Funding Resource Reborn

Today, standardized test scores and AP classes are very important factors that colleges use to filter out applicants, so students who want to pursue higher education must be strong in those areas. Unfortunately, a good score in these tests requires heavy financial input for optimal preparedness. Students who can invest in these resources spend significant amounts of money on SAT, ACT, and AP prep books and guides which are of no use to them after the class or exam is over. However, some students in CMSD schools do not have the same capability to spend money on those books, and access to resources is one of the reasons for lower scores than those who can prepare better. Resource Reborn aims to bridge the gap in resources by redirecting useful prep books and other school resources from students who no longer have a use for it to students in CMSD schools who may not necessarily have the same opportunities. The way it will achieve that is through a web app that will allow for resource redistribution among high school students. This idea came out as the winning pitch in Accelerate Cleveland:2020 under the category of Educating for Tomorrow (this project was originally named Connect4U).

With your help, we can work towards making higher education more accessible to all students and to improve equity in education.

Set up a partnership between Solon High School and a CMSD school to pilot this project

Survey students of both schools to assess the need and availability of certain resource categories

Set up a club in both of these schools which will manage and coordinate book orders, transport, and redistribution

Build a web app for Resource Reborn through which students can place a hold on the schooling materials they want and upload newly collected resources

Hold a drive for SAT/ACT/AP guides, notebooks, and other resources found to be in demand through the survey

Actively transport the supplies ordered

I am an incoming high school junior, which means AP classes and standardized tests are more important for me than ever. To optimally prepare myself for these so I can go to the colleges I aspire towards, I would need to practice a lot, which means I'd need to spend a lot of money. However, one of my senior friends was kind enough to give me their old prep books because they no longer had use for them, whereas I did. This saved me a lot of money and is helping me prepare for my tests better. I realized there is both a supply and a demand for these resources, but no one has thought to connect the two yet. I decided that it's important for me to take that step to make good test scores more accessible to those who cannot afford to invest in these resources.