Accounts of trip will launch new EMERGing Voices student blog

Almost 100 HISD rising seniors have begun touring Yale University and nearby campuses today, meeting with professors, deans and first-generation college students during a week-long visit to New Haven, Conn.

Yale University Dean of Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan asks HISD students, ‘Who’s excited about going to college?’

Three students on the tour from Booker T. Washington, Carnegie Vanguard and Sharpstown high schools will write about their trip experience for EMERGing Voices, a new HISD blog launching this week to document the struggles and triumphs of students in the district’s EMERGE program.

The Yale tour is part of the EMERGE Future Scholars Institute, organized and funded by the EMERGE Fellowship organization, a nonprofit that has partnered with the HISD College Readiness Department to help students experience the benefits of attending the nation’s top colleges and prepare for their admissions process.

The students will attend sessions on admissions, college applications and university culture. They will also spend an evening in New York, where they will have the opportunity to see a Broadway show.

“My personal hope is that our students leave this program with an even heightened sense of possibility for the incredible opportunities available to them as well as with strong drafts of their college applications,” said Rick Cruz. HISD’s assistant superintendent of College Readiness.