How we find you...

Working with great high schools and guidance counselors who in turn help us recruit great students is the heart of what LEDA does. But, it’s a difficult process! There are a lot of websites out there that can give you a pretty good statistical snapshot of what an area looks like – such as the Educational Needs Index (www.educationalneedsindex.com), the National Center for Education Statistics, and the Census Bureau. In other words…it’s pretty easy to figure out the demographics of an area, such as what the average income is and what the test scores look like. But it’s MUCH harder to measure all the other intangible things that make a school great…like staff, innovation, and spirit.

Fairly often, a LEDA Scholar will tell me about a school or group of schools which we missed in his or her area, and that has amazing students. How we find and support these other deserving schools, counselors, and students is a conundrum we wrestle with all the time. Numbers are important…but they are only a small part of the story. Increasingly, LEDA is reaching out to community-based agencies so we can build a bigger base of recruiters who know our high schools far better than we ever will. But we are also open to any and all additional suggestions about how to find more deserving applicants like you...

-Heidi Fisher-
Director of Research & Recruitment