The end of the year is right around the corner for many of our CFES schools.  Students in Grover Cleveland High School in NYC dedicated some time to reflect on the impact CFES has had on their lives this year. The following comments were sent in by CFES Leaders:

“I like CFES because it helped me to gain experience and knowledge about colleges. In Hunter College we communicated with other high school students and developed our leadership skills. Other students gave us ideas on how to get scholarships, and how to be a leader.”  Dekyi Youtso

“What I like about CFES is that teachers and program directors helps with the college process. We apply for college and we learned how life will be when you get to college. It doesn’t matter what language you speak; everybody has an opportunity to have a better life. The future is up to you!!!” Alvaro Nunez

“My experience with CFES was fascinating this year. I really had a great time. I went to many trips. They helped me apply for college as well. I also got a chance to build my confidence as a leader. If I did it, so can do you.” Noemi Chavez

“My experience in CFES was great. I learned a lot about college and applying for college. Every meeting I learned something new about college. CFES gave me courage to apply. CFES took us on a college trip. We had a great time at Roger Williams University. Most importantly, I learned more about the importance of college. I got to understand how life in college is. More students in our school should join CFES.  We can help them to learn more about college and how to apply to college.” Lhazom Tsering

Almost everyone has heard of Facebook, but what about “Collegebook”? That’s the name the CFES Club at James B. Castle High School in Hawaii chose for their 2012 Leadership Summit, which borrowed common Facebook themes (apps, games, and the Internet) and gave them a college twist. The annual event, this year held on March 31 and hosted by Windward Community College, draws students from the cluster of CFES schools on the islands of Oahu and Hawaii (also known as “the Big Island”).

The Castle High CFES Scholars were so intent on creating a fun, interactive event for their peers that, in addition to selecting a catchy theme and designing lots of hands-on activities, they hosted a practice summit a few days before right at the high school, inviting the entire student body to play the games at each booth. They even had a college-focused DJ playing music and sharing college facts!

When March 31 rolled around, Castle High CFES Club members were joined on the Windward campus by CFES Scholars from Blanche Pope Elementary School, Governor Sanford B. Dole Middle School, and Konawaena High School. Summit participants had the opportunity to attend three main events, each lasting 60 minutes:  an Internet Scavenger Hunt, a Mini College Fair, and The Game Room.

The scavenger hunt sent Scholars to the web in search of college facts that every student should know. Seven colleges were represented at the college fair:  Chaminade University, Windward Community College, Kapiolani Community College and the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, Brigham Young University Hawaii, Honolulu Community College, and Leeward Community College.

The Game Room included games such as Aim for College, designed around the popular game Angry Birds. The boxes represented distractions that a college student might confront. Another game, the Mascot Match, was designed like Memory but focused on colleges and their mascots. There was even a CFES Labyrinth that required team work, and when the ball went into a certain hole, the group discussed the designated college topic (financial aid, college selection, the application process, etc.).

Overall the event was a great success and showed how effective student leadership and creative minds can make an ordinary event into an extraordinary summit!

New Britain High School’s CFES team had been facing a challenge of getting the word out about CFES due to the large class size. This year the NBHS CFES Team made it their goal to help broaden the knowledge of CFES by building relations with other groups in the School, and the community. They have teamed up with CCSU’s IMPROV Team, and the NBHS J-crew, and Community Central, a New Britain community service organization.  Through these partnerships, they have been able to get involved with and sponsor a variety of community events

Tonight’s event is the Showcase of Excellence, “Celebrating Children, Culture and the Arts” where the NBHS IMPROV team will be performing. On Friday there will be a “Laugh with Purpose” event to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, CFES team, and the J-Crew club.

This morning the IMPROV team was on the Connecticut Fox News Morning Show to help drum up support for these events. The team did a mock-interview IMPROV game, with the topic of going to College.  When asked what the SAT stands for the one actor responded with “Smart and Truth”, which of course is not the real meaning behind SAT, but it was funny and a good response for thinking on your feet!

Three hundred CFES Scholars from the 11 CFES central schools in New York’s Leatherstocking region turned out for the second annual CFES Sophomore Summit on April 3. Hosted again this year by SUNY Oneonta, the summit is designed to help high school sophomores take steps toward college and career with sessions on college selection, the admissions process, and a variety of career fields.

Two dozen educators and administrators from the SUNY system were joined by colleagues from the Skidmore, Ithaca, Hartwick, and other private colleges from around the region, as well as representatives from business and industry to talk about what it takes to get to and through college and ultimately establish a fulfilling and successful career.

Students had the opportunity to attend informational sessions on college selection, admissions, and degree programs, and to learn about careers of particular interest for them including those in the fields of Business, Agriculture, Public Services, Education, Engineering, Health Services, Liberal Arts, and Trades.

While the overall objective was to get Scholars thinking about life after high school and possible college and career pathways, participants were able to meet peers from other CFES Leatherstocking schools and learn about their interests and experiences. Who knows, in couple of years some of these students may meet again when they take that next step in their educational journey and wind up on the same college campus.

(from left to right) Saysha Santos (10th), Isaiah Andrade (12th, CFES Club Co-President), Tiffanie Bush (12th, CFES Club Vice-President)

On March 17, CFES Scholars from James B. Castle High School in Kaneohe, on the island of Oahu, demonstrated their research skills and knowledge of Native Hawaiian culture as participants in the island-wide 2012 Legendary Places of Ko’olaupoko Scavenger Hunt. Hosted by the Ko’olaupoko Civics Club, the annual event is designed to raise awareness of the traditional boundaries and the natural and cultural resources of the 11 ahupua’a, or land divisions, of the moku (district) of Ko`olaupoko, which runs from Kualoa to Maunalua Bay.

At the start of the scavenger hunt, the Castle Scholars (and other participating teams) were given a packet of clues for various sites within each ahupua’a. The Castle team had to decipher the clues, go to the site, and answer questions provided in the packet. Among the questions tackled by the Scholars:

1) What was grown by the ancient Hawaiian’s at this site? (Banana, taro)

2) What was the boulder in the middle of the site used for? (Sacrifice of animals to the gods before going over the Pali Mountain)

3) What famous battle was fought near here? (Battle of Nu’uanu)

4) What is the protector animal of the region? (Mo’o- gecko, a lizard that used the body of a gecko as one of its many manifestations)

As further proof of their success in locating the sites, a team photo was taken at each site visited. For each site visited, the team received one entry into the category’s grand prize drawing ($1,000), with a minimum of four entries required to be eligible to win the grand prize. Prizes were also awarded for the most creatively dressed team in each category.

The Castle High Scholars competed against five other groups from the community, and although they didn’t win their category’s grand prize, they didn’t come away empty handed. As teacher Shiloh Richardson explains, “We didn’t win, but they gave all participants $100 that we will put toward scholarships for our graduating seniors.”

(from left to right) CFES Club advisor Shiloh Richardson, Isaiah Andrade, Tiffanie Bush, Saysha Santos

Roger Williams University is a popular destination for rising sophomore and junior CFES Scholars this time of year.  Over the last two weeks, one hundred Scholars have visited this beautiful campus in Bristol, RI.  High School for Arts and Business and Grover Cleveland High School traveled from Queens, NY, to expose their Scholars to a higher education institution outside of the Metropolitan area.

Both schools have focused their CFES programming on students who speak English as their second language.  Over the last few months, Scholars in these two schools have put together service projects and learned about life in college and what it takes to pay for an education through presentations and discussions.  These trips to RWU were strategic endeavors to make the idea of college real and entice Scholars to apply for the summer 2012 College Explore programs.

Don Mays and Kathy Toro from the office of Admissions welcomed both schools onto the campus for workshops, guest lectures and a complimentary lunch.  Fifty percent of the Scholars on these trips had never visited a college campus before.  After a tour and information session, many Scholars were thrilled to embark on their college search journey.

In a matter of hours, Scholars sat in on lectures delivered by faculty from the Business and Arts Departments, explored the state-of-the-arts facilities and learned about the diverse student population.

Roger Williams University will be hosting one of three CFES College Explore programs this summer.  College Explore are 3-day residential programs that incorporate the academic and extracurricular components of college life in order to provide CFES Scholars a meaningful way to learn what it takes to make a successful transition to college. If you are interested in learning more about all College Explore programs, visit http://www.collegefes.org/news.php?nid=388.

Eighth grader Breann Adamson wants to go to college. This CFES Scholar likes basketball, and she’s interested in law. “I want to know my rights, what I can and can’t do. And I want to help others who need help,” she says.

The desire to go to college, study law, and help others is new for Breann, who attends Frederick Douglass School in Cincinnati, OH. And she’s painfully honest about her past shortfalls. “I had straight F’s in math before now,” she states. She also used to fight and was suspended three times last year. But this year her grades are up and she has had no suspensions.

What prompted this turnaround? Breann has become a peer mentor, and that means being a positive role model for other students, particularly those who are headed down the same path Breann once traveled – the path to self-destruction. Now she’s on the path to college, and she wants to bring other students along.

College visits are an important part of the CFES program at Frederick Douglass, and the CFES Scholar – all eighth graders and peer mentors – are the target group. Past trips have taken Scholars to colleges and universities within and beyond Cincinnati, including St. Joseph’s College in New York City, Spelman College in Atlanta, Florida State University in Tallahassee, and Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

This spring’s trip to Washington, DC, to explore Howard University and other area colleges will also include mentees, and Breann is excited about sharing this experience with Briashia, the third grader she mentors. Breann and her peers agree that college trips are the best (and most fun) way to learn about everything college – from admissions to academics to extracurricular activities – and to understand the important role that school achievement plays in gaining access to college.

“These mentors have visited more than 15 colleges, and they are still in middle school,” Missy Wilkins emphasizes. Wilkins is the CFES program director who works with Frederick Douglass School. “Now they have this opportunity to guide and inform their mentees, elementary students who will be visiting a college campus for the first time. Given the close relationships these students have developed over the year, this trip will have lasting impact on both mentors and mentees.”

It’s becoming a tradition at CFES for former Scholars now attending or having graduated from college to return to schools to share nuggets of wisdom. Pablo Colon, a first-year college student, visited M.S. 45 in Harlem recently to inspire its young Scholars to pursue a higher education. As a graduate from A. Phillip Randolph Campus High School, he is well versed in the CFES core practices. Only a year into his undergraduate studies, Pablo is already acquiring impressive leadership accolades. Among many other things, this young man is already a freshman representative in the executive board for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and a member of the Emerging Leaders Program at Clarkson University – a CFES college partner.

Pablo joined me at M.S.45 to facilitate a workshop designed to help students develop their communication skills. After helping out with small-group activities and discussions, he talked about his first-year college experience. M.S. 45 Scholars listened intently as Pablo shared his excitement about being accepted to a ten-week summer research program and his recent induction into a prestigious fraternal organization. At this rate, there is nothing that can stop Pablo from achieving his goals. He is planning on increasing his involvement on campus, focusing academically, and attaining an internship position with a civil engineering firm by summer 2013. Pablo’s leadership pathway is bright with promise. Scholars from all our schools are fortunate to have him as a role model and Scholar leader.

Scholar: Andy Ng

Hometown Sarasota, FL

School: New York University

The notion when you enter college is that you have to rebuild your life in a way: gradually your activities and connections from high school have to be replaced with new ones attained through your post-secondary education. That’s not to say that you should completely forget where you came from. College For Every Student, for example, is part of my life just as much, if not more, than it was when I was at Booker High. I’ve mentored a small group of seniors there throughout the past year, and they’ve begun to receive their college acceptances. Sara was accepted to Columbia; Jenna’s received a full-ride to The King’s College of New York City; Miles received a scholarship to Rollins; and Briana will be attending The Macaulay Honors Program at Hunter College. She’s also been selected as a finalist for the Gates Millennium Scholarship, the same one that I received almost a year ago.

Spending my freshman year at New York University’s London campus, I have seen and done myriad things most people will never get a chance to do. I ask each and every day, “How did I get here?” And honestly, I remind myself of all the things I accomplished in high school, and I use that as both motivation and a platform to keep moving forward. My participation in CFES connected me with one of the organization’s program directors, Angel Acosta. Through meeting and keeping contact with him, I’ve been accepted as one of 40 students in the entire world to participate in Leadership exCHANGE’s Global Leadership Program in Rome, Italy, this July. As a Gates Millennium Scholar, I have the possibility of attending the 2012 APIASF (Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund) Higher Education Summit in Washington D.C., where I’d be able to meet with national educational, policy, private- and public-sector leaders to discuss equality and diversity in our education system.

These opportunities will provide me with once-in-a-lifetime trips to new places, but they will also put me in a position to learn new methods for achieving my goals on a larger scale. As of now, I am working extensively on a local and individual-school scale. Once a week I travel to a local primary school to tutor year-two students in handwriting and reading. I also serve as a Global Peer Ambassador for the NYU LGBTQ Student Center, creating and implementing passive and active programs to educate students and locals about gender and sexuality issues present in London and the entire United Kingdom. I am Vice President and Secretary of the freshmen Liberal Studies Student Government, a member of the Amnesty International branch here, and participate as a contributor and editor for the music blogging group, Audio Progression.

My willingness to be a student leader earned me one of 20 student invitations to a special reception at The Four Seasons here this past week. The ballroom was packed with NYU faculty, alumni, trustees, and the man of the night, President John Sexton. I embraced that opportunity with the mindset that I would be the person who would interact with anyone and everyone. I made sure to remain professional but also genuine – and to show off the goofy personality that matched my bowtie. It seemed to have worked because I was specifically acknowledged by President Sexton as a “sizzling talent” during his speech even though he could only see the back of my head at the time. He later called me on stage, where I introduced myself to the crowd. Afterwards, I was given plenty of business cards and was even offered a short internship with a media and communications group based in London.

The benefits that I have experienced from actively continuing my commitment to service and student-run activities have reassured me that this is the right course of action for me. I came to NYU very unsure of myself, but my time in college thus far has been extraordinary because of what I’ve made it. I believe that’s an important lesson for prospective college students to keep in mind.

Joshua Johnson and Ellen DeGeneres

While attending Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Harlem, New York, Joshua Johnson was introduced to College For Every Student (CFES) and became a CFES scholar. His involvement in CFES ensured that he would become a leader at his school and within his community, serve as a mentor for his peers, and discover his personal pathway to college. Joshua is now a sophomore at Penn State University. Like most college students, Joshua soon found that the cost of college was an incredible challenge. To overcome this barrier Joshua began tap dancing on the NYC subway. People enjoyed his natural talent and began to give him money to perform. He uses what he earns to help with college expenses. His story has since become a media hit and he has even been interviewed by CNN and most recently, The Ellen DeGeneres show. Click the link below to take a look!

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/videos/index.php?mediaKey=0_img3ggib

During lunch at Strong Vincent High School in Erie (PA), CFES Liaison Deb Beard meets with a group of CFES Scholars (mostly young women) to hear about what is happening in the school and what their goals are for CFES. The ultimate aim of these meetings is to help make CFES an integral part of the school culture, and the group’s efforts are paying off.

Strong Vincent has one mentoring program underway, teaming science classes of different grade levels. Cassie, one of the CFES Scholar Leaders, has made it her goal to start a gender-based mentoring program in which older girls at Strong Vincent would serve as positive role models for younger girls. CFES Program Director Lindsey Jakiel has been helping shape this initiative, which is expected to be up and running by next year. There are also plans to launch a mentoring group involving Mercyhurst College student athletes and CFES Scholars that would focus on building and strengthening the Scholars’ leadership skills.

Committed to ensuring student success, the Strong Vincent team has been diligently working to expand the CFES practices in their school.

How has CFES affected your school culture? Do you have a success story that you want to share? If so, e-mail Jessica@collegefes.org

This month Girls Scouts will be celebrating 100 years. Growing up in the Nation’s Capital, Zakiah Pierre, was a Girls Scout. This organization fueled her desire to enter STEM. Zakiah was chosen to be profiled on the Girl Scout website this month to celebrate their accomplishments!

Check it out at http://www.gscnc.org/zakiah_n_pierre.html

Because of the great success CFES has had in moving low-income youth on the track to college, GE has chosen us as the Featured Nonprofit for the What Works Project for the week of March 5-12! The What Works Project (www.celebratewhatworks.com) is a dynamic digital experience that helps shift America’s focus from what isn’t working to what IS working, and through the power of positivity, helps fund organizations that are supporting American jobs. This is great news for CFES, as it not only gives our Scholars and schools a chance to show off in a beautiful interactive photo collage, but together we have a chance to raise $10,000!

Friends of CFES, we encourage you to submit a photo each day and vote on your favorite photos! If your photo gets the most votes, you could win the Daily $500 for your submission. We’re counting on our Scholars, schools, friends, and supporters to spread the word and participate in this exciting opportunity. No donation is needed, only clicks!

All you have to do is click, share a photo, and/or vote for your favorite at CelebrateWhatWorks.com between March 5 and March 12, 2012! Your participation triggers a donation in support of CFES, and each day the top-voted submission receives the Daily $500!

Here are the three ways you can trigger a donation:

• Submit a photo of what works – the ideas, technologies, and people that advance our communities and help get America back to work. Then share why you feel they work by filling in the caption “______ Works.”
• Vote for all your favorite photos by clicking the heart in the upper-left corner.
• Like GE’s Official Facebook Page.

Mentoring Works.
Leadership through Service Works.
Pathways to College Works.
CFES WORKS!

Diobel Rodriguez gripped the mic with confidence ­­­as he addressed a little under 200 of his schoolmates during the recent College for Every Student (CFES) kick-off at IS/MS76 in Harlem.  As the president of the school’s leadership team, Diobel introduced the afternoon’s agenda and shared some of his personal goals.  The 20-member leadership team organized the hour-long assembly to get other students excited about going to college and officially introduce College for Every Student to the entire middle school.

After weeks of planning, the team created a Power Point presentation and crafted college-related questions to ask during the raffle portion of the assembly.  Each team member addressed the entire auditorium with a brief statement about career goals, intent to develop leadership skills and how CFES would help with achieving both.  The response from the crowd was very welcoming and set the stage for enthusiastic involvement in future assemblies.

Like many of our other schools, IS/MS 76 selected a group of influential and determined leaders from the 7^th and 8^th grade to constitute its leadership team.  Over the next few months, this team will organize school-wide service projects, support the implementation of a peer-mentoring program and plan campus visits to local and distant colleges.

Regardless of the fact that IS/MS 76 just joined the CFES family around two months ago, the leadership emerging there has propelled the program forward.  In light of the challenges facing underserved youth in New York City, this leadership team is intensely focused on building a college-going culture and developing the school’s student leadership profile.  Week in and week out, Holley Murchison and I engage these students and we can guarantee that they are capable and committed.   They are clearly doing what dedicated student leaders do—taking their leadership to the next level!