AMERICAN GRADUATE DAY 2017 is a four-hour, live broadcast and outreach event dedicated to engaging our country around the dropout crisis with special celebrity guests, relevant spokespeople and compelling stories from the students themselves. At its core, it will preserve the same broadcast themes as last year's AMERICAN GRADUATE DAY, leveraging a unique production and community engagement model both locally and nationally. AMERICAN GRADUATE DAY 2017 will be hosted by Soledad O'Brien and once again be broadcast from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City. The broadcast's primary theme will be mentorship -- telling the story of Community Partners and how they provide support, advice, and intervention services to at-risk students, families, and schools. This year's AMERICAN GRADUATE DAY will emphasize the need for mentors beyond high school, and focus on how mentors can be helpful as students pursue a variety of post-secondary options, including traditional four year colleges, skills-based certifications, vocational training or the military. As in years past, the most important element of AMERICAN GRADUATE DAY 2017 is the participation of community-based organizations (Community Partners) doing exceptional work to combat the dropout problem. The theme of mentorship will be applied to a variety of pertinent topic strands related to addressing this crisis including Early Education, More & Better Learning, Special Needs, STEAM, Dropout Prevention and Re-engagement, and Career Readiness & College Completion. The topic strands will thematically link stand-alone segments, which will feature a dynamic mix of long-form programming, live interviews and pre-taped features that tell the story of Community Partners and how they provide support, advice, and intervention services to at-risk students, families, and schools. Additionally, celebrity guests involved in education advocacy will be featured throughout the broadcast encouraging viewers to help close the graduation gaps and become mentors and American Graduate Champions themselves.
