How the Program Works

  • 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).

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