Positive Young Black Male News: Urban Prep Does It Again

Tony Moseley, 18, a Posse Scholar, center, is congratulated by friends James Cole, 18, left and Cedric Hakeem, 17, as he steps to the front of the auditorium to be recognized for his accomplishments during an assembly at Urban Prep on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011. Every senior at Urban Prep Academy in Chicago has been accepted to a four year college and the school held an assembly.
----Nancy Stone/ Chicago Tribune
from The Chicago Tribune:

Urban Prep charter school again beats the odds
All seniors accepted to college for second year in row
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter
9:32 p.m. CST, February 16, 2011

Fire broke out in Cedric Abdul-Hakeem's Englewood home Dec. 31. After making sure everyone was out safely, the 17-year-old re-entered the smoke-filled home to retrieve his laptop.

"My laptop had all my applications, and most college applications are due Jan. 1," explained Abdul-Hakeem. "I figured if my laptop burns, I'm through."

He got his laptop. He got the applications in on time. And so far, he's been accepted to half a dozen colleges, including Grinnell College in Iowa, where most of his tuition will be paid through scholarships and grants.

Abdul-Hakeem is yet another Urban Prep success story. For the second consecutive year, every single senior in Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school has been accepted to a four-year college or university.


In all, the 104 members of the 2011 graduating class have been accepted to 103 colleges, including some of the country's most selective schools. With many acceptance letters still anticipated, the charter school, which has campuses in the Englewood, South Shore and East Garfield Park neighborhoods, is hoping at least one of its students this year will land an Ivy League invitation.

"We would never advocate that anybody run into a burning building to get a computer or essay or application, but what (Abdul-Hakeem's story) speaks to is how much our students are dedicated and focused on getting into college," said Urban Prep's founder and CEO, Tim King. "They recognize that with college they will have very different lives that will be transformative for them and their communities."

On Wednesday, Urban Prep Academy for Young Men celebrated its repeat with a tie-exchanging ritual in which the final three seniors to receive acceptance letters exchanged their red uniform ties for red-and-gold ones as the other seniors did before them. Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools' interim chief education officer Charles Payne were on hand. So was alum Israel Wilson, a freshman at Morehouse College in Atlanta, who said he has earned a 3.3 GPA and made the dean's list his first semester.

Skeptics last year had questioned whether grads would actually attend college and be able to succeed in higher ed programs. One of the school's missions is to ensure students earn that bachelor's degree, so King and his staff have helped secure money for plane tickets, driven students to college campuses, held workshops for alumni in the summer and winter, and checked up on them. Of the 107 seniors in 2010—the school's first graduating class—101 enrolled in college, King said. Three went into the military and another three joined the work force.

Just some good news this morning. Many blessings in the future for these young men.

Youth's passion for learning beats the odds

hat tip-W.E.E. See You

Youth's passion for learning beats the odds
Atlantan succeeds while he overcomes family tragedy, other obstacles.
By Mark Davis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The trophies are impossible to ignore. At least 37 fill the living room of the south Atlanta apartment Deonte Bridges shares with his mother. Thirty-six extol the teenager’s academic achievements at Booker T. Washington High School.

The 37th trophy? Bridges, 18, smiled. “Basketball,” he said. Turns out he played the sport in ninth grade but gave it up. The game got in the way of more important things.

Such is the focus of Deonte 
Kivon Bridges, a kid who still marvels at what he’s accomplished at such long odds.

Bridges is Washington High’s first black male valedictorian in more than a decade, a rising freshman at UGA, the winner of scholarships totaling more than $1 million.

And this: A YouTube posting of his graduation speech, nearly five minutes long, has been viewed more than 80,000 times. He has nearly 1,600 Facebook friends who live all over the world.

Bridges reset the academic bar at Washington, despite his mother’s cancer, his brother’s death, an armed hold-up and peer pressure to put down his books and embrace the street life.

With a 3.9 grade point average, he’s the recipient of 26 scholarship offers. Emory University tossed a $201,000 scholarship at his feet, which he declined in favor of an all-expenses-paid education at the University of Georgia, courtesy of the $360,000 Gates Millennium Scholars Program. The award, given by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, will pay for his undergraduate and graduate education.

Read the rest of his story at the link above.

Congratulations Tyki Nelworth: From Homeless Student to West Point

hat tip-W.E.E. See You


From KABC.Com

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A homeless high school senior from South L.A. is on his way to West Point thanks to some incredible help from complete strangers. Tyki Nelworth explained to Eyewitness News how he is inspiring such an overwhelming support.

George Washington Preparatory High School senior Tyki Nelworth is savoring the generosity of strangers. The 18-year-old has been accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but up until Thursday, he didn't know how he would get there or how he would pay the deposit.

"Initially, I had to make a $2,000 deposit to West Point to enter and I was kind of uncertain on how I was going to get that together," said Tyki. "That's a lot of money."

When the school's alumni association heard the stand-out student needed help, former students paid the deposit, his plane ticket, his prom tickets and tuxedo rental.

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Despite one obstacle after another, Tyki has a 4.2 GPA. He's taken advanced-placement courses, is the captain of the football team, is on the baseball team and is student body president.
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Tyki plans to play football at West Point and sharpen his leadership skills. Over the years, he says many people have steered him in the right direction and he hopes to be a role model to other teens in the future.

"If you put your mind to it, I know it sounds cliché, but you can do it. If there's a will, there's a way," said Tyki.

Congratulations young man. And, God bless.

Charter school in tough neighborhood gets all its seniors into college

Hat tip- JJP



From The Chicago Tribune

Charter school in tough neighborhood gets all its seniors into college

By Duaa Eldeib Tribune staff reporter

The entire senior class at Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school has been accepted to four-year colleges. At last count, the 107 seniors had earned spots at 72 schools across the nation.

Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at an all-school assembly at Urban Prep Academy for Young Men in Englewood this morning to congratulate them. It's the first graduating class at Urban Prep since it opened its doors in 2006.

Huberman applauded the seniors for making CPS shine.

"All of you in the senior class have shown that what matters is perseverance, what matters is focus, what matters is having a dream and following that dream," Huberman said.

The school enforces a strict uniform of black blazers, khaki pants and red ties -- with one exception. After a student receives the news he was accepted into college, he swaps his red tie for a red and gold one at an assembly.

The last 13 students received their college ties today, to thunderous applause.

Ask Rayvaughn Hines what college he was accepted to and he'll answer with a question.

"Do you want me to name them all?"

For the 18-year-old from Back of the Yards, college was merely a concept--never a goal--growing up. Even within the last three years, he questioned if school, let alone college, was for him. Now, the senior is headed to the prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. next fall.

Hines remembers the moment he put on his red and gold tie.

"I wanted to take my time because I was just so proud of myself," he said. "I wanted everyone to see me put it on."

The achievement might not merit a mayoral visit at one of the city's elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls using a lottery in one of the city's more troubled neighborhoods, faced difficult odds. Only 4 percent of this year's senior class read at grade level as freshmen, according to Tim King, the school's CEO.

"I never had a doubt that we would achieve this goal," King said. "Every single person we hired knew from the day one that this is what we do: We get our kids into college."

College is omnipresent at the school. Before the students begin their freshman year, they take a field trip to Northwestern University. Every student is assigned a college counselor the day he steps foot in the school.

The school offers an extended day--170,000 more minutes over four years compared to its counterparts across the city--and more than double the number of English credits usually needed to graduate.

Even the school's voicemail has a student declaring "I am college bound" before it asks callers to dial an extension.

Rest of article at link above.