Friends,

Greetings from Princeton!

PUPP spent important time throughout 2015 and 2016 looking back at PUPP’s first 15 years through a comprehensive evaluation project led by a team of researchers from ETS. The reports are resoundingly positive, confirming that PUPP has worked to meet its mission and goals by providing a thorough, thoughtful and engaging preparation experience for our scholars. They demonstrate the significant gains in college attainment (admission, matriculation and completion) for our scholars in comparison to their national peer groups and a local comparison group. The reports also offer ways for Princeton to strengthen the administrative supports for PUPP and programming options for scholars, families and alumni.

We hope to put these organizational suggestions into practice in the coming year. In addition to the overall evaluation report (over 100 pages of data and findings), ETS produced reports on PUPP Alumni, current PUPP Scholars and PUPP parents.

Like the PUPP Scholars who have come before them, our class of 2017 is an extraordinary cohort who took full advantage of opportunities provided by PUPP to thrive in high school and prepare for selective college success. A record 10 members of the cohort earned admission to the University of Richmond (three during early decision rounds)! Of those 10, seven will matriculate at Richmond in Fall 2017. As for the rest of the cohort, three will become members of the Princeton University Class of 2021, while individual scholars will head out to some other outstanding schools – including our first scholars to matriculate at Bates College, Pitzer College, Union College and Yale University. The remaining members of the cohort are heading to Bryn Mawr, Gettysburg, Rutgers, Stockton, The College of New Jersey, Muhlenberg (2), and Trinity.

As PUPP continues to work to best serve our community of scholars, families and alumni, we are thrilled to bring on Leslie Castrejon, from the PUPP Class of 2011 (Princeton High School) and Bryn Mawr College (2015) to serve a 30-month term as the new PUPP Alumni Fellow. Leslie started with us in mid-January, taking over for Adela Ramirez whose term concluded in February 2017. This past July, we brought on our second Social Work Intern from Rutgers University to help us better serve our families, particularly those facing unique challenges or crisis situations.

For over 15 years now, we have helped our scholars turn their dreams into reality and to dream new dreams. And, we could not do it without your support. If you have questions or comments about PUPP, or want to learn more about our work, our scholars or our results, please feel free to reach out to me directly at jklugman@princeton.edu. Thank you again for your support of our work and of our outstanding group of high school scholars.

Warm regards and best wishes for 2017!

Jason R. Klugman, Ph.D.

Director