Give the Gift of a Mentor

APIE Mentoring by the Numbers:

  • 972: Number of volunteers who have registered to mentor through APIE for the 2013-14 school year
  • $21,938: Value of volunteer service each WEEK if all 972 are placed, according to Independent Sector’s value of a volunteer hour in Texas
  • $125: APIE’s cost to support one mentor for one school year
  • 124: Number of Austin ISD schools where APIE mentors can serve
  • 4,000: Number of students still on the waiting list for a mentor in Austin ISD

Mentors can positively impact student attitudes and ambitions. Research has proved many benefits of mentoring, including:

  • keeping students in school
  • building students’ self-esteem
  • reducing likelihood of student involvement in risky behavior or use of illicit substances
  • decreasing depressive symptoms
  • improving student grades and academic attitudes
  • Developing students’ communications skills,
  • modeling and encouraging goal setting and taking steps to achieve those goals

To meet the needs of more students, we invite you to Give the Gift of a Mentor this December. Beginning with #GivingTuesday on December 3 and continuing through December 31, APIE’s goal is to raise $10,000 to broaden support for its Mentoring Program. Thanks to a generous $5,000 matching grant challenge from the Oppenheimer Foundation, a private Houston-based family foundation, your donation has the power to double its impact!

About #GivingTuesday

Give the Gift of a Mentor#GivingTuesday is a movement to create a national day of giving to kick off the giving season added to the calendar on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The second annual #GivingTuesday is on December 3, 2013. In the same way that retail stores take part in Black Friday, we want the giving community to come together for #GivingTuesday. (via)

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Announcement: Leadership Transition

Isadora Day Named Interim Executive Director Following Dr. Cathy Jones Departure

June 25, 2025 – Austin Partners in Education (APIE) has announced a leadership transition following the departure of longtime Executive Director Dr. Cathy Jones, who will begin a new role as CEO of UP Partnership, a nonprofit serving young people across Bexar County. After 13 years of dedicated service to APIE and Austin ISD, Dr. Jones leaves behind a strong legacy of community collaboration, student-centered innovation, and organizational growth.

With Cathy’s departure, the APIE Board of Directors has appointed Isadora Day as Interim Executive Director, effective July 14, 2025. Day most recently served as Director of Programs at APIE, where she has led high-impact initiatives in college readiness, mentoring, and math intervention for Austin ISD students…