YOUR IMPACT

You are our heroes who make college completion achievable for our scholars.

Meet a few of them below 

Latonia came to us as a founding scholar in 2013. As a fifth grader, she entered reading independently at a second grade level. Over time, Latonia opened up about bullying and lack of support or mention of college at her previous school, and grew to be at the top of her graduating class, taking on additional challenges such as a course at the local community college and work on her first book.

Thanks to your support, Latonia graduated from our high school in June 2021. Latonia received 17 college acceptances and $450,000 in merit-based financial aid. Latonia is also a published author.

Latonia is currently in college.

When Caleyah first came to our school in fifth grade, she was reading at a first grade level.

With your support, her hard work, and the help of her teachers, we were able to double typical growth speed with Caleyah; she grew six grade levels in three years!

Caleyah became an accomplished high school reader and writer and was very active on Student Council. 

Along with her classmates in the Pride of 2022, Caleyah prepared for college applications through the OneGoal program. We are able to offer this program to our scholars thanks to your generosity!

Caleyah was accepted to 16 colleges and headed to Alabama A&M University in the fall of 2022!

Alfredo is also a member of the Pride of 2022, but he didn't start out in that class! With the flexibility of independent learning, Alfredo was able to skip eighth grade and start high school early. He went onto college at the age of 16.

With your support, today, Alfredo continued to challenge and push himself by taking advanced Math courses at the local community college and prepared for college in OneGoal along with the rest of his Pride. He also earned a spot in Chicago Scholars, a prestigious program for the most promising Chicago college-bound youth. With his ambition and drive, we know Alfredo will go on to great things.

Alfredo received 20 college acceptances and nearly $2 million in offers for merit-based scholarships. He was accepted to IIT with a full ride scholarship and is currently thriving there as a Computer Science major.

We are so proud of Elijiah! He joined us in Middle School as a founding scholar. His time in our High School was well-spent figuring out his future passions and interests. Elijiah graduated and dreams of pursuing a STEM/technology-related career one day.

Elijiah earned a coveted spot as a Chicago Scholar, and received seven college acceptances and $212,000 in merit-based aid.

Elijiah enlisted in the Air Force in the fall of 2021. We ensure our scholars are prepared for college, accepted to college, and have a plan to complete college before they graduate from our high school, so that if they choose to go to college, they can do so with as few barriers as possible. However, some of our scholars do choose alternate paths for their future. We support all future choices, as long as they know they CAN go to and through college should they choose. We know Elijiah is prepared to have a successful future! He is currently doing well.

A founding student, Anissa also came to us reading independently at a second grade level in fifth grade and had felt unsafe and unfocused at her previous school. Her reading assessment score was in the 7th percentile nationally. By the time she reached our high school, Anissa's reading score jumped 80 points to the 87th percentile! Her brother Alton's journey with us was similar; in his first three years with us (fourth to seventh grade), he grew 4.5 grade levels in reading.

With your support, Anissa has blossomed and shown poise and strength as a tour guide and representative of our school. She toured colleges all over the country and was accepted to eight universities. She also received $201,000 in merit-based aid. 

Today, Anissa is thriving at Wesleyan in Georgia. She's studying Biology with a minor in Business and a concentration in Pre-Veterinary medicine.

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