College Prep: College Acceptance for Every Student (Transcript)

Teacher: Yeah, yeah.

Gregory: This first step is to change that self talk. I think should go to college. I could go to college. I’m going to go to college. I’m going to graduate college. The only person that could stop you is you.

Teacher: We have a hundred percent college acceptance rate. We believe that if you put the right support mechanisms around our young men, they have an opportunity to rise above the challenges that they often deal with and become successful.

Dion: Back in two thousand six when we first started operating, we’d hear the statistics being about two percent of African American males were actually graduating from college. The goal is to make them want to go to college, as well as give them a very clear insight as to what to expect in college.

Desmond: Soon as you come in the door, it’s just you getting ready for the real work, buddy. Like it’s a wake up call. It’s in the atmosphere. Like you can’t say Urban Prep without thinking, man, these guys are going to college.

Gregory: Good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning.

I actually grew up two blocks from the school. So when I’m talking about college in my classes, I’m constantly stressing to them, I know exactly your frustrations.

Begin to plan, begin to set up how you will solve your problem. If you don’t change that talk, you will continue to get the same results.

Lionel: People can’t believe they can be what they don’t see. So they never met a graduate college graduate, they don’t think that that’s a possibility. So we start to plant those seeds very early on.

Tim: The first field trip they go on when they are freshmen is to a college campus. We want them to understand that in four years, you’re going to be at a place like this.

Donte: Every teacher has their college pennant where they graduated from. Students can look up and see, “Oh, can you tell me more about this school?”

Christopher: And when you all apply to DePaul University, I know you’re going to want to do early admissions, because you’ve already made up your mind and you really want to go there. Let’s figure out what it takes to get into this school.

Lionel: Unfortunately, the majority of our students enter Urban Prep unprepared for the rigors of high school.

Teacher: Students were coming to us and they were reading at the fifth grade level.

Lionel: And none of them were able to perform math above the seventh grade level. So we’ve had to design an academic model that allows us to remediate and accelerate almost simultaneously. It’s a double period of English for four years.

Teacher: So let’s go ahead and start off with one of our strong opinions. Who’s ready to go?

Student: She inherited that name, she wanted to escape that name, which means she wanted to also escape the Mexican heritage.

Student: I strongly disagree, because I can change my last name, but that may be because I want to escape my American culture that’s been forced onto me.

Lionel: They take a double period of math freshman and sophomore year, where we really want to build that foundation at algebra and geometry. What the research supports is that if students are algebra ready by the time they complete their freshman year, they are more likely to succeed in college.

Success in college is dependent upon the student’s academic ability, but also their social and emotional skills.

Christopher: What are some of the issues that you feel men of color might face in their first year of college?

Student: Racism, of course, because if you look on the news, there’s a lot of fraternities.

Christopher: Are you talking about some of the black face incidents?

Student: Yeah.

Christopher: Yeah. Can you get up and go punch somebody in the face because they’re making fun of your culture?

Students: No.

Christopher: No, but how do you advocate for yourself and educate them to know like, yo, that’s not cool?

Lionel: Once they become seniors, we have a college process class.

Student: Actually type it up.

DaShawn: Before Urban Prep, college was more of, if I go, I go, if I don’t, I don’t. But once getting here, college is a must, like I have to go. Recently I have been having to look up colleges to find out information about them. We fill out certain applications. We work on our personal statement.

Student: I said I am a very quick learner. This skill will be very useful in college because I have aspirations to become a teacher and it takes a lot of patience and learning to be successful in a teaching environment.

Donte: We talk to them about, you know, what to include in your essay, what not to include. We talk about financial aid.

Jessica: They’re encouraged to apply to eleven schools, two probable schools, a reach school, two safety schools. We want them to have a variety of options.

DaShawn: I was like, I don’t believe I can get into these schools, but she was just like, “You most definitely have the scores.” She pushed me to sit there and say, “I’m not going to let a school deny me.”

Student: It teaches us about responsibility. It’s our job to get the essays done and finish all our applications on our own and then have them check off on it.

DaShawn: I think about college every day. I’m so amped up for it right now, it’s just a burden burning in me to get there.

Lionel: The best ritual in the world to me is what we call “On to the Next One.” It’s when we present our seniors with their red and gold tie for being accepted to their first college or university.

Ke’Avery: I had trouble sleeping last night because of the excitement.

Darius: I’ve been accepted into Anthem University, Tuskegee University, St. John’s University.

Jeramee: I feel good. I’ve been waiting four long years for this red and gold tie.

Lionel: This is a generational shift, so now all of his cousins and siblings are looking to him and saying, “Hey, if he did it, then I can do it too.”

Tim: We’re changing this narrative around what is possible for young black men, what is possible for this possible for this population, what is possible for these communities.

Schools That Work

Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men -- Englewood Campus