring, Eisenstein put together College Connection, an initiative she and Emily Epstein created through the Hart Leadership Program class “Enterprising Leadership,” taught by Tony Brown. College Connection pairs trained volunteers with seniors at Southern High School to walk them through the college application process, from identifying potential colleges to registering for the SAT to filling out financial aid forms. The first cohort of ten students and volunteers was identified in September and is currently meeting every other Monday for five sessions this fall.

Marcia Eisenstein (left) and Southern High School student Sharlene Parker at the College Connection's second meeting.

Unlike the majority of Duke students, says Eisenstein, the Southern students and others like them in the public schools don’t always have the parental support and institutional expertise required to navigate through the application process. Unless students have someone looking out for them, they may not be aware of the opportunities available to them, despite the best intentions of their high school counselors.

When Eisenstein and Epstein first began working on their project last spring, they contacted a number of public high school counselors to see where the best fit would be for the pilot program and decided on Southern “because they were the most receptive,” says Eisenstein. Southern counselors Linda Carmichael and David Minion began the process of identifying disadvantaged/low-income, motivated students who were rising seniors. They also recruited volunteers through the Volunteer Center of Durham and were fortunate to attract people who were intimately familiar with the application process, including senior assistant director of admissions at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Allison Legge, and two members of Duke’s Talent Identification Program staff.

On impulse – it wasn’t part of their original plan -- Eisenstein sent an email to a member of Duke’s admissions staff at the beginning of the fall semester informing her of the project. The officer loved the idea and promised to bring it up at the staff meeting scheduled for later that week. The day after that meeting, admissions director Christoph Guttentag contacted Eisenstein directly, asking for a meeting to see how he could help.

“When going into meetings with potential stakeholders, Tony always reiterates the importance of an ‘ask’,” or something specific and concrete that you want them to do," she says. “My ‘ask’ for Mr. Guttentag was that his staff would help train our volunteers, he would provide additional volunteers, and he would pay for the meal we had planned for volunteers during their training session. And he said yes to everything.”

One week later, Eisenstein met with Guttentag and his UNC colleague Legge, who helped develop the outline for a two-hour volunteer training session held at the end of September. “The goal of the volunteer training is to provide our volunteers with everything they need to know to successfully guide their students through the application process. During the training we also had several Duke admissions officers comment on how they read applications. That was interesting!” she says laughing.

Guttentag says he now uses Eisenstein as an example when talking with prospective Duke students about how the academic and practical can be combined. “For me, Marcia embodies the best of Duke--intelligent, resourceful, committed, and caring,” he says. “I’ve been deeply impressed with the combination of thoughtfulness, initiative, follow-through, and commitment to the community she's demonstrated in her mentoring program. And she does it all without any sense of self-importance. Again--so typical of Duke students--incredible accomplishment without self-aggrandizement. She's terrific, and her program will really make a difference.”

Eisenstein says she and Epstein, who is studying abroad in Spain this semester, have very similar leadership styles, which turned out to be a mixed blessing. “Emily and I both love to plan and pay a lot of attention to detail. As a result it is easy for us to communicate and make decisions. However, this was sometimes a disadvantage. We spent so much time planning for what could go wrong that we were not ‘doing’ anything. We finally just had to go for it because it was getting late.” It also taught her that it’s impossible to plan every detail, and that leaders need flexibility and adaptability.

This past summer, Eisenstein worked at Turning the Page, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization launched by Duke alumnus Jason Scott King ’94 (and a former student of Tony Brown’s as well). Turning the Page brings together D.C. public schools, families and community resources to ensure that D.C. students receive valuable educational resources and a high-quality public education. During her internship, Eisenstein gleaned helpful lessons about how to corral various constituents, many of whom have conflicting needs and priorities.

“During the summer, Turning the Page organizes museum trips for parents and students from their partner schools,” she says. “Before each museum trip, we called hundreds of parents just to make sure they were coming out. Although making a phone call is a simple act, it is extremely significant because it keeps individuals engaged and contributes to the overall success of the program.”

Applying those lessons to College Connection, Eisenstein drives to Southern the Friday prior to the following session to put reminders in teacher mailboxes so that they can prompt their students Monday morning. She also sends emails to all volunteers after every session.

“I ask them what went well, what could have been better. I tell them, ‘Criticize me!’ because I want every session to be better than the last one. You have to be able to accept constructive criticism; that’s how you learn.”

College Connection session themes include defining and affirming student ambitions and goals; identifying and alleviating concerns; the range of factors related to potential schools (location, size, graduation/retention rates, minority presence); application requirements (transcript, recommendations, testing, essays); and financial aid. In the process, the volunteers help students actually apply to the schools they are interested in.

There are also guest speakers, including a current UNC student from a disadvantaged background talking about her own experience, and a representative from the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority commenting on the financial aid process. In February, students are encouraged to attend FAFSA Day, hosted by the College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC). At that event, students are encouraged to bring their parents and tax return forms so that CFNC representatives can walk them through these complicated government financial aid forms. Eisenstein says she hopes the group will stay together in some capacity in the spring as students learn where they are accepted and begin completing the related paperwork required to matriculate.

For Southern senior Felicia Lee, College Connection has provided a hope for a brighter future. Despite personal hardships and discouragement from classmates, Lee is determined to pursue her dream of becoming a pharmacist or perhaps a physician. “A lot of my friends don’t want to go to college; they want to go straight to work,” she says. “They can be negative about people who are smart. But I’m thinking, well, fine, I’ll be taking care of their kids some day.”

Felicia Lee (left), pictured with her volunteer mentor Markelle Powell, says College Connection has helped her gain confidence in herself and her academic future.

Lee says she knew very little about the college application process before College Connection, but she’s now aware of what she needs to do, including how to apply for financial aid. She’s also gained confidence in herself and her academic future.

Southern’s David Minion says that even though College Connection is in its pilot phase and involves a very small fraction of the school’s college-bound students, he sees the potential for a wider implementation. “Our counselor-to-student ratio is about 1-to-400,” he says. “From a counselor's standpoint, the implementation of College Connection is very simple and straightforward and since it is essentially a person-to-person activity, my part is simply to identify appropriate candidates and get them to the meeting sites. Because the program is run independently, its implementation has not required much of my time. Marcia has done an excellent job of connecting our candidates to College Connection information and services.”

As part of their project design, Eisenstein and her peers in Tony Brown’s classes are urged to consider not only the value of their initiatives, but also their potential for sustainability. Eisenstein says she is exploring a variety of ideas for putting this model into practice at other area high schools after she graduates.

“Creating and implementing College Connection has been my greatest learning experience at Duke thus far,” says Eisenstein, who plans to pursue some combination of law and gifted education. “I’ve learned how to interact with a wide-array of people—everyone from administrators at local high schools, to Durham community members, to 17-year-old students, to fellow Duke peers. And I’ve learned how to mobilize these diverse groups with their distinct personalities into one collective interest. No matter what career path I choose, College Connection has taught me something very valuable, which is how to get people excited about an idea and how to transition that excitement into meaningful action.”

-- By Bridget Booher