American Graduate Day 2014 Recognizes Over 2.7 Million

American Graduate Day 2014 ended on Saturday with 2,761,210 American Graduate Champions recognized - individuals committed to work with youth across the country to graduate high school and stay on track to college and career success - WNET and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today.

Hosted by best-selling author, Army combat veteran and television personality Wes Moore, American Graduate Day 2014 featured a line-up of special guests, video profiles and performances during a seven-hour broadcast from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center on Saturday, September 27, 2014.

The event, part of CPB and public media's American Graduate initiative to raise graduation rates to 90% by 2020, was the most successful to date--nearly tripling its goal of one million new American Graduate Champions - and attracting a record number of stations and partners to a multi-platform event that generated significant social media engagement.

"Public media is America's storyteller and through American Graduate and American Graduate Day we are telling the stories of the students, the teachers, the parents, the community and business and faith-based organizations who are working as champions on behalf of these young people," said Patricia S. Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "As a result, the dropout numbers are moving in the right direction and our young people are staying on the path to a high school diploma. This is the power of public media."

"By producing this annual event, WNET is playing a key role in helping public media stations achieve the goal of 90% graduation rates by 2020," said Neal Shapiro, president and CEO of WNET, home to public television's THIRTEEN, WLIW21 and NJTV. "It has also given us the opportunity to recognize those remarkable individuals, mentors and organizations that are investing in the future through our youth in every community."

A growing movement on-air and online:

· By the close of the broadcast, American Graduate Day 2014 had successfully recognized the

2,761, 210 American Graduate Champions working in organizations across the county to keep kids on the path to graduation. To calculate this number, each of the 50 local, regional, and national nonprofits profiled on the program were asked to provide the number of volunteers and professional in their organizations that are working to improve students' education.

· 50 national and local partner organizations participated and were profiled during the daylong broadcast;

· National carriage for American Graduate Day 2014 was 84% of US households-up from 66% in 2012 and 73% in 2013;

· American Graduate Day 2014 was carried on 116 stations serving 139 markets in 48 states as well as in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands;

· American Graduate Day 2014 was seen in 29 of the top 30 Nielsen markets;

· Over 1,600 Tweets contained the #AmGrad hashtag - reaching over 1.8 million Twitter users - including Tweets by the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, singer-songwriter Andy Grammer, author Wes Moore, and PBS news anchor Hari Sreenivasan (data from Topsy.com);

· The American Graduate Day 2014 broadcast received at least 1,100 additional mentions on Twitter on September 27th (search parameters = American+graduate, as well as mentions of @AmeriGrad handle) - data from Topsy.com;

· Tweets from @amerigrad, the official Twitter for American Graduate Day, generated 3.5 million potential impressions on Twitter and produced 390 responses (re-Tweets, favorites, mentions) on September 27th (data from Sprout Social);

· The American Graduate Facebook page hosted hourly live-chats with partner organizations to continue conversations from the broadcast; the page received 591 Likes, Shares and comments on September 27 (data from Sprout Social);

· Over 380 Tweets containing a localized version of the #AmGrad hashtag from stations and organizations applying a hyper-local focus to conversations and ways of getting involved (data from Topsy.com).

A week of special launch events:
· U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan participated in a September 22nd launch event held at The Talent Unlimited High School in New York City, where key education partners announced new commitments in support of children totaling more than $84 million.

· Patricia S. Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) along with WNET and invited guests on Thursday, September 25, to mark the third annual American Graduate Day.

· New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a Mayoral Proclamation officially declaring September 27th as "American Graduate Day" in New York City.

· Singer-songwriter Andy Grammer, a VH1 Save the Music Foundation ambassador, offered a special free download of his current single "Back Home," from the new album "Magazines Or Novels," from11:00 am to 6:00 pm ET on Saturday in honor of American Graduate Day 2014.

· Nearly 150 Stories of Champions were created by 47 public media stations, and 14 aired as part of the national broadcast.

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