As much as we’d like to believe that everyone in the United States is on a level playing field, this is far from the truth. The truth is that your future success and ability to gain access to a quality education is greatly hindered because of your socioeconomic standing. Those who live in lower income areas are statistically less likely to go to college and make a reasonable living for themselves in the future. On the other side of the spectrum, those who come from more affluent areas are far more likely to attend college and go on to work in fields where they will make a comfortable living for themselves and their families. Poverty can easily turn into a viscous circle if something is not done to break the cycle. That is where organizations like Rocketship Education come into play. Rocketship Education is a non-profit group that seeks to develop quality schools in lower income areas so that the residents have a better shot of escaping poverty. They have helped fund raise efforts such as an emergency fund that would provide money to families completely wiped out by natural disasters because low income individuals are typically most effected by such extreme weather events. For example, when flooding in San Jose devastated a community in which a school the group operates was located, they were extremely quick in responding to the losses these families had incurred and helped them acquire essential items like food and water as well as aiding in acquiring replacement furniture and the like. By the end of their fund raising efforts, more than $62,000 was quickly raised to address the damages caused by the flooding. This is an organization invested in education and people and wants to develop relationships with these individuals which will undoubtedly move them closer to the larger goal of escaping a poverty stricken life.

The non-profit has aided in opening up 20 different schools in 3 different states as well as Washington D.C. It was founded in 2006 by John Danner and Preston Smith who envisioned a company from the beginning which would give those less fortunate then themselves a leg up in the world through quality education. Their most recent fiscal year saw their funding rise to a very respectable $3.3 million which is used to fund the construction of new schools in areas that have historically been poverty stricken. Its main goals are to place qualified teachers into these schools and use a combination of one on one mentoring and the implementation of technology that these students may have otherwise never had access to. By setting them up p the right path as young students, the possibility that they will go on to further their education after high school is great increased. Rocketship Education has laid the groundwork to change thousands of lives. Education is truly the key to rising above the circumstances into which you were born. Hopefully, more organizations will use their successes as a blueprint to change even more lives through the power of education.