Good Morning Towers Family and Friends,

We wish you all a very happy New Year. 2023 is looking bright for Towers of Excellence!

We experienced so many successes in 2022. Here are a few we would like to highlight...

Donor Support

• Watchtower Security, our angel sponsor for 7 years, will continue to support us in 2023. We are forever grateful for their generosity and support over the years.
• We raised over $50,000 at our annual golf event.
• We have over 30 entities supporting our mission.
• We have over 500 individuals invested in our mission.

Expansions

• We have expanded our donor base.
• We have expanded our partner network in Chicago and beyond.
• We have expanded our student and staff members.
• We have expanded our programs to serve students in middle school through college.
• We have expanded our volunteer base.

Towers of Excellence strives to achieve excellence in 3 core competencies with our student members: academic excellence, social and emotional learning, and experiential and service learning opportunities. Our mission is to provide quality mentoring to our students through these core competencies.

Here are some 2022 successes we would like to highlight from each core competency...

Academic Excellence

• All our student members are meeting or exceeding their academic goals.
  
• Students are utilizing action plans to help them stay on track to achieve 3.5 or higher.
• College students are growing and successfully navigating their first year at college.
• All of our Order My Steps high school seniors are on track to be recipients of our Towers of Excellence Path to Success Scholarship.

Social and Emotional Learning

• Students attending Healthy Thinking course work to identifying and applying tools to support their well being.
• Student members obtaining and applying our Be SMART core value knowledge in their daily lives.
• Our members will continue to strive to Be SMART- Self-aware, Mindful, Accountable and Authentic, Responsible and Respectful and Tenacious, in all their affairs!
• Students are developing a student ambassador program to bring their voices to life on Towers website and social platforms, and within their communities!

Experiential and Service Learning

Student members participated in the following in 2022:

• Rock Climbing
• Broadway Theater
• Art Museum
• HBCU college tour
• IL state college tours
• Escape room
• Business workshop
• Black Panther live symphony orchestra
• College essay prep classes
• Holiday Game Day
• Pocket con event
• Toiletry drive for the senior living in their community
• Community dinner celebration
• and so much more!

2023 Goals and Metrics:

• At-a-glance development plan goals.
• At-a-glance program goals and metrics.
  

Please continue to support our mission and bring our vision to life to support students in marginalized communities to live a satisfying life and have a promising future!

We have a lot of hard work ahead in 2023. We need your continued support to accomplish our mission.

With love and gratitude,

Katie List and the Towers Team