iMentor and Morgan Stanley Announce a CGI America Commitment to Expand the Mentor Pledge

Last week, iMentor CEO Mike O'Brien attended the Clinton Global Initiative America (CGI America) meeting in Chicago, along with hundreds of business, government, and nonprofit leaders from across the country. At the meeting, iMentor and Morgan Stanley announced a CGI Commitment to Action to expand the Mentor Pledge by doubling the number of Morgan Stanley employees who volunteer with iMentor.

iMentor launched the Mentor Pledge this January in partnership with 10 corporations to recruit 100 of their employees to be mentors for high school students in low-income communities throughout New York City. Morgan Stanley, one of iMentor’s longest-standing corporate supporters, will double its mentor pledge from 100 to 200 mentors as part of the company’s dedication to skills-based volunteering, which leverages the professional expertise and backgrounds of its employees to deliver high-impact results in the community.

iMentor created the Mentor Pledge with Accenture, Barclays Capital, Bloomberg LP, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young LLP, Goldman Sachs, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Morgan Stanley and UBS. These companies not only support iMentor with valuable volunteers but also provide a financial commitment to the Mentor Pledge program, which New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg highlighted in his 2012 State of the City address.

The commitment of these companies will allow iMentor to expand its programs to meet its goal of serving 2,400 students in New York City in 2013. The mentors will help students navigate the college application and financial aid processes and build key competencies linked to college success. iMentor provides expertise and assistance to its corporate partners through mentor recruitment and training efforts in collaboration with each of the 10 pledge companies.

“The visionary leadership of Morgan Stanley and the other companies in the Mentor Pledge is absolutely vital to expanding the work we do to support students from low-income communities on their path to college success,” said iMentor CEO Mike O’Brien. “We are excited to participate in CGI America and expand upon iMentor’s mission with a group of extraordinary leaders who are all working to connect youth with education and employment opportunities.” 

Said Joan Steinberg, Head of Community Affairs at Morgan Stanley: “We are proud to have helped iMentor get its start more than a decade ago. Then, as now, our employees have embraced the opportunity to share key skills with New York City students, positioning these young people for greater academic and professional success. We’re pleased to be deepening our relationship with iMentor, which is a past winner of the Morgan Stanley Strategy Challenge in recognition of their innovative technology-enabled mentoring.”

iMentor matches Mentor Pledge company employees with students from partner schools in one-to-one mentoring relationships that last up to four years. iMentor supports all mentor-mentee pairs as they work through iMentor’s college-readiness curriculum and also provides mentors with ongoing training, networking events, and coaching from iMentor staff.

At the CGI America Meeting, Mike also lead a discussion on how cross-sector partnerships can further mentoring across the country to help more students gain access to higher education and jobs.