College Bound Parenting (CBP), is a college planning community and social networking platform for parents of black and brown children. We aim to empower parents with guidance and resources for preparing our children for college and scholarship success.

Through our innovative platform, families gain access to a rich village of parents just like them, higher education stakeholders and college planning experts to help guide our children to a best fit and affordable college.

Because it Takes a Village

College Bound Parenting (CBP) is more than college planning company. Led by a team of college planning experts with over 150 years of experience working with students and families in the college admission and scholarship processes; we are a village of parents sharing our journey as we guide our children towards a debt-free college education.

Meet our College Admissions Coaches

Tracy Ramos is a college admissions strategist and coach who found herself several years ago in the all too familiar position of trying to help her daughter prepare for college admission … and pay for it. Presented with a college list that included numerous highly selective schools, Tracy set out on a mission that included years of researching and studying the admissions process and interviewing high school counselors and college admissions officers. What she learned was too valuable to share only with her own daughter. Tracy began counseling other students on developing a strategy and game plan, identifying a “hook,” creating a college list, avoiding the application traps, and writing the often-dreaded essay.

Tracy was admitted to several highly selective colleges herself and eventually turned down Georgetown University to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She recalls the stellar credentials needed for admission at that time, but knows the process is infinitely more competitive now. She often says “My goal is to help students set themselves and their applications apart from the pack … to turn smart students into admitted students.”

A licensed trial attorney for almost 25 years, Tracy has used skills learned in the courtroom to also teach students the art of oral advocacy and persuasive writing … skills her students have found quite useful in the college admissions process. She has helped families through church, school and organization-hosted college fairs and college information programs. Through planning sessions, application strategy sessions, and essay review and counseling, Tracy has helped students gain admission to highly ranked colleges and universities like Duke, Harvard, University of Texas, Stanford, Spelman, Howard, University of North Carolina and others.

Patrice Darby is the Meyerhoff Scholars Program Coordinator of Special Projects, including outreach, recruitment and selection. A Meyerhoff alumna herself, Ms. Darby holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UMBC and a Masters in Biomedical and Biological Science from Harvard University. There she was also a Ford Foundation Fellow and Harvard University Teaching Fellow. Ms. Darby has over ten years of experience as an Academic Coach, helping to guide parents and students to and through the college process.

Dr. Stephen Jones was one of six children living in West Philadelphia. His father worked two jobs until he was almost 70 and his mother was a cook for young children. They both worked hard and taught him to have strong faith in God. Dr. Jones gets his determination to make a difference from them. As a young child, Dr. Jones was always questioning others and wanting to know more. Dr. Jones joined a community organization the Young Great Society because he wanted to play football, but it became so much more. It is where Dr. Jones found his passion for community activism and finding ways to get the youth off the street. Dr. Jones graduated from We Toughen U. (University) where he majored in Peoplenomics long before he obtained a doctorate degree. You see youth gangs were prevailing in the neighborhood at first but the community leaders fought back and offered an alternative to the youth. Dr. Jones has made a national commitment to education and has helped thousands of K12 and adult students to graduate with diplomas and degrees.

Dr. Jones is currently President of SAJ Publishing. He is also the Associate Dean of Student in the College of engineering at Villanova University. For thirteen years he worked at Drexel University as Director of the SUCCESS/ACT101 program. He has received numerous awards for his dedication to students. Some of his awards include Distinguished Toast Master, Toastmasters District Award Winner, National Society of Black Engineers Award and Black Engineer of the Year Award. The Drexel University chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers recently named an award after him to acknowledge his efforts. The award is titled the Dr. Stephen Jones Award for Academic Excellence. It is presented to a student who has demonstrated academic excellence throughout their enrollment.

After a season-ending Achilles tendon rupture, my hopes of an athletic scholarship disappeared. And shortly after that… my grandfather died. To cope, I began spending my time studying successful students, making a lot of scholarship mistakes, and drinking a ton of green tea. But those efforts resulted in me earning about $200,000 in scholarships and graduating from college DEBT-FREE. And to be honest, had it not been for scholarships, I never would’ve started my doctorate at 23.

Today, I’m on a mission to teach everything I know about scholarships to help others pay for college.

Dr. John-Sowah received her B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her M.D. from Weill Cornell University Medical College. She completed a residency in Family Practice at the University of Maryland, and a residency in General Preventive Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, during which she received her M.P.H.

However, her passion is for helping parents and students negotiate the college admissions process. As a member of an immigrant family, she has first-hand knowledge of the challenges that accompany being unfamiliar with the educational system and the missed opportunities that can occur. She hopes to help others take advantage of all the opportunities to be found in our educational system. She has spent numerous hours working with students to develop their admissions essays and assist them in getting into their identified colleges. Currently Dr. John-Sowah is exploring new directions and looking to take all of these experiences and weave them into a career that incorporates her ‘first loves’, reading, writing, and connecting people to resources, in ways that will leave positive and lasting impacts on the souls of the people with whom she interacts.

As a teen growing up in inner-city Philadelphia, Karima always saw academics as her way out. She did well in school, had a great social life, yet still, that wasn’t enough. Throughout high school, college and even as a young professional, no matter how successful she became, she never felt good enough. Like many, she secretly suffered from depression, mostly due to trauma she experienced as a child, but also because everywhere she turned, society was set up to make her feel that she should’ve been doing more.

It was there that she learned that success for everyone looks different and should never be pursued at the expense of one’s happiness. With this in mind, she was finally able to identify her own personal values & strengths, those things that made her truly unique. She became more confident as a mother, teacher, and all-around human being, and developed a passion for helping students discover the same for themselves.

College Bound Parenting

Empowering Parents | Guiding Students

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