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About Us

Our Mission and Vision

Our mission is to help students and parents find and attend their ideal post-secondary educational program, help school counselors extend their college counseling reach, and build college-savvy communities - with services free to all!

Our vision is that every school community is college-savvy and that every high school student has a clear path to their ideal post-high school educational program and institution.
Mentors develop long-term one-on-one relationships with students AND parents, when possible, to make sure they understand the requirements of all family members, thereby ensuring that: students find and get accepted to their best-fit college or university; both student and parent needs are met; and family members are in agreement with the student’s ultimate college decisions.
Our mentors are highly trained volunteers and are vetted through a national clearinghouse.
We seek to work in tandem with school counselors so that together we can provide a seamless and successful journey to college. We strive to enhance the entire high school– in addition to those mentees who sign up for our program– by having local parents and community members become partners with their local school, and providing character education and role modeling to all students.
We are excited to provide mentors for all students, no matter where they come from in the United States and with no preconditions as to academic achievement, financial situation or cultural/ethnic background. Mentoring takes place virtually, to ensure a safe and convenient environment for the mentor, the student, and the student's parents.
We partner with other mentoring programs and community organizations that work with high school-age students. These partnerships can be created to best serve the needs of these nonprofit organizations.
We provide webinars, essay writing tutorials, interview practice, and other programs for our mentees and any other high school students (and their parents!) who come through our doors.

Our History

Mentors 4 College, co-founded by David and Dr. Lois Zuckerman, has been helping students since 2011. We started at Parkway North High School in St Louis County, MO. Since then, we have:
• Grown from 60 Parkway students in 2011 to 400 students in 18 states today.

• Worked with over 1,200 high school students from St. Louis and around the country.

• Reached over 2,000 high school students, parents, mentors and counselors through our monthly webinars.
We currently have 85 volunteer mentors who are professionally trained and give freely of their time to help high school students find and get accepted to their ideal schools.
• Our mentors come from a wide variety of educational and work backgrounds, as well as from many different cultures, so we're able to pair our mentees with mentors who can understand their abilities, needs and goals.

• We've designed the M4C system to be scalable, so we're able to support chapters at any high school in the country.

Partnerships

Mentors 4 College is building collaborations with organizations in St. Louis and around the country to better serve students. Currently, we have collaborations in place with:
  • Aim High St. Louis
  • Educating Students Together (EST) in Los Angeles

Awards and Recognition

BPOE Missouri Lodge - 2020-2021
The BPOE Missouri Lodge awarded Dave and Lois Zuckerman the Elks Distinguished Citizenship Award for 2020-2021 on behalf of Mentors 4 College.
Pillar of Parkway - 2017
The Parkway School District in St Louis County has awarded Mentors 4 College the Pillar of Parkway for 2017. This prestigious award is presented to individuals who have provided extraordinary service to the Parkway community and go beyond what is expected.
Unsung Heroes - 2017
The St. Louis Jewish Light named David & Dr. Lois Zuckerman "Unsung Heroes" for 2017 because of our Mentors 4 College work.
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Engineer, Entrepreneur, Princeton UniversityDave Zuckerman - Co-Founder

Dave Zuckerman is Co-Founder of Mentors 4 College, former President of Customized Improvement Strategies LLC, and the author of "Pharmaceutical Metrics" from Gower Press. Dave holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton University and a Master's degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He and his wife, Dr. Lois Zuckerman, put three children through high school at Parkway, and worked through the college application process with each. One ended up at Brandeis, the second went to Yale, and the third decided college wasn't for him. Each made the perfect college selection decision for herself/himself.
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Licensed Psychologist, Colorado CollegeDr. Lois Zuckerman - Co-Founder

Lois Zuckerman was born and raised in Colorado. She received her B.A. from The Colorado College and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology from St. Louis University. Most of her work focused on medical psychology and anxiety disorders. She and her husband, Dave Zuckerman, raised three children in St. Louis. As their children navigated the college selection and application process, Lois and Dave realized they had gained significant expertise in the process themselves; and that other parents would have that same expertise. Recognizing that school counselors are stretched thin, and seeing this as a way to extend the school counselors’ reach, they worked to create Mentors 4 College: a community of volunteer mentors to assist and support families in the college selection and application process. Their goal is to find the right fit for each student after high school.
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Director of Recruitment, University of Miami, Southern Adventist UniversityCharles Cammack - Board Member

Charles currently serves as the director of recruitment for the University of Miami’s Office of Undergraduate Admission, where he has worked for the past eight years. He holds an undergraduate degree in mass communications from Southern Adventist University and a master’s degree in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. He spends his spare time volunteering for educational organizations, his church and spending time with his wife Noemi and son, Nakoa.
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North American Trade Execution Manager, Iowa State UniversityObi Collins - Board Member

Obi has been with Bunge for over 21 years serving in different roles and is currently the manager for the North America trade execution team. She is a graduate of Iowa State University. She is married to Michael and has 3 daughters. The oldest, Nia, is in her Junior year at Iowa State University, Arianna (Ari), is going into her senior year of high school and Madison (Madi) the youngest, is entering the 10th grade. She was introduced to Mentors 4 College when preparing Nia for her next journey after high school. Obi has found being a part of the program to be rewarding in helping the next generation prepare for their future. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, outdoor concerts, traveling and experiencing different cultures.
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Television Executive, Stanford UniversityVicki Horwits - Board Member

Vicki Horwits received her bachelor’s degree in communication from Stanford University. She worked for 28 years in the entertainment industry, serving as the Vice President of Current Comedy at NBC and writing and producing several situation comedies on network television. Having watched her own son go through the college application process, Vicki saw firsthand the challenges many families face in navigating the complex, often overwhelming process. After retiring from the entertainment industry, she turned her passion towards supporting and guiding other families through the college application process, so that each family can feel educated and empowered during the process and can find the “right fit” college for their student. She resides in Los Angeles and is currently finishing the certificate program in Independent Educational Consulting at the University of California at Irvine.
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High School Principal, Missouri State UniversityDr. Jenny Marquart - Board Member

Dr. Jenny Marquart is a retired high school educator. She spent 17 years as the principal at Parkway North High School in St. Louis, Missouri, and six years as an assistant principal at Parkway West High School. Prior to this, Dr. Marquart taught Spanish in Greater St. Louis area schools. She attended community college and Missouri State University to earn her bachelors degree in education. She received her masters degree in school administration from St. Louis University and received her doctorate in educational leadership from Maryville University. While principal at Parkway North High School, Dr. Marquart partnered with Mentors 4 College to implement the program.
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Financial Executive, Princeton UniversitySkip Williamson - Board Member

Skip Williamson is a 30-year veteran in commercial banking and finance. Skip holds an BSE from Princeton and an MBA in finance from Columbia University. He and his wife, Wendy, put two very different children through college: a highly focused engineer and a wide-ranging liberal arts major. Skip has spent time volunteering with preschoolers and tutoring GED candidates in math. He lives in Longmont, CO, and enjoys the outdoors.

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