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Posts tagged as “High School”

Ninety-Seven Years Ago Today: Xavier University Was Founded

By goodblacknews on November 11, 2012
Xavier University of Louisiana is founded(Photo: Xavier University of Louisiana)

Xavier University of Louisiana began its mission to educate Native American and Black students when St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament opened its doors in New Orleans on Nov. 11, 1915. After seeing the lack of Catholic schools for higher education that catered to Blacks in the South, Drexel used her inheritance to open the institution. It started as a small high school, and later became known as Xavier Prep A. Normal School. The school taught the few career fields open to Blacks at the time and grew into an institution that taught 47 major areas on the undergraduate, graduate and professional degree levels. The co-ed liberal arts college remains the only historically black Roman Catholic college in the country. 

article by Dorkys Ramos via bet.com

 

 

Harlem-Based Education Group Prepares Youth for College—and Graduation

By goodblacknews on October 27, 2012

Many of us found adolescence difficult to navigate but got through it, not just with the help of our anguished parents but because of the network of extended family, church friends, scout leaders, and teachers who stepped in and, very often, said the same things our parents were saying but in a way that we heard and responded to. In effect, the proverbial “village” came through for us.

Lynette Faust believes “it takes a village to raise a child,” and that the Harlem Educational Activities Fund has been part of the village that’s helped her to successfully raise her daughter, L’Eunice.

An exceptionally bright child who learned to read at an unusually early age, L’Eunice hit a “rough patch” in her teens.

“Teenagers today are exposed to so much and have so many distractions,” Faust says. “She tried to assert her own authority and had some difficulty adjusting, but HEAF supported us through that.”

By affirming the values her daughter received at home, and by providing a nurturing, supportive environment, L’Eunice emerged unscathed.

“HEAF constantly reinforces your goals, aspirations, and expectations,” Faust says. “You go to HEAF, you go to college.”

HEAF is a nonprofit organization that helps high-potential, underserved black and Hispanic students in New York City prepare for, enter, and graduate from college.

Urban Prep Academy Graduates All College-Bound For Third Consecutive Year

By goodblacknews on March 30, 2012
Urbanprepgraduates

Urban Prep students at graduation.

For the third year running, an all-male charter school with students from Chicago’s roughest neighborhoods is sending its entire senior class to college.  Urban Prep Academy reports that all 85 seniors graduating from the all-male preparatory school have been accepted to four-year colleges or universities, the third consecutive year an entire senior class has gotten acceptance letters along with their diplomas.
This year’s class also has some standout stars, like Vernon Cheeks, 17, who was accepted to 14 schools, according to CBS Chicago.  “It taught me how to be resilient. It also taught me how to be accountable for my own actions,” he told the station of his experience in the standout high school program.
Urban Prep’s success is unusual in its West Side neighborhood, which sees disproportionately high rates of violent crime so severe that parents requested heightened protection for academy students earlier this year, amid concerns that gang territories were advancing on the school.
“[In] this volatile, violent area, these are like lambs surrounded by wolves, and that shouldn’t be,” the grandmother of a student told ABC Chicago.
The school’s success has grown exponentially since its founding in 2006, when onlyfour percent of the school’s first freshman class was reading at grade level when they entered.
In 2010, the school sent all 107 graduating seniors directly into college or university programs for the first time.
“No other public [school] in the country has done this,” Urban Prep Academy Founder Tim King said at the time. Continuing that success in 2011 and 2012 makes the school’s performance even more remarkable.
The school also boasts an impressive “persistence” record this year–83 percent of 2010 Urban Prep graduates who went on to college have stayed there, compared to a national average of 35 percent among African-American males, according to the Chicago Tribune.