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Dare 2 Soar

student face painting

Emily Barranca '19 doing face painting with a Dare2Soar student at an end-of-year celebration in 2017. 

Program Overview

Dare 2 Soar is Swarthmore College's largest and oldest tutoring group, serving hundreds of Chester, PA children aged K-12. It was founded as a student-run organization by Khadijah White '04 with Francisca Mata '04 and Greg Lok '04, with a mission "to provide elementary school students and families of Chester with positive role models of color that attend college and serve the community," and "to demonstrate to the children what social action is truly about so that they might one day continue this mission."

After the founders' graduation, and in order to continue meeting Chester students' needs, Chester native and Lang Center staff member Cynthia Jetter '74 assumed responsibility for Dare 2 Soar's ongoing operations. (Ms. Jetter's achievements have been honored by the Chester Education Foundation's establishment of the Jetter Center.) The Dare 2 Soar program has since been run out of the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility by Ms. Jetter and, after her retirement, by Ashley Henry and Delores Robinson (in collaboration with Swarthmore faculty members and Chester-based organizations). Dare 2 Soar continues to provide Swarthmore tutors as well as Chester students with academic and cultural enrichment, personal growth, and recreational activities.

Dare 2 Soar's current partner sites are:

Dare 2 Soar Student Coordinators

  • Chester Eastside, Inc.: Connor Barrett '24