Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Lasting Impact

Lasting Impact

CoGenerate Co-CEO Marc Freedman’s most recent book, How to Live Forever, was published by Hachette/Public Affairs in 2018, generating a lot of great attention. And it’s not over yet! Every week, the New York Times Sunday Opinion section includes a print-only feature...

Check Out Our Signature Event On Cogenerational Activism!

Check Out Our Signature Event On Cogenerational Activism!

On May 22, more than 1,100 people registered to learn more about the important cogenerational work our 2023 Innovation Fellows are doing. These 15 leaders are bringing generations together to solve problems and bridge divides. And each one has a unique and inspiring...

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Ellen Silber

Mentoring Latinas
Purpose Prize Fellow 2008

Mentoring at-risk Latina teens into college and better lives

As a Marymount College professor, Ellen Silber helped bring women’s studies into mainstream academic life. At 63, directing a leadership workshop for Latina adolescent girls, she read some numbers that astounded her: Latina teens have the highest rates among U.S. adolescents for pregnancy, leaving school and lifetime use of alcohol and cocaine. Their rates of attempted suicide are 150 percent higher than other teens’. Mentoring Latinas had always seemed a good idea to Silber, but suddenly it was an urgent calling. Silber saw that the girls in her leadership workshop bonded strongly with college women who could be role models. She set up Mentoring Latinas, recruited Marymount College Latina students to work with middle-school Hispanic girls, and enlisted a local school superintendent to help in matching them. Mentoring Latinas has served over 250 adolescent Latinas and their parents and engaged over 85 Hispanic mentors. Evaluations show that mentees experience a significant rise in self-esteem and improved grades in science and English. “Suddenly Hispanic girls became my sisters, or more appropriately at my age, my daughters, and so I was responsible for them.”