About AOP
A New York City where every young person — regardless of income or ZIP code — uses their talent and drive in sport as a launchpad to college acceptance, a fully funded education, and a career of purpose.
Mission
AOP Foundation prepares student-athletes and students with athletic aspirations for success in college and beyond. We combine rigorous academics, athletic development, intensive one-on-one advising, and real-world career preparation so that every AOP scholar graduates high school accepted to a best-fit college, with a financial aid package their family can afford, and with the professional skills and networks to launch a career.
Vision
A future where every student graduates with the academic preparation, leadership skills, athletic opportunities, and financial knowledge needed to pursue an affordable and fulfilling postsecondary pathway.
Why AOP exists
Students from New York's highest-poverty high schools complete postsecondary credentials on time at roughly 20% vs. 45% for the lowest-poverty schools — a 25-point gap.
Seniors who complete the FAFSA are far more likely to enroll — yet nationally only about 59% of the class of 2026 completed it. We treat FAFSA completion as a headline goal.
Only about 2% of high school athletes receive athletic scholarships. Families who bank on recruiting often under-invest in academics and aid strategy. Our design corrects this.
Children from the lowest-income homes play sports at roughly half the rate of the highest-income group. We use the pull of athletics to drive participation and retention.
The Three Promise Outcomes
We follow the intensive-advising model validated by randomized controlled trials: low advisor-to-student ratios, advising that begins before senior year and continues to and through college, and a deliberate focus on college “match” — the factor research shows drives degree completion.
FAFSA completion is one of the strongest predictors of college enrollment. We treat athletics honestly — only about 2% of high school athletes receive athletic scholarships — so we use sport for discipline and differentiation while maximizing merit- and need-based aid as the real financial plan.
Speakers and worksite tours, job shadows and mock interviews, resumes, internships, and industry credentials — mirroring the career-academy model whose randomized evaluation found sustained earnings gains lasting years beyond high school.
Core Values
We see and invest in the potential of every young person.
Effort, dosage, and multi-year commitment drive outcomes.
We connect today's work to each student's long-term goals.
We tell families the truth about recruiting odds, costs, and aid.
We remove the cost, information, and network barriers.
Rigorous youth-protection and transparent stewardship.
We adopt practices validated by rigorous research and measure what matters.
We partner with families and neighborhoods, not around them.
Evidence base
AOP is a sports-based youth development organization built on the evidence: intensive college advising (validated by RCT), FAFSA/aid completion campaigns, long-duration mentoring, and career-academy-style work-based learning (validated by RCT).
All statistics are flagged for verification against primary sources before use in funder materials.