Ravens Insider: Ravens, M&T Bank combine to donate $20 million to College Track, an education nonprofit

[ExtremeRavens]

The Ravens and M&T Bank will each donate $10 million to help a national college access nonprofit, College Track, open an education center in Baltimore that seeks to assist under-served youth as they graduate high school and college.

The combined $20 million gift is part of a $40 million donation to the Ravens College Access Program over the next decade: $10 million from M&T Bank and $30 million from The Stephen and Renee Bisciotti Foundation and the Ravens, which will be split between three education programs, College Bound, Bridges Baltimore and College Track.

College Track, which first started in California, has 12 locations, including one in Prince George’s County — established with the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation — and in Southeast Washington. Ravens president Sashi Brown, who’d first heard of College Track just before the coronavirus pandemic, visited both of those Washington-area locations.

One of the things that drew the Ravens specifically to College Track, Brown said, is “that they actually create a physical space where students actually go and the programming is housed there.”

Shirley Collado, president and CEO of College Track, said the Baltimore center will eventually support 300 to 350 Baltimore City public high school students. College Track makes a “10-year promise,” according to a news release, and will continue to assist students as they graduate college. Ninety percent of College Track’s students are first-generation college students and 84% come from underserved communities, according to the release.

The center is tentatively expected to open in May 2025, but it is not yet publicly known where in Baltimore it will be located.

“We target students that are constantly overlooked and underestimated,” said Collado, the former president of Ithaca College. “We want students that are often left behind but have fire in their belly and can do the work if they have the right resources and support.”

The Ravens’ venue has been named M&T Bank Stadium since 2003 and, following an extension of that naming rights agreement last year, will keep that name until at least 2037. Augie Chiasera, the bank’s regional president for Greater Baltimore, said their donation is a continuation of their partnership with the Ravens.

“We have shared values, we care deeply about the city, and that’s particularly true when it comes to educating our youngest citizens,” he said.

The Ravens have a lease to play at state-owned M&T Bank Stadium, which is currently undergoing significant state-funded renovations, until at least 2037. The Maryland Stadium Authority is spending $430 million in bonds, to be paid off with public money generated by the state lottery, over the next three years to bolster the stadium with new suites and clubs, as well as expanded concourses and bathrooms.

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