College and Careers

Expanding educational opportunities and helping to improve academic achievement can be one of the most effective strategies for economically empowering households and increasing the ability of young people to contribute positively to the broader economy.

Recognizing how critical obtaining a college degree is to increase earning power and breaking intergenerational cycles of poverty, we are specifically focused on efforts to generate a dramatic and sustainable increase in the number of low-income and first-generation students who enroll in college and obtain a degree. Since 2008, the Citi Foundation has invested more than $17.4 million to increase the college-going rate of low-income and first-generation students in the United States.

In 2010, the Citi Foundation will expand this program outside of the United States, to increase the earning potential of low-income secondary-school students around the world by helping them to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviors that will prepare them for further education or to enter the workforce in a living-wage job upon graduation.