At Student Advocacy, we value engaging the community in our work. There are several ways you can become involved.

Choose our Overcoming the Odds (OTO) award winners
Each year, Student Advocacy hosts an event to honor local youth who, despite facing significant challenges, have made school a priority and are on track to complete high school. In addition to receiving the award, winners are given a small scholarship to be used for post-high school education.

To identify award candidates, we solicit nominations from school districts throughout Westchester. Up to 150 community members volunteer their time to review honoree applications (short narratives detailing how each student overcame the obstacles they faced). Past volunteers have found this to be a very meaningful experience. There are two ways you can be involved:

The Screening Committee
The Screening committee reads and ranks student applications. This is all done remotely, and the top 15 students move on to the next (and final) stage of the process.

The Selection Committee
The Selection Committee is composed of three groups of volunteers. Each group receives five nominations in a particular category: physical disabilities, social/family challenges, and learning/mental health challenges. After reading the applications, committee members meet at the Student Advocacy office to discuss the candidates, and choose an award recipient.

Join the Overcoming the Odds (OTO) event committee
The OTO event committee is composed of both board and community members. They assist in planning the event, and engage in outreach to ensure as many people as possible are in attendance. To join this committee, please contact Jamie Stone, Development Associate, at jstone@studentadvocacy.net.

Donate your expertise
We can always use your help! If you have expertise, and are willing to assist us with special projects, please reach out to Jamie Stone, Development Associate, at jstone@studentadvocacy.net. Areas of particular need are: Grant writing, social media, administrative office work, video production, and data analytics.

Join our board
Student Advocacy’s board is a group of passionate men and women who are committed to supporting the educational advocacy work and ensuring that as many families as possible are able to access our assistance. To learn more about the board’s role in supporting Student Advocacy’s mission, please reach out to Jill Bernstein, Board Chair, at jbernstein@studentadvocacy.net, or (914) 523-2126.

To view existing board members, click here