Equity
A commitment to access and transparency. Every student deserves the same quality of guidance regardless of background or resources.
About
Prep Up.
A non-profit closing the guidance gap between independent school college counseling and the public school students of the Southcoast.
Prep Up offers a high-touch, cohort-based college advisory program designed to close any "guidance gap."
By adapting the college counseling models of top independent schools for a community-based setting, we provide a structured four-year program that can be tailored to meet students' needs[...]
Our approach is process-driven and developmentally grounded — meeting students where they are in 9th grade and walking alongside them through every step to enrollment.
Three principles
in everything we do.
Partnership
A collaborative, process-driven method of support. We work alongside students and families, not just for them.
Aspiration
Setting the bar high for every student's future.
Meet the Founders.
Stuart Titus
Co-founder
Stuart has worked in independent schools for over three decades. He was the Director of Admission at Pingree School in MA; the Associate Director of College Counseling at St. George's School in RI and Mercersburg Academy in PA; and served as an interim college counselor at Tabor Academy in MA and San Francisco University High School in CA. He was a three-year letter winner on the football team at Bates College, where he earned a degree in English Literature.
Lucia Jaccaci
Co-founder
Lucia is an educator with 30 years of experience in independent school education. She has worked both as a classroom teacher and an administrator in the United States and in China. She taught history at St. George's School in RI and Cincinnati Country Day School in OH. While at YK Pao School in Shanghai she helped develop the college counseling program. Upon moving to the Southcoast, Lucia taught citizenship classes at the Immigrant Assistance Center in New Bedford, and is currently volunteering at Our Sister's School and Damien's Food Pantry.