Help Us Support More Students

If you’re looking for a way to support our mission, consider becoming a volunteer or a donor! There are a variety of ways to support us! Your volunteering helps us expand our capacity while working within our company's resources. We welcome anyone to get involved in one of our low-time commitment Volunteer Committees!

If you have specialized skills and training in college counseling and career counseling, we have more long-term, 1-2 year volunteer commitments available to serve our students. If you would like to express interest in any potential Board service, please contact our Executive Director, Sydney, at sydney@barrier-breakers.org

Volunteer Committees

At Barrier Breakers, we love our volunteers!

We currently have four working committees that we need volunteers for:

  • Fundraising Committee

  • Partnership Committee

  • Outreach and Mentoring Committee

  • Data Committee

Each committee meets once per month for 30-60 minutes to discuss its individual goals and progress and to better understand the organization's needs.

  • Fundraising Committee

    Our Fundraising Committee helps us spread the word about the organization to their network and helps us reach our quarterly and annual fundraising goals.

    Our fundraising committee helps with Outreach and Event Hosting:

    Send three emails/write three LinkedIn posts or messages per month (script provided); invite five people to fundraising brunches per quarter and/or host or financially sponsor one information session per year

  • Partnerships Committee

    Partnerships help us expand our reach, serve more students, and spread the word about our impact at Barrier Breakers. Our volunteers on the partnership committee help us make strategic connections to move the organization forward.

    Member of our Partnership Committee make or continue one quarterly introduction to a law firm/corporation/school/organization to foster potential partnerships.

  • Outreach and Mentorship Committee

    Our Outreach and Mentorship Committee helps us connect with our students, strengthens our Outreach and Wellness program, and ensures that we’re fostering a community at Barrier Breakers that is lifelong for our students.

    Student Mentorship

    Support the Outreach and Wellness Coordinator by calling a set number of students per semester and/or mentoring a set number of students per year. Recruit volunteer mentors for students.

    Alumni Engagement

    Strategize about our alumni community and increase engagement. Host/sponsor in-person meetings with alumni and students.

  • Data Committee

    Data is crucial for us to track and improve our impact as an organization and to communicate our impact to our stakeholders. As a young organization, we have a number of areas we need strategic guidance and thought-partnership on when it comes to data.

    Data Acquisition: Provide strategic advice on best questions to capture for student outcome and impact data. Help brainstorm questions and forms for data capturing and incentive structures for data capture

    Data Organization: Provide strategic advice and feedback on how the organization is organizing student outcome data and best practices helping to direct the staff on the execution

    Data Presentation: Provide strategic advice and feedback on how the organization is presenting student outcome data to stakeholders on various platforms and various situations

Contact Us to Volunteer

Volunteer as a College Counselor

We are looking for dedicated college counseling volunteers to join our team to help us as we serve pro bono high school students on Free and Reduced Lunch and from Title I schools for the 2025-2027 application process,  committing to 15 hours over two years per student. You can choose to mentor between one and five students, tailoring your impact according to your capacity.

Barrier Breakers® provides a proven, structured curriculum that guides both students and volunteers through the college admissions process, including list building, career and major exploration, and academic advising. Students will use an online course platform with guided activities supplemented by bi-monthly check-ins with volunteers. Volunteers are not required to edit all student essays. Comprehensive essay editing support is provided to pro bono students through our partner vendors.

We seek volunteers who:

  • Are comfortable working one-on-one with students.

  • Have relevant experience in college admissions.

  • Can relate to the first-generation and/or minority student experience.

  • Are adept at navigating the processes and methods established by Barrier Breakers®.

Volunteer Profile:

Specialized Volunteer Opportunities

Questions? Email Sydney at sydney@barrier-breakers.org

Over 85% of our students are first-generation college or law school students. First-generation students often need more support for internships and career guidance as they are the first people in their families to walk their educational path. Additionally, as many of our students are non-traditional students, they often need to support themselves through school or in between placements with work opportunities. As part of our comprehensive support model, we work to help our high school, college, law school, and aspiring graduate students find jobs and internships in their fields. Time commitment is flexible and can be tailored to your bandwidth.

Volunteer as an Internship & Career Counselor

Volunteer Profile:

  • Comfortable researching and evaluating career and internship opportunities.

  • Comfortable working one-on-one with students and providing interviewing and application tips

  • Strong organizational skills

“I didn’t grow up around any lawyers. I’m a first-generation professional student. I knew having someone who would help me along that journey would be extremely helpful and Sydney did just that.”

Hear more from Aisha, one of our clients who is currently attending Notre Dame Law School!

Have other ways you want to volunteer with us?

If you have a specific skill set that you think would be helpful to us, please reach out to us! We’d love to chat. We are also always looking for support with grant writing and research, digital marketing, graphic design, and data organization. Feel free to email us at admin@barrier-breakers.org to find a time to connect! Thank you for your interest in supporting our organization.