AT&T and Roadtrip Nation Inspire High School Students to Define Their Own Road in Life

Initiative Connects Classroom Learning to Real-Life Opportunities.

AT&T* announced that it will support Roadtrip Nation (RTN) in its mission to help high school students define their own road in life through real-world career exploration experiences. Starting with the first East Coast program that launched today in New York City, AT&T will contribute $1.2 million to the Roadtrip Nation Experience through AT&T Aspire, which is AT&T’s $100 million initiative focused specifically on high school success and workforce readiness.

RTN began in 2001 with four friends – recent college graduates unsure about their career paths – who hit the road in a used RV to explore a variety of career options. They interviewed inspiring professionals across the country to find out how they came to do what they love for a living.

Today, the Roadtrip Nation Experience is an extension of RTN providing an interactive curriculum that utilizes multi-media course work designed to facilitate self-discovery, inspiring students to take the educational steps required to achieve their own goals. The AT&T contribution will help expand and maximize the impact of RTN’s experiential learning and college preparation programs to high school students nationwide.

“Our first Roadtrip Nation journey brought to light the great need for a career exploration model in America and showed us the impact such an experience can have on a student’s future success,” commented Mike Marriner, co-founder, Roadtrip Nation. “With AT&T’s support we will be able to deliver this valuable program to high school students across the country who are in need of meaningful exposure and exploration.”

The New York program, which kicked off today at an event hosted by RTN and the College Board at the Fashion Institute of Technology, includes 200 high school students from Yonkers and Queens. Through the RTN Experience curriculum, the students will develop skills, such as making cold calls and preparing for meetings, to get out ‘on the road’ and interview and learn from leaders in the community with interests similar to their own.

“It is critical that our students connect what they are learning in schools with their future life success,” said Laura Sanford, president of the AT&T Foundation. “We are proud to partner with Roadtrip Nation to help more students around the country discover a passion that will drive them toward success in high school, post-secondary education and in the real-world beyond graduation.”

Recent research, “On the Front Lines of Schools,” funded by AT&T and conducted by Civic Enterprises and Peter Hart Research with America’s Promise Alliance, reflects the educators’ perspective of the dropout crisis. In it, practitioners express strong support for reforms such as connecting classroom learning with real-world experiences and expanded college-level learning opportunities. According to research, both of these methods would help reduce the dropout rate – and both are the foundation of the RTN Experience curriculum.

Funding provided by AT&T will expand the classroom-based model RTN Experience to more students. RTN will team up with AVID, a national college preparatory program for economically disadvantaged and underachieving students to deliver classroom materials including workbooks and DVDs to 25,000 students. To complement classroom learning and enrich the overall RTN Experience, students also can access customizable Web content.

In addition, AT&T’s contribution will allow RTN to reach a greater number of students online. Through collaboration between RTN and the College Board, students will have access to career exploration tools and multimedia resources through CollegeEd®, a web and workbook based college planning program. The purpose is to deliver a cutting-edge RTN Experience to 100,000 students nationwide providing exposure to diverse careers opportunities.

AT&T is committed to advancing education, strengthening communities and improving lives. As evidence of its commitment, AT&T launched AT&T Aspire, a $100 million high school success and workforce readiness initiative in April 2008. AT&T Aspire is one of the largest-ever corporate commitments to address high school success and workforce readiness.