Earlier this year, we introduced you to Edgar Avina, a graduating senior from the DeBakey High School for Health Professions.
Now, we’ve caught up with him at his new school: Yale University. Continue reading
Category Archives: EMERGE
Emerge students meet mentors at college send-off banquet
Emerge – HISD scholars were congratulated on their success and encouraged to continue to work hard during a college send-off banquet last week. The Emerge fellows, who will begin college this fall at schools such as Stanford, Yale, MIT, Tufts and other top-tier colleges celebrated their achievements and met the mentors who will guide them through the next phase of their education.
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During their years in high school, Emerge students keep in close contact with program managers who guide them through the process of qualifying for and applying to well-known universities. Yet the mentoring doesn’t end after students are accepted into college and put away their high school cap and gown. Students are assigned mentors — volunteers from the community — who help them navigate the college experience through their first year and beyond. Continue reading
HISD seniors touring Yale, other top campuses as part of EMERGE tour
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. Continue reading
Chávez HS graduate Felipe Guillen shares some of his hopes, fears in video
Class of 2014 member Felipe Guillen, who will be the first in this family to attend college, is heading almost 2,000 miles away from home this fall on a full scholarship to Stanford University.
EMERGE SAT boot camp aims to boost scores, student dreams
Across the U.S., thousands of high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors buy books, attend seminars and complete online tutorials in hopes of boosting their SAT scores. This year, HISD EMERGE fellows hope to boost their scores by attending an intensive SAT boot camp which provides test strategies and content-based instruction. In past years, the program has led to significant increases in scores on the critical reading, mathematics and writing sections of the SAT.
Students who attended boot camp said they found the materials and instructors helpful:
First-gen student gearing up for the road less traveled
Karen Banda
The route of a minority, low-income, first-generation student is filled with road-blocks and a mix of emotions: anxiety, fear, confusion, happiness, and sadness. I know because I am a first-gen student. I’m anxious to see what’s beyond my hometown; to see the things that I can accomplish. But I am also scared that I will not make it or that I will not do as well as I have these past few years in high school.
This fall, I will embark on the road less traveled by someone with my background – I will leave my home and family to achieve my “impossible dream.”
Continue reading
#EMERGEtour ends at Brown, Stonehill
The final day of a tour of northeast colleges and Universities by HISD EMERGE students meant stops at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., and historic Brown University in Providence, R.I. The #EMERGEtour is took more than 95 students from 15 HISD high schools to nine top-tier university campuses last week.
Here are the students’ impressions of tour Day 4, in their own words: Continue reading
Liberal arts colleges are focus of #EMERGEtour Day 3
Day 3 of four-day tour by HISD EMERGE students highlighted three of the northeast’s strongest liberal arts schools — Brandeis, Clark, and Boston College. The two private colleges and one private university consistently rank high on various higher education listings, including U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges.
The #EMERGEtour is taking more than 95 students from 15 HISD high schools to nine top-tier university campuses this week.
Here are the students’ impressions of tour Day 3, in their own words: Continue reading
EMERGE students tour nine top-tier universities in four days
In what can be described as a super-charged dose of college “realness,” EMERGE students from 15 HISD high schools completed a whirlwind tour of some of the top colleges and universities in the nation in only four days, from June 1-4. More than 80 sophomores and juniors toured Tufts, Harvard, MIT, Clark, Brandeis, Stonehill, Brown, Boston College and Northeastern University, talked to current students and found out what it takes to get in…and stay in.
Students, many of whom will be the first in their family to attend college or university, had the chance to eat in the dining halls with current Ivy Leaguers, attend panels on subjects such the role of cultural centers on academic success, and even engage in time-honored traditions such as “painting the cannon” at Tufts University. They also received advice from current students and admissions counselors on financial aid and the affordability of higher education.
More importantly, the trip gave many high-schoolers a renewed sense of purpose. “Knowing that I have a real chance of attending one of these amazing schools, such as Harvard or Tufts, has created a sense a hope that I didn’t have three days ago,” said junior Giovanna DeLeon. “Realizing that our economic background is not something that needs to define us or whether or not we should or can go to college is powerful.”
The EMERGE program encourages and prepares talented HISD students from underserved communities to successfully attend and graduate from Ivy League and other top-tier colleges.
HISD will soon be launching an EMERGE blog to highlight these students’ journeys throughout the next year. In the meantime, you can read the first few entries from Day 1 and Day 2, and visit the HISD News blog at https://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/ for regular updates. You can also follow the students on Twitter using the hashtag #EMERGETour.
HISD junior: ‘Our economic background doesn’t define us’
Day 2 of HISD’s EMERGE Northeast college and university tour included trips to Harvard and MIT, where students got to walk in the footsteps of such notable alumni as W.E.B. Du Bois (Harvard), Buzz Aldrin (MIT), Richard Feynman (MIT) and President Barack Obama (Harvard). The #EMERGEtour will take more than 95 students from 15 HISD high schools to nine top-tier university campuses this week.
Here are the student’s impressions of their second day, in their own words: Continue reading