- Create after-school academies linked to college campuses across the country
- Attract the best minds to spark children’s imaginations
- Instruct participants in a demanding curriculum developed by National Board Certified Teachers
- Immerse children in a way of life that will broaden their horizons, stir their imaginations, and alter their views of themselves and their futures
Help Yourself Academies
- Enroll roughly 24 disadvantaged third graders annually, a class size large enough to ensure that a significant number of students enter college from the class and small enough for one teacher to handle effectively
- Operate on college campuses (we have programs across the country)
- Involve parents (or surrogates) in regular sessions to ensure that what is gained in the academy is not undone at home
- Provide students with a curriculum rich in science, technology, engineering, and math so that they will have the tools to succeed
- Create mentoring networks with college students, thereby establishing role models for the children and simultaneously channeling the idealism of college students into a “campus corps for children.”
No other program combines these elements.
The program is based on the model established in 1988 at Wisconsin’s Beloit College. At Beloit’s academy, 41% of the children stayed with the program through high school, and 95% of those children went on to college (compared to 36% of area students not participating in the program).