Uplifting the Next Generation of Leaders
A Message from Our CEO
Growing up in South Seattle, I was surrounded by a community that worked hard so that my peers and I could live out our dreams. Doors were opened that would not have been possible without their sacrifices. Today, as I wrap up my first year as CEO of Rainier Scholars, I am fulfilling my community’s dream for every child to excel in school and beyond. I am grateful to lead this extraordinary organization and witness our scholars reach their full potential as future leaders destined for great things.
For 25 years, Rainier Scholars has empowered students to grow into leaders in our state, country, and world. Our impact is unprecedented. This year we have 720 active scholars, a network of over 400 alumni, and a 91% college graduation rate.
The most powerful measure of our impact is seen through the lives of our scholars and alumni. Over the past year, I have had the privilege of meeting many of our brilliant young people. Karen Lobos, an alumna from our second cohort, is the Executive Director of Rainier Prep, and is living her dream of being a champion for social justice. One of our current scholars, Sydney Goitia-Doran, is a junior at Howard University, Editor-in-Chief of The Hilltop, a 2025 White House Correspondents’ Association Scholar, and spent the summer interning with the Seattle Medium .
Throughout this report, you will meet more remarkable scholars whose boldness and brilliance light the way for our future.
I am energized by and deeply proud of each of these young people. Rainier Scholars has a strong vision and commitment to serving more students and providing additional resources to our alumni as they begin their careers. Looking ahead, we carry with us the voices and stories of our families, scholars, and alumni. By keeping them at the heart of our work, we will expand our impact and create lasting change.
I know that this is all made possible by the generous support of our community. On behalf of the staff and board at Rainier Scholars, thank you.
Serving as the CEO of this incredible organization is truly an honor, and I’m so excited about the work ahead. Together, we will continue uplifting the next generation of leaders.
With gratitude,
Eddie Lincoln | Chief Executive Officer
Mission
Rainier Scholars cultivates students’ academic and leadership potential through rigorous, transformative opportunities that increase college graduation rates and empower new generations of leaders.
Vision
We envision a just and inclusive society with equitable representation at all levels of leadership and influence.
Early Start
Scholars in our program receive longterm support starting in 5th grade and continuing to college completion.
Mental Health Support
Scholars and families are supported by mental health experts throughout the program. The team offers one-on-one student and family counseling sessions and workshops.
Culturally Relevant Curriculum
Our intentional curriculum is designed with an equity lens to help students uphold and honor their cultural identities.
Free to Students and Families
Thanks to the generous commitment of our partners and supporters, our programming is offered at no cost to students and their families.
12-Year Program Overview
Recruitment
Rainier Scholars focuses its recruitment of underrepresented students of color from eleven school districts in and around Seattle and Tacoma.
Prep and Placement
Each summer, Rainier Scholars welcomes new cohorts of rising 5th graders into a rigorous academic enrichment program that prepares them for college-prep pathways in public and independent schools
Academic Counseling
Rainier Scholars supports the academic and personal development of students from middle school through college completion. Academic counselors build personal and trusting relationships with scholars and families — meeting regularly, organizing socials, and leading workshops.
What Sets Us Apart
College Counseling
Rainier Scholars provides oneon-one support for students and families as they navigate the complex college application and decision-making process. Through financial aid guidance, essay review, and admissions coaching, we’re there every step of the way.
Leadership and Career Development
We identify and provide access to academic, leadership, and professional development opportunities. Scholars make the most of high school and college internships and skillbuilding workshops. They leverage opportunities to explore career pathways and build their professional networks.
Alumni
Our growing alumni community includes young professionals committed to mutual support, networking, and professional development. This group stays connected through social activities and mentoring younger scholars.
1999–2000
Bob Hurlbut, inspired by A Hope in the Unseen, founds Rainier Prep.
June 2010
30 college students enter internships in the greater Seattle area.
Sept. 2011
Recruitment is expanded beyond Seattle to Renton and Highline School Districts.
June 2024
Grand Opening of RS – Tacoma office at James Center.
March 2002
Aug. 2002
76 students join Rainier Prep Cohort I.
May 2009
The College Support phase of the program is launched, Cohort I receives 170 acceptance letters from colleges and universities.
Rainier Prep changes its name and officially becomes Rainier Scholars.
Sept. 2003
Cohort I graduates from the Academic enrichment phase of the program.
June 2008
29 high school students placed in paid internships.
May 2013
First Rainier Scholars college graduates!
May 2007
Rainier Scholars holds the first annual fundraising luncheon.
Sept. 2017
Recruitment is extended to early-start 4th graders.
June 2022
Rainier Scholars – Tacoma launches Cohort 1 Summer Stretch programming.
Sept. 2006
The High School Support phase of the program is launched.
Dec. 2006
Leadership Retreat I is piloted.
April 2020
Pivots to COVID-19 online programming.
25 Years of Excellence
From its bold beginnings in 1999, Rainier Scholars has grown into a transformative force for educational equity, supporting more than 1,000 students and families through its 12-year journey from elementary school to college and career. This May, at our 25th Anniversary Celebration, the community came together to raise more than $2 million to expand academic opportunity across the Puget Sound region.
The evening highlighted both the promise and the proof of our mission while honoring Rainier Scholars champions, including founder Bob Hurlbut. As CEO Eddie Lincoln reminded us, “Our greatest strength is collective action,” a truth that continues to propel our scholars to break barriers, graduate at extraordinary rates, and step into leadership roles in our workplaces and communities.
Thank you for making 25 years of Rainier Scholars possible!
How We’re Uplifting the Next Generation of Leaders
We believe in the potential of students and we know that, given access to opportunities, they will thrive and make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. After all, our founder, Bob Hurlbut, created Rainier Scholars with a vision to achieve equitable representation in leadership by providing equal opportunities for students to excel academically.
The Rainier Scholars Strategic Plan is all about growing the impact of our programs, both to reach more students and to better serve our existing community of scholars, families, and alumni.
Strengthen the Scholar & Family Experience
We are deepening support for scholars and families by actively listening to their experiences and using that feedback to guide program improvements. Last spring, our most successful survey to date showed that families overwhelmingly recommend Rainier Scholars, recognizing its significant benefits even with the program’s high expectations. At the same time, scholars shared areas where we can grow— such as fostering a greater sense of safety to take risks and enhancing mental health support. We’re also continuing to look at how we’re engaging in the classroom—read more in “The Writing Revolution” on the next page. These insights are helping us ensure the program continues to meet the evolving needs of our community across both Seattle and Tacoma.
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Building a Vibrant Alumni Network
With more than 400 alumni, Rainier Scholars is strengthening support beyond graduation to foster lifelong success. Surveys, focus groups, and community conversations revealed that alumni feel deeply connected to the program but want more structured opportunities to engage and grow. In response, we are expanding career and graduate school guidance and creating new ways for alumni to support current scholars. From local gatherings in Seattle to our first-ever alumni event in New York City, we are building a strong, connected alumni community that thrives long after graduation.
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Grow College Success
Rainier Scholars is committed to extending opportunity to even more students in the years ahead. Building on the success of our growing Tacoma program, we are clarifying the essential elements of our model and exploring where it can have the greatest impact. From new cities to nearby suburban communities, we are envisioning how Rainier Scholars can support more young people on the path to college and career success. Guided by thoughtful analysis and community input, this fall our leadership and Board of Trustees are making important decisions that will shape the next chapter of growth—expanding the reach of our mission while staying true to its core.
The Writing Revolution
Every Rainier Scholar’s journey kicks off with a transformational intensive program called the Academic Enrichment Program (AEP). For the months before, during, and following fifth grade, scholars complete the equivalent of one additional school year (1,000 hours) of academic enrichment through summer sessions and additional learning year-round.
It’s within this intensive academic setting that we’ve implemented the Writing Revolution methodology, a research-backed approach that bridges systematic instruction with meaningful content engagement to deeply integrate the building blocks of writing into all subjects.
Rather than assuming students will naturally develop writing skills through exposure, the Writing Revolution method provides systematic, step-by-step instruction. And instead of jumping to paragraphs or essays, students first master sentence construction. The method builds skills incrementally, with clear feedback helping students identify mistakes and monitor progress, and reinforces the need to plan, or outline, before writing at length.
To reinforce these skills, writing isn’t taught in isolation, but integrated across all subjects. When all teachers are sending the same message about the building blocks of writing, it lowers the cognitive load of learning any subject, allowing students to focus on the lesson in front of them–like science–rather than the anxiety about how to do their science-related writing assignment.
This will prepare the next generation of diverse leaders to think clearly, argue persuasively, and communicate ideas with power and precision, recognizing that strong writing skills are essential for success across all subjects, and beyond.
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You can’t ask a student to become an artist without first teaching the building blocks of creating art. It’s the same for writing.”
— Ashley Sirls, Director of Leadership Development
Pillars of
Community Leadership
Future leaders aren’t built in isolation. They’re shaped by the community that surrounds them. From a high schooler’s leadership in the profound act of collective healing after a community tragedy, to the transformation of a young immigrant child into an accomplished financial professional, these relationships within the community provide critical support systems for scholars of all ages.
Leadership for Community Healing
In the aftermath of a school shooting last year at Garfield High School that resulted in the loss of classmate Amarr Murphy-Paine, seventeen-year-old Princess Green no longer felt safe at her school. She began advocating for students: meeting with the mayor, writing articles, and speaking with the superintendent and chief of police. She was searching for answers, for change, for something that could make sense of the senseless.
Working together with eight of her fellow students, Princess helped to transform their collective trauma into something extraordinary: a documentary called “True Dawgs” that captures not just their pain, but their resilience and unwavering commitment to community. She also organized a powerful event for community healing on National Gun Violence Awareness Day. These serve as reminders that community isn’t just what happens when things are going well—it’s what we build when everything falls apart.
The confidence to tackle these challenges didn’t emerge overnight. Princess credits Rainier Scholars with building the foundation. “One of the biggest things I learned from Rainier Scholars was to get out of my shell and speak with confidence,” she said. Early investments from Rainier Scholars now fuel her ability to “interview and talk to adults about real world situations.”
Through her advocacy, Princess learned that her voice could carry weight in rooms where adults often struggled to find answers. Her message to other young people is both simple and revolutionary:
You are never too young to create change and be the change that you want to see. No voice is too small to make a difference.”
— Princess Green, Cohort 18, Garfield High School Senior
Read the full article
Community Support Shapes Tomorrow’s Leaders
Community investment creates a multiplier effect: each leader shaped by community becomes a builder of community for others. That’s the case for Hieu Tran, a senior at Wake Forest University preparing for a career in financial services, who was born in Vietnam and immigrated to South Seattle when he was 3 years old.
He describes his life through a series of inflection points, with the biggest coming when a teacher gave him a brochure for Rainier Scholars. As he later came to understand, joining Rainier Scholars wasn’t just about accessing better schools—it was about surrounding himself with bright and driven students and gaining access to world-class mentors.
When Hieu talks about Rainier Scholars today, he doesn’t describe an organization. Instead, he speaks of community: of “an important group of people who were foundational in my upbringing.” This chosen family has been the constant thread throughout his transformation.
Within his Rainier Scholars cohort, Hieu found community with four people he met as part of a student group during the academic program in fifth grade. All four are pursuing a career in the business world. These relationships with Dawit Ewnetu, Mussie Dagmawi, and Fraol Bogale have evolved far beyond typical friendships. They’ve become the foundation of his support system and their collective wins inspire him to keep moving forward.
Hieu is grateful for Rainier Scholars, and knows that his story could have been very different:
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Somewhere within Seattle, there is an extremely bright 4th grader filled with tenacity, hunger, and a desire to do something great with their life. However, they don’t have the resources, guidance at home, or roadmap to navigate the complexities of the education system. This child has great potential, and with the right support, they could overcome systemic barriers and become a leader within their community.”
— Hieu Tran, Cohort 14, Wake Forest University Senior
Pathways of Purpose
hours of educational enrichment, equivalent to one additional school year 1,000+ of high school seniors were accepted to 4-year colleges and universities
99%
of high school scholars are on college prep pathways in public or private schools
100% of scholars are attending a 4-year college or university
98%
professional internships for high school and college scholars
100+ of eligible scholars have graduated or are on track to graduate from 4-year colleges and universities
91%
College Destinations 2024-25
96%
See the full list of college destinations! of recent graduates are in full-time jobs or enrolled in graduate school programs aligned with their interests
400+
alumni around the world are making positive impacts in their communities
Transformative Opportunities
Global Education Programs
Through summer enrichment, travel abroad, and professional internships, scholars strengthen academic and leadership skills while broadening their worldview and deepening self-awareness. These experiences push them beyond their comfort zones, fostering personal growth, and enhancing college and career readiness. This year, scholars participated in local opportunities as well as educational programs across the country and abroad.
Cohort 14 Rainier Scholar Jade Robinson recently traveled to Thailand for 8 weeks as a communications intern with Gulf Development (GULF), one of Thailand’s largest energy companies.
Jade described the entire experience as “amazing,” starting with day one when she attended a press conference announcing a major partnership between GULF and its subsidiary to support the Thai Football League. Not only was it an exciting way to kick off her internship and learn about Thai football, but it also offered a chance to see how PR professionals run big events behind the scenes.
During her internship, Jade attended community events to create video content for GULF’s social media platforms, visited GULF’s Sriracha Power Plant to document her experience for corporate social channels, and worked on an article for a major news outlet,
Jade credits living and working abroad for teaching her how to navigate new cultures and grow more confident. She also said that the experience showed her what good leadership can look like: it can be respectful, mutual, and personable. She aspires to bring all of those lessons into her leadership in the future.
— Jade Robinson, Cohort 14, University of Southern California Senior “
This experience has definitely opened my eyes to the very real possibility of working abroad… I’ve seen how I can bring a different perspective and skill set to the table, and that can be really valuable to companies that are looking for people who can bridge cultural differences and think globally.”
Celebrating Tomorrow’s Leaders
The Whitman Trip, a tradition dating back to our very first cohort, returned this spring after a pandemic pause. Our oldest Tacoma scholars, now in 8th grade, were thrilled to close out their Academic Enrichment Program (AEP) on the Whitman College campus, carrying forward a cherished milestone in the Rainier Scholars journey.
Over three days and two nights, scholars focused on fun and connection. Students stayed in dorms, ate in the food court, and enjoyed group games, competitions, trips to the pool, and a movie night. This year, scholars also explored more potential pathways for their future, thanks to partnerships with Whitman professors in the geology and astronomy departments. In a geology lab, students worked with a water table to create streams and see water flow – they even created a tsunami. In the astronomy lab, students were able to engage with different equipment to experience the full spectrum of light.
On the final night, each student received a special graduation sweatshirt featuring their cohort number. Awards were also given out, and the Scholar Council—elected by the students—was announced to great applause.
The trip concluded with the Your Inner Light ceremony—another longstanding tradition. Before Your Inner Light, scholars are asked to select an artifact that represents their Rainier Scholars journey. The group gathers in a circle, and each person shares their artifact and its meaning. When everyone has shared, each scholar receives a candle. The lights are turned off, then a leader lights the first candle. In turn, each person passes the flame around the circle. Until the room is full of light.
This sacred moment is highly emotional for scholars and teachers alike, and is one of the most poignant parts of the Whitman experience. Your Inner Light offers a chance to reflect on the challenges each scholar has overcome, and the strengths that will guide them as tomorrow’s leaders.
“During Your Inner Light, we talk about the great gift that every student has received to be a part of this community. We recognize that, while it’s hard, it’s a great opportunity with limitless possibilities. Scholars can do anything when they take these ideas, learning, tools, experiences, and skills, and apply them to their lives.”
— Jennifer Ward, Tacoma Executive Director
We Are Community Powered!
Rainier Scholars would not be possible without the strong community of supporters powering our mission. From foundations to corporations and generous individuals, we celebrate everyone who invests in our scholars! Here we highlight Medina Foundation and Mortenson, two partners whose steadfast support has been vital to advancing our mission. We’re deeply grateful for the generosity of our donors, partners, volunteers, and ambassadors.
“The Medina Foundation is proud to support Rainier Scholars and its transformative work in expanding educational opportunity and cultivating the next generation of leaders.”
— Aana Lauckhart, Senior Program Officer
“We support Rainier Scholars because we deeply admire the impactful work they do. By expanding educational opportunities, they’re not only empowering individual students but also creating lasting, positive change in our broader community.”
— Michael Harder, Vice President, General Manager
Discover the full list of supporting companies and foundations:
Generosity in Action
2024-25 Financials*
We’re proud to share that philanthropic support continued to grow in fiscal year 2025. As Rainier Scholars expands our reach in Tacoma and prepares for ambitious growth ahead, we are deeply grateful for the generosity of our dedicated donors and partners who make this progress possible. Thanks to this collective support and prudent financial stewardship, our reserve funds continued to grow, strengthening long-term stability and ensuring we can sustain our mission for years to come. Total Revenue
$18,488,597
$13,728,833 Foundations
$2,123,149 Corporations
$1,251,509
$13,502 In-Kind Contributions $7,500
1,200+
donors contributed to Rainier Scholars this year.
89% growth in reserves strengthened long-term stability.
*Unaudited financial data for fiscal year 2025. Audited financial statements available in January 2026.
Impact Leaders
Rainier Scholars Board of Trustees
Joe Belfiore, Chair
John Birrer, Secretary
Nicolette Sharp, Treasurer
Kevin Baker
Ayda Cader
Zander Doroski
Michelle Galvin
Bisrat Gebre
Thaddaeus Gregory
“
Patricia Handjaja
Pam Harrington
Andy Jassy
Abdul Kallon
Bernie Noe
Laura Orser
Sujal Patel
Eduardo Peñalver
Fred Rivera
Mike Rodden
Laura Selipsky
Sarah Smith
Patrick Supanc
Jorge Valcarcel
Bradaigh Wagner
I support Rainier Scholars because of how education and access transformed my life. I am a proud alum of Prep for Prep, which shares a similar mission as Rainier Scholars and, apart from my family, has been the single most impactful influence in my life. I have seen firsthand how educational equity can empower our lives and those of generations to come.”
— Jorge Valcarcel, Board Member
Reach Out — and Make an Impact
Give today or contact us to learn more about how you can get involved.
info@rainierscholars.org
206-407-2111
rainierscholars.org
Help Us Make an Impact
At Rainier Scholars, we take our commitment to students seriously, but we can’t do it alone. We count on your partnership!
Whether you can give a little or a lot of your time, talent, or treasure, there’s more than one way to invest in our scholars and families.
Donate
Are you ready to make an immediate impact? Each gift to Rainier Scholars directly impacts our scholars and families.
Help make career exploration possible
Provide internships and volunteer at events that help scholars learn about career pathways, while building professional skills and networks.
Sponsor our luncheon
Align your company’s brand with our mission of educational equity by sponsoring our luncheon, attended by 1,000+ business and community leaders.
Give a college care package
Be part of a community that comes together each fall and spring to put together meaningful care packages for our college scholars. A little package of love goes a long way!
Refer a company
Make an introduction to a business that could sponsor one of our community-facing events or provide game-changing grant funding.
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Seattle, Washington 98144-4646
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