Class Acts: Contra Costa connects students with the Ivy League
Charles Ramsey, a board member now in his fourth term in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, was frustrated to see few college-bound students set their sights on prestigious schools on the East Coast. Acceptance at a University of California campus, while a fine goal, was as high as most students aspired—and even that seemed too high for most children of low-income families.
Ramsey knew that if he could expose more students to such Ivy League schools as Dartmouth College in New Hampshire or Cornell University in New York, it would open up worlds of opportunity they hadn’t dreamed existed. So, enlisting the help of PTA leader Madeline Kronenberg, who later joined him on the school board, Ramsey applied to have their district’s El Cerrito High School join the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth program in the fall of 2005.
“We had no ‘strategic plan’—nor any plan at all,” recalls Kronenberg, who says all they knew was that “if you want to send students to college, introduce them to the college experience during the summers.”
The pair soon expanded their connections with alumni from other Ivy League universities, and opportunities at Dartmouth spread to other “Ivies,” such as Cornell, Brown University in Rhode Island, Harvard in Boston, Columbia in New York City and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Their efforts grew into the district’s Ivy League Connection program, established in 2006 with help from a network of supporters who pay tuition costs for participants. The district generally pays travel costs for the two- to three-week summer programs. Forty-five students from four of the district’s five high schools participated in 2008.
As the ILC students come home and share their experiences, organizers have seen the culture at their high schools start to change.
“The ‘college-going culture’ atmosphere is evident throughout the district,” says Kronenberg excitedly. “Students are asking their teachers and counselors about colleges. There is a new interest in signing up to visit local college nights. Teachers are talking it up.
“Our children will never all be affluent,” she adds, “but they can be academically competitive on the highest levels, and they are becoming believers in this fact.”
This year, for the first time, Kronenberg has seen busloads of students from their most “diverse, under-resourced” schools attend events hosted by selective colleges, something the students would never have done if they hadn’t believed there could be a place for them at those colleges. “This is a dramatic turn of events and shows me that conversations among students and families have changed,” she says. “This wasn’t just culture change—it was culture shock.”
Perhaps the best testimonials come from the students themselves.
Stephanie Ny, from the district’s Hercules High School Class of 2010, was skeptical about her ability to succeed in college living away from the emotional support of family and friends. But she found that the ILC program has already “exterminated” her insecurities and expanded her thinking: “Although I have yet to attend my program on the East Coast, I am already opening myself up to colleges and universities outside of my state—something I would not have done half a year ago.”
The ILC helped El Cerrito High student Jessica Tran attend the Women and Leadership Institute at Brown last year. She says her experience there has definitely made her “a better speaker, worker, and leader.”
“Many of my peers did not know about Ivy League colleges or, if they did, they believed that it wasn't the right place for them. When I was able to share my insights, they have now begun to consider colleges outside of California.”
This summer, the 2010 grad plans to attend a program at the University of Pennsylvania or Columbia.
Kiana Ward, who graduates from El Cerrito High this year, admits it wasn’t love at first sight when she arrived on the Brown University campus last summer. By the end of the program, however, she knew Brown was for her.
“I come from a single-parent household and qualify for the free lunch program,” Ward explains. “Money is spent carefully in my family, and Ivy League summer camps are definitely not in our budget. I was accepted in December, and I can't say that I didn't cry a little bit when I found out. Never had I thought that I could ever get into an Ivy League school, and now I will be attending Brown next fall.”
With a legal career in mind, Ramiah Davis-Shephard from Hercules High School’s Class of 2010 was searching the Internet for law schools and feeling a bit overwhelmed when she was selected to attend an ILC seminar.
“I had no idea that Princeton has the top law school in the country. I had never even thought about Princeton, much less considered applying there,” she says. “If it were not for the ILC ... I would still be sitting around, trying to get good grades, but not being really sure what I was going to do with them.
“I have realized that the very prestigious colleges and universities in America are in fact within my reach—me, little 'ol Ramiah. If I can do it, there are so many others who can.”
—Kristi Garrett