MILEAP helps Mercer Island students find their way to college | Commentary
Published 4:10 pm Tuesday, June 9, 2026
By Linnea Augustine
For many families on Mercer Island, college planning starts to feel real before high school even begins. Course choices, GPAs, activities, test prep, college visits, applications, and essays come up in conversations with other parents earlier than I expected.
My son is about to finish seventh grade, and I have already started thinking about that next stage. That is why a recent presentation at the Rotary Club of Mercer Island by Brad Creswell, co-founder of the Mercer Island Launch Educational Advocacy Project, or MILEAP, stayed with me. I was surprised by how much it has already helped Mercer Island students.
MILEAP is a local nonprofit that supports first-generation and low-income high school students, as well as students facing hardship, as they work toward a university-level education.The need may not be obvious on Mercer Island, where the median household income is about $219,000, but 3.8% of residents live below the poverty line. On top of that, most MILEAP students come from single-parent households where no parent attended college.
MILEAP helps students with the parts of college planning that can be hard to manage alone, including tutoring, SAT or ACT prep, college counseling, financial aid counseling, application essays, activities, and the transition into college.Each student is also matched with a volunteer Family Advocate who helps the student and family keep track of deadlines, ask questions, understand the next steps, and stay on track.
“MILEAP was born out of a desire to level the playing field, break the cycle of poverty, and uplift individual students and their families,” co-founder and executive director Stephanie Creswell said.
Stephanie has always cared about helping children and adolescents reach their full potential. That mission came from her own work with children and families. As a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in children and adolescents, Stephanie spent 10 years working in Seattle’s Central District and another 10 years as the counselor at St. Monica’s School on Mercer Island.
Her husband, Brad Creswell, co-founded MILEAP with her and now serves as treasurer and a board member. Brad brings a background in finance, business, and nonprofit board service. Together, they built a program around a simple idea: students do better when someone helps them understand the process and stays with them along the way.
Since 2017, MILEAP reported serving 25 students who have received 124 acceptances to 73 different colleges and universities, including the University of Washington, Gonzaga, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and the U.S. Naval Academy, and Yale University, according to the Rotary presentation. MILEAP also reported that students who submitted SAT scores after tutoring improved their scores by 13% on average.
These students may sit in the same classrooms as classmates with far more built-in support, but their path to college can look very different. MILEAP helps make that path easier to understand.
One student said, “MILEAP has helped me through the biggest obstacles of my high school years. Not only did they help me with the process of applying to colleges, but they were also there to support me in every part of school. More than anything, they wanted to help me succeed.”
A parent described what that support meant for her family: “As a single mom, MILEAP listened to my needs and treated my son and I like family,” she said. “They opened our eyes to things we didn’t know about or even thought possible.”
For Stephanie, success is not just college acceptance. She said success looks different for each student. MILEAP’s goal is to listen to students, help them see possibilities they may not have considered, and build skills such as reflection and self-advocacy so they can keep going after the formal mentorship ends.
Stephanie also said MILEAP’s greatest need right now is for more volunteer Family Advocates. These volunteers help students and families through the college preparation, application, acceptance, and transition process. At the Rotary presentation, MILEAP said the commitment is about two hours every three to four weeks, and training is provided.
As my own family gets closer to the high school years, I am more aware of how much guidance is built into the college path before a student ever applies. Some families know when to start test prep, which classes to take, how activities and essays can help, when to visit schools, and whether to hire a college counselor.
For students who do not already have that support, MILEAP’s mentoring and family Advocate can make a big difference. For a Mercer Island parent who has been through college planning, or anyone understands how to ask questions and keep track of next steps, two hours every few weeks may not sound like much. For a student trying to find their way, it could mean having one more adult who shows up, remembers the deadlines, and believes they belong.
Linnea Augustine is a Mercer Island resident, a member of the Rotary Club of Mercer Island, a supporter of the Mercer Island Schools Foundation, and a guest columnist for the Mercer Island Reporter.
