FAQ’s

When was Starfish Initiative founded?

Starfish Initiative was founded in 2003. 

The mission of Starfish Initiative is to inspire, encourage, and prepare academically motivated, high school students from the most vulnerable populations for college, career, and life success.

Starfish Initiative supports students by matching them with college-educated volunteer adult mentors through the comprehensive Starfish Experience, a four-year pathway to economic mobility.

Starfish Initiative connects mentors with Match Specialists who provide support, training, and resources.

Starfish Initiative provides intensive one-on-one mentoring and coaching to its scholars. Each scholar is matched with an adult mentor who commits to meeting them for two years.

Mentors are matched with students based on a two-year commitment. Each mentor meets with their scholar every other week.

Mentors serve as a "life or college coach" for scholars, helping them work towards their goals of graduating high school, college, and beyond

The three core essentials of the Starfish model are: 1) College Readiness and Success; 2) Career Exploration; and 3) Character Development.

Starfish Initiative has a proven track record of helping promising students overcome barriers to achieve economic mobility, develop cultural capacity, and develop leadership skills.

Starfish Initiative is a non-profit organization founded to help academically-promising students facing unearned adversity in Indianapolis by closing the college-access gap and improving graduation rates.

Starfish Initiative works to improve graduation rates and provide post-secondary educational access for students in Indianapolis who face unearned adversity, ultimately making a difference for students and their families on an individual basis.

Starfish Initiative is uniquely positioned in the community to address the college-access gap and improve graduation rates for academically-promising students facing unearned adversity in Indianapolis.