the mcleod center

Education · Employment · Economic Power

Mary McLeod Bethune opened a school with five students and a dollar and a half. She later built a bank and ran an insurance company, because she understood that a credential without capital is only half a door.

The McLeod Center is practical navigation for people trying to get to the next thing — a diploma, a degree, a job, an asset. Not classes about what you should have done. Instead, someone beside you, working the system with you, until you are through it.

In Massachusetts, the money barrier has already been removed. The maze has not.

Community college is tuition-free for any resident without a bachelor's degree. High school equivalency testing is paid for by the Commonwealth. And still, the people who most need those doors are not walking through them — because the barrier was never the price. It is the FAFSA, the placement test, the transcript nobody can find, the withdrawal letter, the transfer agreement, the deadline no one explained. That maze is what the McLeod Center exists to walk you through.

Offerings

  • HiSET and GED preparation and test navigation. Massachusetts accepts both exams and lets you combine subtest scores across them — so credits earned years ago still count. The Commonwealth pays for the first test in each subject plus two retakes.

  • Application, FAFSA and MASFA filing, placement, registration, and transfer articulation. For students who cannot file a FAFSA because of immigration status, MASFA is the path — and it still leads to free tuition. Most people who need to know that don't.

  • Résumés, applications, interview preparation, and first-job placement. Kay Medamyo is a first employer for people who need one — real wages, real references, a real work history to build on.

  • One-on-one coaching rather than a curriculum. Free tax preparation and full EITC and Child Tax Credit claiming. Credit-building lending circles that formalize the san and the sòl families already run, so that saving together builds a credit file. Benefits screening and enrollment.

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