Support SAIL to Help Make Oregon High School Students' College Dreams Come True

VIRTUAL SAIL 2020

COVID-19 quarantine has limited the pre-college summer opportunities across the country at a time when students need connection to future learning and career development more than ever. In response, and in alignment with our health department, SAIL will offer virtual programs this year, July 27 – July 31, 2020.  Check back for updates on how you can take part in some of these virtual events.

The Summer Academy to Inspire Learning (SAIL) is an innovative, exciting, and measurably effective UO program that motivates Oregon students to aim for higher education—and then follows up with the information and mentoring they need to succeed. SAIL needs your help to continue providing this invaluable support, to expand our efforts to meet the growing demand, and to ensure students remain engaged and connected to faculty and college life during these uncertain times.

SAIL relies heavily on volunteers and on voluntary giving. We use these funds to maintain and grow our FREE summer and school-year programs, to reach more high school students throughout the state, and to provide scholarships, work-study jobs, and mentoring for SAIL participants who enroll at the UO.

Two UO professors created SAIL as a fun way to show Oregon’s first generation, lower income, and underrepresented teens that college is an achievable goal, and now SAIL has become a premier pre-college program. These young people are often underrepresented at universities, yet SAIL encourages them to aspire to and realize the dream of pursuing post-secondary education. A recent program evaluation showed that participation in SAIL doubles the likelihood that a student will attend and succeed in college.

Entering its fifteenth year, SAIL provides FREE one-week summer academic programs and provides mentoring in the students’ high schools during the academic year. More than 200 UO faculty members volunteer their time by presenting lessons and activities that are inspiring and engaging. Currently, we host more than 500 students each summer. But that is not enough; we need to do more to make college a reality for more Oregon teens. Your gift can help make that happen.

Thank you for supporting SAIL. For more information about the SAIL program, please visit our main site.