ABOUT HISTORY & FOUNDER:
HISTORY
Student Sponsor Partners was founded in 1986 by New York City investment banker Peter Flanigan. Peter recruited friends and colleagues to finance the education of 45 students at Cardinal Hayes and Cathedral High School, and to provide those students with one-on-one mentorship and academic support.
Student Sponsor Partners (SSP) recruits average to below-average students who are motivated to take advantage of the opportunity for a quality high school education. Most of the students accepted to our program are from public middle schools and single parent families living on public assistance in New York's inner city. Since that first class of 45 students started in the fall of 1986, SSP has grown to serve thousands of students. Today 1350 students, 1600 Sponsors, and 26 Partner Schools throughout New York City are part of SSP.
SSP has continued successfully over the years because our model works. The graduation rate among the Class of 2009 was 90%, and 95% of graduates went on to college. And the SSP experience has an impact on many students' lives long after they graduate from high school: independent research indicates that SSP alumni earn college degrees at a rate of five to six times that of their low-income peers nationwide.
Over 50 alumni of the program have returned to serve as mentors themselves.
FOUNDER
Peter M. Flanigan is the founder of Student Sponsor Partners. He currently serves on the SSP Board of Directors, and financially sponsors 17 students.
From 1969 to 1975 Mr. Flanigan served in Washington, DC under President Richard M. Nixon, first as assistant to the President on domestic commercial and economic matters, and later as director of the Council of International Economic Policy. He spent most of his career in finance with the New York-based investment banking firm Dillon, Read & Co., and is now an advisor to UBS Securities LLC, the New York City based international investment banking firm.
Mr. Flanigan has long been a supporter of access to education. He founded the Patrons Program in 1987, which encourages donors to support financially-challenged, inner-city Catholic elementary schools that are in danger of closing. To encourage research and implement new programs to improve education, he also founded the Center for Education Innovation of The Manhattan Institute.
Peter Flanigan has served on many other non-profit boards including the Catholic University of America, Portsmouth Abbey School, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Richard M. Nixon Library & Birthplace. He recently retired as chairman of Alliance for School Choice, where he continues to serve on the board of directors.
After serving as a Navy carrier pilot in World War II, he graduated from Princeton University in 1947. He had five children with his first wife, Brigid, who passed away in 2006. He and his wife Dorothea reside in Purchase, New York.
