Open Letter to Applicants

Let’s get down to it. This fall looms large. You’ve submitted resumes and interviewed and stayed up late, searching job boards and stressing that you haven’t found the right opportunity. You’re thinking maybe graduate school but not now, not yet. There are a range of options out there, but for some reason they don’t feel right. You want to work hard. You want to be challenged. You want to work directly with young people. You want to surround yourself with a talented group of like-minded peers hailing from universities nationwide while gaining ground-level experience in education reform and social entrepreneurship. Most of all, you want to make a difference.

You are the innovation we are looking for.

Blue Engine was founded for a simple reason. In schools and communities all across the nation, we do an excellent job of selling students on the dream of college without adequately preparing them to succeed once they get there. This problem is compounded in low-income communities, where only 15 of every 100 students entering college each year complete bachelor’s degrees.

Student success in college is shaped by many factors, but research has consistently shown that increased academic rigor during high school is the strongest predictor of whether students advance beyond their first year and obtain their degrees on time. The challenge, then, must be finding ways to increase the pipeline of students who acquire more advanced academic skills before arriving on campus in the first place.

That’s where you come in.

Introducing Blue Engine, an urban education fellowship year in New York City for talented recent college graduates to connect with small numbers of students in a different way—not as teachers, but as full-time academic tutors. During one-year terms of service, teams of Blue Engine Fellows provide massive amounts of small group direct instruction to entire grade levels, all day, every day. By channeling thousands of direct service hours to address one of our nation’s most pressing educational imperatives, we are proud to join the national movement dedicated to expanding educational opportunity in America.

Right now, on college campuses throughout the country, we are looking for a small number of top-notch candidates to get involved with Blue Engine from the ground up. Take two seconds and Join Us on Facebook to receive application tips, status updates, and more information about the Blue Engine fellowship in the weeks ahead. The admissions process will be competitive, with 12 Fellows set to join our inaugural class in 2010.

We hope one of those Fellows will be you.

Sincerely,

Nick Ehrmann
CEO & Founder
Blue Engine