About Us - Making It Count Programs

About Us

Our Mission
Monster’s Making It Count Programs is an educational organization in the business of improving lives. We educate, motivate and empower students and professionals, young and old, employed and unemployed through live, in-person and online presentations, online tools and printed resources. We strive to provide the information needed to achieve academic and career success.

Our Vision
We are a diverse collection of dedicated and talented people inspired by the notion that people can be empowered to achieve great things through the power of edutainment. Through well-researched and instructionally-sound programs and websites, we inform people of all ages about the options available to them and where to find the information they need to make the best possible decisions. For the people we serve, we are approachable—mentors, educators and guides. Our ability to motivate and engage all audience types in a high energy yet meaningful way will change lives.

We are making a difference.

We are Making It Count.

Company Summary
The idea for Making It Count started in 1987 when company co-founder, Patrick O’Brien (then a Procter & Gamble brand manager) prepared some notes for a discussion with his younger sister on how to succeed in college. These notes would become the outline for his book, Making College Count: A Real World Look at How to Succeed In and After College, first printed in 1996. Since then, the book has been sold in bookstores across the country and has been featured in USA Today, the CBS Morning News, MSNBC and Amazon.com.

By 1998, the concept expanded and our flagship in-school presentation program, Making College Count for high school seniors, was developed by co-founders Brad Baker and Patrick O’Brien. That year, the program was delivered to 50,000 students. Since then, we have developed additional programs and expanded our reach to more than 25 million students in more than 5,000 high schools and 1,200 colleges in all 50 states through our package of assembly-style presentations including:

Making High School Count (for high school freshmen)
Making Your College Search Count (for high school juniors)
Making College & Career Count (for high school seniors)
Ultimate Money Skills: High School (for high school seniors)
Ultimate Money Skills: College Funding (evening program for parents of students in 9th through 12th grade)
Monster College Advantage (for first-year college students)
Ultimate Money Skills: College (for college students)

The programs are highly acclaimed by educators and students alike. In 2011, counselors rated all of our programs an average of 9.55 on a 10-point scale for “Value of the Presentation,” and a 9.60 for “Effectiveness of the Delivery of the Presentation.” Ninety-nine percent of students agreed that other students would benefit from the programs. On average, students rate the programs 8.63 on a 10-point scale for “Value,” and 9.33 for “Effectiveness”

We have more than 200 trained and certified speakers who deliver our presentations. They are trained to present the message as if they were a big brother or sister simply giving advice about their experiences and how to achieve success. The presentations are dynamic and engaging, holding the audience’s attention through relevant interactive exercises, on-stage volunteer exercises and a detailed workbook that students and parents can use to follow along and more deeply engage themselves in the material presented.

For more information, please contact us toll-free at 1-877-668-1188 or by filling out this form.