For eighth-grader Alison Peters [name changed to protect confidentiality], New York City’s process for applying to public high school was far from simple. Like other middle school students, Peters received the Department of Education’s 650-page high school directory from her guidance counselor at the end of seventh grade. This was just the beginning of a great challenge that includes conducting tens of hours of high school research, both online and on the ground; scheduling school visits and attend citywide and borough-wide school fairs; examining many of the city’s near-700 high school programs to ensure one meets its eligibility criteria and admissions priorities; and, adhering to each high school program’s admissions method, selecting up to twelve high school programs and rank them in order of preference.
On December 1, 2015, well over 70,000 eighth-graders submitted their lists to the city’s high school match algorithm, which processes applications and attempts to match each student to one of his or her ranked schools. For students without accessible guidance counselors, knowledgeable parent advocates, unlimited computer access, or fluency in English, creating a thoughtful list of best-fit schools is a daunting task at best. The Feerick Center’s LEEAP education program seeks to combat the inequity of this admissions system by recruiting volunteers, training them to help under-resourced students navigate the high school application process, and placing them at organizations like LEEAP’s very first partner site, Goddard Riverside Community Center.
Peters, a student involved with Goddard Riverside’s Star Learning Center, had the opportunity to meet with LEEAP volunteer Jim Wallace a dozen times between June and November of 2015. “My mom does not know how to look for high schools or know about what to do,” Peters explained when asked why she sought application assistance. “I was not informed about a lot of high schools, so having someone that could help me [was] a big boost in the difficult process…. Jim was always open to new ideas and he was always straightforward with why we were doing what we were doing.”
Deena Hellman, Director of Star Learning Center and a member of the Feerick Center’s High School Application Advisory Committee (HSAAC), expressed similar thoughts about the program. “Families often come in with no knowledge about the high school application process,” Hellman said. In fact, Star’s high school access program was created at the request of confused parents. “Without LEEAP volunteers, we would have no ability to provide assistance to our seventh- and eighth-grade students for the high school application process.”
Over the course of the summer and fall, Wallace helped Peters strengthen her skills around decision-making, information organizing, essay revising, and interviewing; still, Wallace claims he learned just as much from his ambitious eighth-grader as she from him. “I enjoyed getting to know Alison during this process. She and I talked about her family and about mine. I taught her a few things…. But she taught me just as much, as I learned about her extended family, her commitment to Goddard Riverside, and her desire to succeed in school. This was a great experience for me, and I hope to do it again.”
The Feerick Center is grateful for all of the LEEAP education component partners, host organizations, and invaluable volunteers that make this work possible. (Approximately 40 LEEAP volunteers worked one-on-one with nearly 250 New York City students during the 2014-2015 academic year and the program will likely work with even more students this year.) Thanks to the commitment of community members like Jim Wallace and Deena Hellman, LEEAP has entered its fourth year of educational equity programming, and students like Alison Peters have received the support necessary for fully leveraging the high school application process. In the coming weeks, LEEAP looks forward to connecting seventh-graders with mentors like Wallace and watching them progress through the high school match process.
Contact AmeriCorps VISTA member Christine Brathwaite for more information about this program.
