Say Yes to Education

Jacques Steinberg, former New York Times senior editor and best-selling author, will join Say Yes to Education, a national, non-profit education foundation committed to dramatically increasing high school and college graduation rates for our nation’s urban youth. Steinberg, who begins Feb. 4, will help grow the Say Yes Higher Education Compact, a program that partners higher education institutions with Say Yes to provide financial support in the form of college tuition for tens of thousands of Say Yes students. 

Steinberg, using his decades of expertise and experience navigating the college-admissions world, will also create credible content to guide students, families, and counselors through the process of applying to college, applying for financial aid, and graduating with a postsecondary degree.

Members of the Higher Education Compact include the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, Syracuse, Drexel and Colgate universities, Vassar College, SUNY, CUNY, and more than 100 public and private colleges and universities. 

“After more than a decade writing, reporting and lecturing about college admissions, I have lately found myself wanting to put down my reporter’s notebook to work more directly with public-school students, families and their counselors, whose caseloads have often ballooned to 500 or more in the midst of budget cuts,” said Steinberg. “I am honored to be joining the team at Say Yes, which has earned high marks in education circles for its determination to raise high school and college graduation rates, especially in the inner city.”

“The addition of Jacques to the Say Yes family will provide a great service to each and every one of our Say Yes students as they select and apply to colleges and earn their postsecondary degrees,” said Mary Anne Schmitt-Carey, president of Say Yes to Education. “His extraordinary work in the higher education sector will serve him well as he forges partnerships with postsecondary institutions interested in diversifying their pool of applicants and affording all students with the opportunity to go to college.”

Because students participating in Say Yes have received academic, social, emotional, health, and family supports that helped them graduate from high school ready for college and career, participating institutions admit students that are prepared and motivated to succeed.

Say Yes students, who meet the residency and college entry requirements apply to Compact member colleges, receive support throughout their undergraduate collegiate career, including job shadowing and internship opportunities.

Since its founding 25 years ago, Say Yes has raised or leveraged more than $11 million in Say Yes scholarships and sent nearly 2,000 students to college.

Steinberg is the author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College, a New York Times-best seller and Times Notable Book that was first published by Viking-Penguin in September 2002.  The book was reissued by Penguin, with a new Afterword written in conjunction with its 10th anniversary, in September 2012. 

He was a journalist at The New York Times for more than two decades, most recently as its senior editor for education initiatives. At The Times, Steinberg edited The Choice, the Times’ college admissions and financial aid blog, which he created for the paper in spring 2009, as well as The New York Times Learning Network.  

To learn more about Say Yes to Education, go to www.sayyestoeducation.org or www.wedontsettle.org.