How It Works

Blue Engine recruits, selects, trains, and supports recent college graduates who dedicate one year of service to accelerate academic achievement in high-need public high schools.

Rather than dispersing individuals across multiple sites, Blue Engine Fellows are placed in school-based teams.  We concentrate our efforts in single schools, taking on entire grade levels one by one with the goal of creating critical masses of students who acquire the academic skills they will need to succeed in college and complete their degrees on time.

Fellows work with teachers and school administrators to offer academic support that is closely aligned with school curricula.  We provide a combination of academic assistance and mentoring to students of all ability levels, using a small group instructional model to create a learning environment where students feel comfortable pushing the boundaries of their potential.

Read an open letter to all Blue Engine Fellows applicants here.

Our fellowship program is based on an evidence-based theory of change that centers on four main activities.

• Small group tutorials that help students of all ability levels become self-regulated learners and master core academic skills
• Curricular planning that helps students align their academic expectations with the demands of college-level work
• College exposure through carefully planned campus visits that help demystify college life and inspire students to actively prepare for the challenges they will face
• Family outreach designed to increase awareness of the relationship between academic rigor, high school coursework, and long-term college success

By focusing program resources on building stronger academic foundations in high school and exposing greater numbers of students to the rigors of advanced coursework, Blue Engine seeks to increase the percentage of high school graduates who:

• enroll in 2- and 4-year colleges without the need for remedial coursework
• accumulate sufficient credits during their first year of college to remain “on track”
• graduate from an accredited college with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree

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