what they're saying about us

Referral partners, summer program partners, family and alumni share their Summer Search stories

 

If a kid got accepted to Summer Search, that was one kid you didn’t have to worry about anymore. -Referral Partner

One day Ana Maria was leaving class and her contact lens scratched her eye. She was rushed to the emergency room. The doctor didn’t have much hope. They said the eye was infected and she might lose the sight in it. Ana Maria told Emily in the Boston office about her problem. Emily reached out to Peter, a board member, who found a doctor and accompanied Ana Maria to an appointment. He acted as her advocate, asked many questions and helped her find the right treatment. Ana Maria has since recovered the sight in her eye. - Family Member

They strive for continuous improvement. They are constantly refining their systems. - Referral Partner

My mentor often listened in silence as a technique to encourage me to reflect on myself. During one call I was trying to sort out some financial issues about my housing. As I talked about the situation, my mentor's silence went on for an unusually long time. I thought to myself, "Wow, there must really be something I'm supposed to be working on here." And then I realized the call had been cut off. - Alumna

One day Ana Maria was leaving class and her contact lens scratched her eye. She was rushed to the emergency room. The doctor didn’t have much hope. They said the eye was infected and she might lose it. Ana Maria told Emily in the Boston office about her problem. Emily reached out to Peter, a board member, who found a doctor and accompanied Ana Maria to an appointment. He acted as her advocate, asked many questions and helped her find the right treatment. Ana Maria has since fully recovered the sight in her eye. - Family Member

I had a Summer Search kid with a bad attitude who was causing problems in my group. I called Linda, and followed her suggestion to confront the kid directly, and ask him to get on board or go home. The next day he was an angel and I couldn’t even keep him away from me for the rest of the trip. Somebody finally saw what he was doing and called him on it. - Summer Program Partner

It’s that kind of bare bones honesty that takes advantage of every single moment of face time or talk time and really pushes for authentic interaction which, you know, is really hard for people to do… Watching Summer Search people interact with students has taught me to look at each student more closely in the short time that I have them. - Referral Partner

There was a child from my son’s school. She was from a single family home. She went to college on the East coast where it was freezing cold. We don’t have those kinds of winters here. We do not have those kinds of clothes, and she needed a coat. Summer Search got that coat for her. - Family Member

My son told me it was like the Summer Search person was looking into his soul. - Family Member

Everyone at every one of the sites that we work with has just been incredibly easy to work with and I think that’s because their integrity comes through in every conversation I have with them… They do what they say. If somebody says to me, ‘I’ll get back to you on that.’ I hear back from them. I don’t have to track them down again. - Summer Program Partner