Learning from Project Choice, we began to think about, ‘Well, what if we started [supporting young people] earlier? What if there was more support? And what if we could do it better?’ And so, the idea of the Kauffman Scholars program began to emerge from that.... We didn’t just say, ‘Here’s college, God bless you, go forth and graduate.’ We said that, but we also said, ‘And you have a coach who’s going to help get you through, who’s going to be there, be a resource, be an ear.’ ...We ended up with a [higher] college graduation [rate]... [the] typical [rate is] 8% to 10%. Project Choice, I think, was around 28%. Kauffman Scholars was just under 65%. The scholars who entered college, just under 65% graduated, and that’s the comparison to each of the other numbers. 800 students’ lives were fundamentally changed.

Learning from Project Choice, we began to think about, ‘Well, what if we started [supporting young people] earlier? What if there was more support? And what if we could do it better?’ And so, the idea of the Kauffman Scholars program began to emerge from that.... We didn’t just say, ‘Here’s college, God bless you, go forth and graduate.’ We said that, but we also said, ‘And you have a coach who’s going to help get you through, who’s going to be there, be a resource, be an ear.’ ...We ended up with a [higher] college graduation [rate]... [the] typical [rate is] 8% to 10%. Project Choice, I think, was around 28%. Kauffman Scholars was just under 65%. The scholars who entered college, just under 65% graduated, and that’s the comparison to each of the other numbers. 800 students’ lives were fundamentally changed.

— John Tyler, current associate, 1995-present