Karim Abouelnaga

  • Practice Makes Perfect

  • 2013 Global Fellow

Karim Abouelnaga
  • Practice Makes Perfect

  • 2013 Global Fellow

bold idea

Narrow the achievement gap in low income U.S. neighborhoods through summer enrichment programs that pair skills development for younger students with leadership and career training for older students. 

organization overview

Practice Makes Perfect (PMP) is an evidence-based full-service summer school operator for urban K-12 schools. PMP leverages a unique near-peer learning model to drive academic outcomes. Through a holistic enrichment experience, students master aligned standards, get social emotional support, and further develop their intrinsic appreciation for learning.

Personal Bio

Karim Abouelnaga is CEO and co-founder of Practice Makes Perfect, a Benefit Corporation conceived on the premise that all children, regardless of race or socioeconomic status, have equal potential to compete intellectually in our society. After learning about the achievement gap and its personal impact on his life in 2010, Karim set out to create a program that addressed three critical pain points: lack of engagement in middle school, especially in low income neighborhoods like the one in which he was raised; summer opportunities and graduation rates for high school students, especially for those attending inner-city high schools like the one Karim attended; and college readiness and matriculation into selective universities. Since graduating from the New York City public school system, Karim secured over $300,000 in scholarships and awards to make his college education possible. For his work with Practice Makes Perfect, Karim has been featured in the New York Times and awarded several distinctions, including the Robinson Appel Humanitarian Award, Newman Civic Fellowship, Pearson Prize National Fellowship, Cornell Distinguished Leadership Award and the Cornell Class of 1964 John F. Kennedy Memorial Award. Karim is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, where he served as a student assistant to the Dean and was a Presidential Research Scholar.

  • Organization/Fellow Location ?

    Our most recent information as to where the Fellow primarily resides.

    New York, United States

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    Nonprofit

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