CFES Brilliant Pathways joined forces with its corporate and educational partners for a College and Career Readiness Advisor training in New York City on February 7 as part of the non-profit’s goal of training over 5,000 CCR Advisors by 2022.

Participants attending the event at Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP included teachers, coaches, and community leaders with a desire to help young people succeed in college and the workplace. They learned best practices from K-12 and higher education professionals and the Essential Skills most desired by employers from business leaders at EY, talent management firm Enjiko, leading language services provider TransPerfect and others.

“We don’t always have the opportunity to share information and best practices outside of our bubbles,” said Josh Javer, a school counselor at Eximius College Preparatory Academy in the Bronx. “It’s always good to hear from my colleagues, CFES Brilliant Pathways staff and partners about this important work.”

School counselors like Javer offered ideas for how CCR Advisors can support their efforts. The need for CCR advisors has never been greater given the current counselor-student ratio of 1 to 470, including an unmanageable 1 to 900 ration for low-income students, according to the American School Counselor Association.

In addition to hearing the latest research on how to prepare students for college and career, participants learned how to help students with admissions applications, financial aid, job shadowing, internships and to inspire them to continue to follow their dreams. CFES Brilliant Pathways staff emphasized the importance of its three core practices – Essential Skills, college and career pathways and mentoring – in helping students reach their postsecondary goals.

The New York City event marked the third training since CFES Brilliant Pathways awarded its first cohort of CCR graduates Professional Development Certificates at its national conference in October. All graduates receive ongoing support from CFES staff, through online resources, webinars and other resources.

“I am absolutely thrilled and honored to be here knowing all that CFES Brilliant Pathways has done for me and countless other students across the nation,” said Sneha Grover, a former CFES Brilliant Pathways Mentor in Florida who now works in donor recruitment for international non-profit DKMS. Other corporate faculty at the training included Tim Swatek, operations manager at TransPerfect, Justin Chukumba, co-founder & CEO of Enjiko, Mike Cowan, director of EY College MAP, and Maxx Young, assistant director of EY College MAP.

CFES Brilliant Pathways helped EY create College MAP (Mentoring for Access & Persistence) a dozen years ago; since then the program has helped more than 2000 youth from 35 cities move toward college success.

TransPerfect recently partnered with CFES Brilliant Pathways to identify and prepare the next generation of corporate leaders. Last month, they hosted 20 high school seniors on a kickoff event that aims to get students exposed to new careers.