As the school year winds down, we are inspired by students’ plans and aspirations. Middle and high school charter graduates are telling us that they’re ready to take on high school and college with a “can’t fail” mentality. They’re planning to learn Japanese, be the first in their families to graduate from college, be elected president, publish a novel, become a doctor, return to their communities to teach, and much more. Graduation season is a time to celebrate these dreams and the hard work that makes thinking big possible.

At this milestone, I want to thank the teachers, principals and parents who we work with to create the opportunities that students need and deserve. From Anacostia to South Los Angeles, you remind us that students have the capacity not just to learn and overcome obstacles — but also to become leaders, thinkers and role models.

Today is the final day of school for the eighth graders at Edgewood Middle Campus of DC Prep, one of our charter grantees, and each student knows where he or she will be attending high school.

At DC Prep, we start talking about high school the minute students and families walk through our doors, from the earliest grade levels, because we know a rigorous high school is essential to college success,” Julie Moeller, the director of high school placement, told us.

At another of our grantees, YES Prep in Houston, nearly all of the 500 twelfth graders who graduated this spring are preparing to begin college.

“Mothers talk about how their older kid graduated, and then his or her younger siblings and cousins and community members felt it was within their reach,” YES Prep’s vice president of advancement, Ann Ziker, told us. “It’s not the exception. It can be the rule. It’s within reach for every student.”

Similarly, another grantee, KIPP LA Schools, focused on cultivating opportunity. Counselors collaborate with students and families to prepare them for high school, and then stay with graduates via visits, texts, calls and Facebook chats through high school and college to ensure they have the necessary support.

“I want our students to have the same opportunities that every child in the U.S. deserves — the opportunity to be successful in life,” the executive director of KIPP LA, Marcia Aaron, said.

Determination, purpose and a focus on outcomes are at the heart of these schools’ success — and the success of so many of our other grantees across the country.

We are inspired by the impact that DC Prep, YES Prep, KIPP LA, and our other grantees are having. We couldn’t be more eager to continue working with many of you to create opportunities, and we couldn’t be more optimistic about your students’ futures.