Helping Boston’s young people grow into responsible and altruistic leaders.

History

In 1995, Jay Jacobs, a Harvard Divinity School graduate, founded Summer Search Boston with the partnership of Founding Board President Fredericka (Fredi) Stevenson. Emily Edwards joined Summer Search Boston in 1999 and became Executive Director in 2002 when Jay stepped up to found Summer Search National.

As Summer Search Boston enters our eleventh year under the current leadership of Chair Michael Reilly, we are proud to see our alumni coming back as staff members, board members, donors and referral partners in the schools and youth development programs with which we work.

We have embarked on an ambitious plan to grow Summer Search Boston and make the program accessible to every qualified candidate in the Boston public high schools by 2008. We are especially grateful to Strategic Grant Partners and The Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation for stepping up to fuel this growth with major capacity-building challenge grants. Two years into this plan, we are excited to be well on track toward meeting this goal!

Staff

Debbie Krause, Executive Director
Monique Rodriques, Associate Director
Kait Schroeder, Program Director
Elizabeth Marino, Outreach Director
Rachel Scott, Program Associate
Amee Tejani, Program Associate
Jeffrey Fletcher, Program Associate
Mollie Soloway, Program Associate
Leigh Schuster, Program Associate
Melissa Witcher, Program Associate
Vanessa Farias, Development and Operations Associate

Debbie Krause, Executive Director
Debbie graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Psychology (1998) and went on to receive her MA in Counseling Psychology from Boston College (2000). After graduation, she worked for Dare Family Services, a non-profit organization that performed home-based counseling for children and families. Debbie joined Summer Search in 2005 as the first ever Outreach Coordinator. She rapidly advanced to become Program Director of Outreach and Alumni in 2006. Debbie is a member of the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation Capacity Building Associates Group and the Strategic Grant Partners Emerging Leaders Forum.

Monique Rodrigues, Associate Director
Monique grew up in Dorchester and attended the O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science. She credits participating in Upward Bound and Bottom Line with helping motivate her to become a successful Boston University Scholar. Monique became the first in her family to graduate college with an honors BA in International Relations from Boston University in 2003. While at Boston University, Monique studied in London and Niger, Africa. Her experiences abroad fueled her passion for social and economic equality as well as her appreciation of traveling and exposure to new cultures. Shortly after graduating, Monique joined Summer Search Boston as a mentor and became Program Director of Mentoring and College in 2006. Monique is a member of the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation Capacity Building Associates Group and the Strategic Grant Partners Emerging Leaders Forum.

Kait Schroeder, Program Director
Kait graduated from Haverford College with a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a minor in education (2002). After college, Kait spent three years at Millbrook School, a small coeducational independent boarding school in New York State. During her time at Millbrook, Kait taught chemistry, worked as a dorm parent, acted as a faculty advisor, coached field hockey, guided a community service group, and much more. In the summer of 2004, professional development funds allowed Kait to travel to the Samburu region of Kenya with the Earthwatch Institute to work as part of the Communities, Water, and Wildlife conservation research team. Kait joined Summer Search in 2005 as a Program Associate and became Program Director in 2007. In addition to mentoring students, Kait serves as Boston’s liaison to our National Summer Program Coordinator and our network of summer program partners.

Elizabeth Marino, Outreach Director
Liz graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Women’s Studies (2005). She was then accepted into the Teach For America Program and spent the next two years teaching English in a middle school in the South Bronx. It was during these two years that Liz first developed her passion for working with urban youth and became committed to providing resources for low-income students. During her time in New York, Liz was a teacher, counselor and mentor to over sixty English as a Second Language and recent immigrant students. She was also promoted to the head of the English Language Arts Department and co-taught an after school program that used the Arts to transform students into leaders. Simultaneously, she was also enrolled in a Master’s program with Pace University and received her Master’s of Science in Teaching with a concentration in Adolescent Education (2007). She joined Summer Search as the Outreach Director in September of 2007.

Rachel Scott, Program Associate
Rachel graduated from Swarthmore College with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science (2005). Since age 14 she has spent summers in the wilderness of the western U.S., first as a participant on expeditions and later as a trip leader. In the summer of 2003 she took a break from the woods to work with teenagers on an urban gardening project at the Norris Square Neighborhood Project in Philadelphia. During college she had the opportunity to study and live with a family in La Paz, Bolivia. Rachel joined Summer Search as a Program Associate in 2005. In addition to mentoring students, she coordinates Boston’s Leadership Dinner and plays a major role in development.

Amee Tejani, Program Associate
Amee graduated from Emory with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Environmental Studies. After college she worked for two years as a teacher/counselor with Eckerd Youth Alternatives, a wilderness therapy program for adjudicated youth. She then served as an AmeriCorps Team Leader with the Atlanta Outward Bound Center, working on community greening projects and teaching environmental science in inner-city elementary schools. Most recently, she received a Master's degree in Community Development and Planning from Clark University where she also worked with high school age youth on a community-based environmental justice project. Amee joined Summer Search as a Program Associate in 2006 and is now focusing on outreach to extend Summer Search Boston to every qualified candidate in the Boston Public Schools.

Jeffrey Fletcher, Program Associate
Jeff credits the start of his life-altering education to the summer of 1994 when, as a high school junior, he began a twelve-month study abroad trip to Germany as part of the Experiment in International Living. Jeff graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2001 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations. After college, Jeff spent a year teaching middle school students in rural Louisiana with the Teach for America program. Following this rural experience, Jeff taught two additional years at Lynwood High School in Los Angeles, instructing world history and German. Beginning in 2004, Jeff returned to his home state of Georgia to assist his family’s business through a time of transition. A firm supporter of social justice and educational equality, Jeff returned to the field of education and joined Summer Search as a Program Associate in 2006, focusing on mentoring and higher education.

Mollie Soloway, Program Associate
Mollie grew up in Washington, DC and spent her summers attending and later working at summer camp in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. During college she spent a semester studying at the University of Westminster in London and graduated in 2004 with a BA in psychology from Colgate University. After college, Mollie worked for two years as a Youth Enrollment Specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters of MA Bay, during which time she conducted home assessments with over 500 families in the Boston area and was also matched with her own Little Sister in February of 2006. Mollie joined the Summer Search team as a Program Associate in February of 2007.

Leigh Schuster, Program Associate
Leigh grew up in Cambridge, except for a year abroad living with her family in Barcelona, Spain.  Leigh attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School and in 2005 graduated from Occidental College with a degree in Sociology and a minor in Religious Studies.  Leigh deepened her passion for social justice during a semester in Kingston, Jamaica where she studied gender and development.  During Leigh’s senior year at Occidental she interned at the American Friends Service Committee where she assisted in organizing local programs that dealt with a variety of youth, social justice and non-violence issues.  After college, Leigh returned to the east coast where she worked at the Peabody Essex Museum in the development department managing and soliciting institutional funding.  Leigh joined Summer Search as a Program Associate in August 2007. 

Melissa Witcher, Program Associate
Melissa was born in Brazil and grew up in various states throughout the U.S. After graduating from Michigan State University with a B.A. in History and Secondary Education she spent four years teaching Social Studies in Southern California. As a result of that experience Melissa became passionate about pursuing a career providing equal access to resources and opportunities. She spent the last four months of 2007 working at a non-profit bookmobile in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Melissa joined Summer Search as a Program Associate in January 2008.

Vanessa Farias, Development and Operations Associate
Vanessa Farías was born and raised in Boston and attended Boston Latin School.  Vanessa is of Colombian descent and is one of the first in her family to go to college. She graduated from Marist College in 2006 with a major inInternational Communications and a double minor in Spanish/Global Studies.  Vanessa traveled to Eastern Europe her senior year of high school to learn more about the Holocaust and studied in Guayaquil, Ecuador, for a semester in college.  During her time abroad she taught ESL classes to children and adolescents in impoverished communities. This served as an eye-opening experience that reinforced her belief in the importance of access to education.  Vanessa joined Summer Search in February, as the Development and Operations Associate.