Juniors and seniors in HISD’s EMERGE fellowship program got to hear firsthand Monday what attending a top-tier university is really like on the first day of a whirlwind tour of nine Northeast college and universities.
EMERGE students from 15 HISD high schools toured Tufts and Northeastern University and heard from students about what it is like to be the first in their family to go to college.
Here’s what EMERGE students thought of their initial day: Continue reading
Ninety-four Houston ISD juniors and seniors are touring nine historic college campuses this week, from June 1 through June 5, as part of the district’s EMERGE program for high-performing, low-income students.
Students from 15 high schools, who departed Houston early Sunday morning, are attending panel discussions, information sessions and workshops at:
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Last year, a pair of juniors in the EMERGE program at Eastwood Academy had a thought: EMERGE prepares high-performing students from underserved communities to successfully attend and graduate from Ivy League and other top-tier colleges. Maybe EMERGE students could volunteer to help other students study? And with that spark of inspiration, Students With Academic Grit – or SWAG – was born.
To familiarize them with life on the campus of a select school, HISD’s EMERGE program took a group of rising seniors on a tour of northeast campuses over the summer. Here, they’re at Harvard University.
The acceptance letters for select colleges and universities are rolling in for HISD seniors working with the district’s EMERGE program – 22 letters so far, as of Dec. 18. On Dec. 16 alone, three HISD seniors were notified they had been accepted to Yale University.
All students are either receiving full rides or are having 100 percent of their financial need met by the school accepting them, according to Rick Cruz, assistant superintendent of college readiness and co-founder of EMERGE.
Although HISD will not receive SAT results from the College Board until later this year, individual seniors who retook the SAT in October after attending the EMERGE SAT Boot Camp in July are getting their scores and seeing significant improvement – more than 300 out of 2,400 possible points in some cases.
“We are very pleased with the results,” said Assistant Superintendent for College Readiness Richard Cruz, who launched EMERGE in 2011 and continues to oversee it. “We are about to expand the program from 100 to 300 students.” EMERGE is a districtwide initiative aimed at getting high-achieving HISD students in underserved communities into Ivy League and other Tier 1 schools.
High school students in grades 9-11 are encouraged to apply for the HISD EMERGE program, which prepares talented HISD students from underserved communities to successfully attend and graduate from Ivy League and other top-tier colleges. The program, which was founded in 2011 at Chavez High School by Yale graduate and then-HISD teacher Richard Cruz, is expanding this year to include 13 additional school sites.
When Phuong Ta first came to America as a 17-year-old, she had no inkling she would one day be attending a Tier One university. But the 2012 Chávez High School graduate just completed her first year at Tufts University, and you can read more about her journey to higher education through HISD’s EMERGE program in the Sept. 6 edition of community eNews.
Other stories highlighted in this week’s edition include:
Students in the EMERGE program listen to a lecture at Rice University
Abel Diaz never imagined himself walking the centuries-old paths of Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Growing up in Houston and coming from a low-income background, Yale seemed like another world. But Diaz has studied hard and excelled at Eastwood Academy High School, and Yale is exactly where he found himself earlier this summer, traveling with a group of 80 HISD students. The trip was coordinated through the district’s EMERGE program that aims to help high-performing, low-income students into Ivy League and Tier I colleges.
HISD students at three high schools say they are more confident and prepared to take the SAT thanks to a summer boot camp that raised their practice test scores by double digits.
“At first I found it really difficult,” said Sharpstown sophomore Giovanna Deleon. “Now, after taking the practice tests and seeing my score increase week after week, I am very proud and optimistic.”
Eighty high schools students from six different HISD campuses have just returned from a jam-packed trip that included visits to seven Ivy League and Tier I colleges in only six days. The tour was coordinated through HISD’s EMERGE program, which helps low-income, first-generation minority students get into top-notch colleges.
As part of the trip, students toured the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Brown, Columbia, and Yale. During several of the visits, the high school students were able to take part in panel discussions with first-generation college students, getting insight on what it’s like to leave home and family to pursue a higher education.