PeerForward’s mission is to unleash the power of positive peer influence to transform the lives of youth living in low-income communities by connecting them to college and careers. Formerly known as College Summit, we began as a single workshop in the basement of a Washington, D.C. community center. The goal was to help students capture their stories in personal essays that could be used for college applications. From that single workshop, more than two decades ago, founders J.B. Schramm, Keith Frome, and Derek Canty built a national organization that has guided more than 350,000 students across the nation to higher education.