Each child’s potential increases with expanded access to opportunities. So it is no accident that one of the five pillars of our College Access and Success work is exposure. The Adolescence team is working with high school teens in our programs and sites across the organization to make sure they are aware of all of their options for college.

Last month, they took 44 high school juniors from Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School and Opportunity Charter School on visits to colleges in the Washington, DC and Maryland region. At both Howard University and George Washington University, students went on campus tours, attended informational sessions, and ate in the dining halls to get a real sense of college life.

“It’s great because they see themselves applying to the schools they are visiting,” said Felipe Ayala, the College Access Assistant Manager in the Adolescence Division.  

For some students the trip was the first time they had left New York City. And rooming with other students on the trip who they didn’t know beforehand gave them a sense of life in the dorms and helped crystallize the possibility of going away for college.

More visits are on the horizon to Utica, Binghamton, and Union, which are all funded by New York State’s Higher Education Service Corporation. And we are excited to see our students continue to find that their options for the future are much larger than they originally imagined.