About Reach Your Peak

Reach Your Peak is a partnership between colleges in northwestern Colorado with the goal of creating excitement about learning that motivates students toward a bright future and further education. Reach Your Peak starts with summer camps for middle and high school students, continues through concurrent enrollment options for high school students, and finally propels students into college and other postsecondary education. The target populations for this program are students in northwestern Colorado who might not consider going to college as an option - low socioeconomic status, first generation to college, ethnic minorities, children in single-parent households, children living in foster care, learning or physically challenged, or other documented financial need, etc. - but any and all interested students are welcomed and encouraged to participate. The partners include Colorado Mesa University, Colorado Mountain College, Colorado Northwestern Community College, and Western Colorado Community College. The program is also supported by the Northwest Council of El Pomar Foundation.

Reach Your Peak was formed in 2012 when four institutions of higher education in the Northwest part of Colorado joined together as partners to offer programming to middle school students with the goal of educating and engaging youth around existing and emerging local job opportunities. The four institutions are Colorado Mountain College, Western Colorado Community College and Colorado Mesa University, and Colorado Northwestern Community college. Our hope is that middle school students will join us each year for summer camps to learn about the opportunities that exist for them in their communities, engage with us through early high school programming and concurrent enrollment in later high school, and then graduate with a degree or a certificate from one of the four partner institutions and be ready to enter the local workforce as prepared as possible for an exciting career. For students who complete each step of the program through high school, there are scholarship funds available to attend one of the four partner colleges or university.

If you have questions about any of the camps in the Reach Your Peak program, please contact one of the participating institutions.

Purpose

El Pomar Foundation’s Northwest Regional Council initiated the Reach Your Peak Colorado program to:
  • Involve students in summer activities that are both fun and educational,
  • Lead them to future learning options in high school,
    and
  • Provide scholarships to help them attend one of the partner colleges.