Goals For Good (boys)

Elm City Internationals uses soccer to engage youth in New Haven in academics. The end goal is for all of their students to attend and graduate from college.

ECI works to ensure that all of its students are prepared (academically and athletically) for college. Many students, however, still face financial challenges that can make the reality of college difficult for them. Therefore, ECI helps students seek out private scholarships for college. Unfortunately, students’ financial needs are not always fully met through private financial aid and scholarships. In order to make sure that 100% of ECI students are able to attend college, ECI initiated its own scholarship fund, the Elm City International Scholarship Fund (“ECISF”). ECISF is designed to provide students with “gap funding” (the difference between the financial aid and scholarships they receive and the cost of tuition) so that they can all afford to attend college. To date, 100% of ECI alums have graduated college within 4.5 years of graduating high school.

The Hopkins Soccer program (both boys and girls teams) will be fundraising to help support the ECISF and ensure that all of the ECI students have the opportunity to graduate from college. We are asking for pledges to one of the Varsity teams for each goal we score to help the ECISF. Last year, the boys varsity team scored 30 goals. It is a realistic goal for the Hopkins program to be able to provide gap funding for at least one ECI kid (and maybe more if we have a prolific goal scoring season!!) A few of my teammates and I have tutored and coached ECI students over the years. I have found the experience to be enjoyable and meaningful and have loved the students’ high energy and love of the game. I always look forward to going back, and would highly recommend looking into not only helping fundraise, but tutoring as well. Feel free to send me an email with any questions about ECI, or Goals for Good. We hope this fundraiser will engage the soccer program with the New Haven community, and strengthen the relationship between ECI and Hopkins soccer.