ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Paving the way to college Cassandra Gaddo gets young women career-focused and college-bound • BY DANIEL P. SMITH C


assandra Gaddo (JFRC Fall ’03, BA ’05) remembers the moment she got hooked. It was a


Saturday in 2008 when she walked into a downtown Chicago office and saw about 20 young women filling out college applications, writing essays, and working on fi- nancial aid forms. Alongside them was a group of professional wom- en who had chosen to spend their Saturday helping a group of high school juniors and seniors navigate the complex process of applying to college. For Gaddo, herself a first- generation college graduate, it was a light bulb moment. “This was my cause,” she says. That was Gaddo’s first experi-


ence as a volunteer for the then- fledgling Chicago chapter of Step Up, a national organization dedi- cated to helping teen girls from under-resourced communities fulfill their potential in college and beyond. Gaddo was quick to sign up as a regular volunteer, corralling friends and co-workers to join in her efforts to empower young women around Chicago. “Here was my pay-it-forward opportunity to help other young women find their way into college,” she says. Gaddo, a Minnesota native who


attended Loyola on a Presidential Scholarship, discovered her pas- sion for addressing academic ineq- uity during her college years. She became more attuned to social justice issues, such as how one’s place of residency often dictates their access to higher education. After graduating from Loyola’s


School of Communication, Gaddo embarked on a five-year run as managing editor at the since-shut- tered magazine Today’s Chicago Woman. Her energy for social involvement intensified as she


penned stories of women leading noble civic causes. She learned that only a fraction of the nation’s fundraising dollars support pro- gramming for women or children, and Gaddo felt called to do more to make a difference. “I began ask- ing myself how I could use my skills to impact the areas I was passion- ate about,” she says. That prompted a move from


Step Up’s volunteer ranks to its leadership team. As the Chicago chapter’s managing director for the last five years, she has guided every aspect of office operations from youth programming and fundrais- ing to communications.


Step Up, which also has chapters


in Los Angeles, New York, and Dal- las, currently deploys its four-year curriculum in six Chicago schools. The curriculum’s first two years focus on developing confidence, while the final two years cover col- lege and career activation. The program has a proven track


record of success—more than 98 percent of Chicago students in- volved in Step Up have graduated high school and been accepted to college. “All of these girls have the potential inside of them,” says Gaddo. “So it’s about giving them the tools and resources to advance on this journey.” L


“Here was my pay-it-forward opportunity to help other young women find their way into college.”


—CASSANDRA GADDO (JFRC FALL ’03, BA ’05)


SPRING 2017


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