Franklin & Marshall College

Franklin & Marshall College continuously looks to create opportunities to engage students, alumni and the greater community. This section highlights some of the current initiatives that support this mission.

F&M College Prep

Franklin & Marshall has made tremendous recent progress in its commitment to ensure that talented students from all backgrounds have the opportunity to attend the college of their choosing. Work in this area includes the expansion of Project Launch, which teams up 12 incoming first-year mentors with 12 ninth-graders from nearby McCaskey High School; obtaining a $300,000 Lenfest Foundation grant to provide college counseling to rural Pennsylvania high schools; and embarking on a partnership with the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), a highly-regarded national charter school network. In summer 2011, F&M hosted 23 high-achieving students on campus for a three-week, pre-college immersion program designed around three pillars: academic development, personal development and college preparation.

Idea Groups

We have formed four idea groups whose members will canvas the community—students, faculty, alumni and professional staff—for promising ideas that F&M can act upon expeditiously. The groups will address these four questions:

1. What are ways to strengthen and support academic distinction?
2. In what other ways should we respond to the holistic needs of students?
3. In what new ways might we build durable and rewarding relationships with alumni? and
4. How can we sustain an empowered, collaborative work community?

This work will be structured so that all members of the community will be able to be involved. Anyone interested in joining an idea group can email .