Student Success Center
The Student Success Center (SSC) is a college access program serving 1,700 high school students in the low-income neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn. The SSC's innovative approach combines individual support to the highest need students, reduces drop-out rates, and harnesses the power of student leadership to promote a school culture where all students strive and apply for college.
About You
Section 1: You
First Name
Katie
Last Name
Lyon-Hart
Website URL
Organization
Make the Road New York
Country
United States, NY
Section 2: Your Organization
Organization Name
Make the Road New York
Organization Website
Organization Phone
718-418-7690
Organization Address
301 Grove Street, Brooklyn NY 11237
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Organization Country
United States
Your idea
Name Your Project
Student Success Center
Country and state your work focuses on
United States, NY
Describe Your Idea
The Student Success Center (SSC) is a college access program serving 1,700 high school students in the low-income neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn. The SSC's innovative approach combines individual support to the highest need students, reduces drop-out rates, and harnesses the power of student leadership to promote a school culture where all students strive and apply for college.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
The Bushwick Student Success Center (SSC) is designed to address the extreme lack of college matriculation among Bushwick students. The Bushwick SSC was developed with the input and participation of student leaders at Make the Road New York, one of NYC's leading youth and community development organizations. Students conducted surveys in the four high schools on the Bushwick Campus to find out what kind of help students wanted most and what barriers most prevented students from applying and being accepted to college. They found a severe lack of college access resources available to students as well as a lack of knowledge and enthusiasm for going to college in Bushwick, a community without a history or culture of college-going. Students in Bushwick today are often the first in their families to approach the college process, and schools in this neighborhood are often struggling to maintain attendance and provide adequate academic support, let alone implement college access programs.
The SSC was established in the fall of 2007 and serves students 9th-12 grades to the four Bushwick Campus schools. The SSC combines a welcoming space for youth to access college information, counseling and tutoring services, with a program of leadership development in which student leaders promote college-going at all grade levels through conducting workshops, organizing college fairs and activities, and providing mentorship to other students in the college application process. By engaging students as young as 14 in the process and developing youth as representatives and leaders of their school, the SSC has been able to establish a much deeper college-going culture in Bushwick and help hundreds of seniors each year to apply and attend college.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
"Students at [my school] when they hear the word 'college' – seniors especially, they get this feeling of being lethargic. They don’t want to do it – they don’t want to have anything to do with it because they know it is complicated and it is hard and they don’t want to – they just close their eyes to it… With the SSC I feel like students are more empowered – they think they can do it too." - Youth Leader, Student Success Center
Through the work of the Youth Leaders on the Bushwick Campus, students of all achievement levels are developing their understanding of the college process. Specifically:
*All 9th and 10th graders on the Bushwick campus have participated in youth-led early awareness workshops.
*All 11th graders have participated in youth-led "college-application ready" workshops – making preliminary college lists, drafting personal statements and making resumes.
*70% of students in the campus report visiting the SSC, with half of those students visiting upwards of 6 times.
The SSC model of putting youth at the center of the college access process is generating powerful results. Preliminary evaluation, using quantitative and qualitative data, shows the SSC is:
*Increasing number of students applying to college.
*Increasing number of students being accepted to college.
*Diversifying types of colleges students are applying to, with a particular increase in applications to private colleges.
*Increasing numbers of students applying for scholarships and Federal/State aid.
*Engaging students earlier in the college process.
*Helping juniors to be "college-application ready" upon entering senior year.
*Providing needed support to over-taxed guidance counselors.
*Providing a center of expertise for guidance counselors not trained in college counseling.
*Creating a positive college-going culture within and across schools.
*Serving as unifying forces on the multi-school Bushwick campus.
Problem
In Bushwick, where roughly half of all children live below the poverty level, historically only eight percent of residents graduate from college, and 50% never graduate high school. Without resources to seriously address the educational needs of youth in this community and help students advance to college, residents are doomed to remain in poverty. Research by youth at Make the Road New York and our partners in the Urban Youth Collaborative have identified 3 key barriers to college matriculation for Bushwick youth:
(1) Lack of a deeply and universally felt college-going culture. While many schools in Bushwick have an articulated goal of preparing students for college, many are battling an entrenched history of low-achievement and struggling to raise student and parent expectations.
(2) Lack of expertise/resources to help students make informed college choices and enter college. While 90% of students polled expressed interest in college, over half never or rarely had access to a college counselor.
(3) Absenteeism, which leads to high drop out rates and academic unpreparedness for college. From 2007-08, daily attendance rates on the Bushwick high school campus averaged 78%-82%.
Actions
For 2010-11, Make the Road is working to meet four goals:
1. Deepen youth leadership on the Bushwick Campus. Youth leaders will continue to develop their skills and community commitment while shifting other students', teachers' and principals' attitudes about student achievement and college-going.
2. Sustain, refine and further develop the SSC's existing programming to help all students make informed college choices and matriculate to college. Youth and staff will work together to meet the diverse needs of all students on campus.
3. Develop a new student-led initiative to reduce absenteeism, thereby leading to increased graduation rates and college-going. Youth leaders will carry out a participatory study, gather data directly from students about the causes of absenteeism, and develop a peer-to-peer service model to respond to their findings.
4. Further establish the SSC as a replicable model citywide and inspire sustained and sizable public investment. Make the Road will continue to share the SSC model and successes with the Department of Education and elected officials and work with our partners to develop SSCs in other schools citywide.
Results
For 2010-11, we anticipate:
1. Increased number of students applying, being accepted by and enrolling in colleges where they can succeed: 100% of seniors will apply to college and 75% of these students will apply to six or more colleges, showing that they have researched and selected colleges that are appropriate for them. 80% of graduating seniors will be accepted to and enroll in college.
2. Increased awareness of college and the college preparation process across all grade levels in all schools on the campus. 90% of 11th graders will be “college application ready,” defined as having a complete college essay, college list, and resume before the completion of their 11th grade year. 100% of 9th & 10th graders will improve their “college knowledge” through participation in peer-led early college awareness workshops, measured through pre- and post surveys.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Over the next three years, Make the Road will open a new SSC at our partner high school in Elmhurst, Queens to provide the same high quality college access support to the Pan American International High Schools’ entirely Latin American immigrant student body. Make the Road will also work with our partners citywide to help other organizations open their own SSCs at other schools with similar needs. In order for these initiatives to be successful we will have to establish a clear framework for partnerships and incorporate the needs and values of all stakeholders. We will need to make sure that new SSCs stay true to the youth development framework established by the Bushwick SSC. We will need to ensure that new SSCs are developed in schools where principals and teachers are enthusiastic and amenable to this partnership.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Any further development of the SSC that does not privilege youth input or grow the leadership skills of participating youth would be considered unsuccessful. If different stakeholders are unable to agree on how partnerships will operate or if sustained funding cannot be secured then this will also make the project challenging.
How many people will your project serve annually?
1001‐10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
In what country?
United States
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Make the Road New York
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
No
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
The Urban Youth Collaborative is a joint effort of five established New York City youth organizing groups and the Community Organizing & Engagement Program of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform (CO&E/AISR). The UYC works to insert student voice into secondary school reform in the New York City public school system, to improve students’ chances of high school graduation, college access, and eventual college success. The UYC has been critical in establishing the SSC through working with students to identify the barriers to college and college aspirations, working with the Department of Education to fund SSCs, garnering interest and support from private foundations, and organizing for continued Department of Education support for SSCs.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1. Establish an SSC at Make the Road New York’s other partner school, the Pan American International High School in Elmhurst, Queens.
2. Create a clear, replicable workplan, timeline and partnership guide for different stakeholders to make the SSC a truly replicable model in New York City and beyond.
3. Secure further sustained public funding for SSCs through promotion, youth advocacy and building relationships with elected officials.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
At the time that Make the Road began, the majority of teenagers in Bushwick attended Bushwick High School. The school was incredibly overcrowded, unsafe, and neither welcoming nor supportive to its students' needs. The school was operating at 220% capacity and graduating only 20% of seniors each year. Drop-out and college acceptance rates were also abysmal. As part of the Department of Education's initiative to break up large schools into smaller, better structured schools, Make the Road helped to open the Bushwick School for Social Justice in 2003 and has since partnered with the school to improve parent and student engagement in their communities and the education system. The new school, operating alongside three other small high schools on the Bushwick Campus, has now achieved a graduation rate of 80% and has significantly improved college-going and drop-out rates.
After the break-up of the large school, educational outcomes for students still remained below state standards and resources to help students get to college were very slim. Research conducted by Make the Road youth with the Urban Youth Collaborative showed that students' knowledge of college and the application process was very limited as well because there were not dedicated resources at these schools, nor at many other schools across the city.
“I will tell you a story, one that happened to me at least 20 times during my junior year. I would need to see my guidance counselor but she was always unavailable because she had to talk to the seniors about applications, or she was booked for the week - or wait - this was my favorite - she was out for the day! All I needed was an SAT application. The way most of us found out that we had to apply for the SAT was through word of mouth. Half of the juniors at my school didn’t even take the SAT! I did my best to let everyone know, even though it wasn’t my job. It’s because my guidance counselor had too many jobs.” - NYC Public High School Student, August 2006
MRNY's youth programs were serving students every day that needed help on their school work and college applications – services that other schools already provided. Teenagers all over Bushwick were struggling just to stay in high school, let alone graduate, matriculate or find a job. Organizers and youth at Make the Road realized this problem needed serious structural improvements to better serve students and help residents progress out of poverty. Make the Road also witnessed how youth organizing could have an impact on school policy and win public support for youth leadership programming. Working with the Urban Youth Collaborative, Make the Road conducted participatory research to identify students’ needs and engaged youth to develop, promote and eventually implement their Student Success Center model.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Oona Chatterjee is one of the co-founders and co-Executive Directors of Make the Road New York. Oona is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale College and a graduate of the New York University School of Law. As the child of immigrant parents from India, Oona was inspired by stories from her maternal grandparents, who were involved in the struggle for independence in India in the 1930s and 1940s. At an early age, Oona saw the power of collective action and the capacity of individuals to make change in the world. While in college and law school, she worked as a journalist, activist and organizer and teamed up with her classmate Andrew Friedman to start Make the Road New York’s predecessor organization in the impoverished neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn. The organization brought community members together to empower and educate one another, and provided desperately needed legal services to a community plagued by environmental injustices, workplace rights violations and negligent landlords.
Through their community organizing work, Oona and Andrew met hundreds of young people in Bushwick who were often despondent, without afterschool activities, family support or decent educational or employment opportunities. Oona recognized the power young people could have to improve their communities and schools and started the Youth Power Project to help young people in Bushwick determine their individual and collective futures.
In 2007, Oona was instrumental in helping to grow Make the Road into a citywide organization that now serves youth in both Brooklyn and Queens. In recognition of her work, she has been awarded the Do Something Brick Award, the Union Square Award, and the Reebok Human Rights Award. She is also a recipient of the Echoing Green Fellowship, the Open Society Institute Community Fellowship, the Ashoka Fellowship and the Kirkland & Ellis New York City Public Interest Fellowship. She is the Chair of the Board of the North Star Fund, a New York City foundation which funds community organizing and social change.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Personal contact at Changemakers
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
50 words or fewer
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| Student_Success_Center1.jpg | 60.89 KB |
 | 161 weeks ago Alexis Ditkowsky said: Hi Katie, I really enjoyed reading about what you've been able to accomplish with the Student Success Center. I'm curious to hear more ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 164 weeks ago Katie Lyon-Hart updated this Competition Entry. |
| 164 weeks ago Katie Lyon-Hart updated this Competition Entry. |
| 164 weeks ago Katie Lyon-Hart updated this Competition Entry. |
| 164 weeks ago Katie Lyon-Hart updated this Competition Entry. |
| 164 weeks ago Katie Lyon-Hart updated this Competition Entry. |
| 165 weeks ago Katie Lyon-Hart updated this Competition Entry. |
| 165 weeks ago Katie Lyon-Hart updated this Competition Entry. |
| 165 weeks ago Katie Lyon-Hart submitted this idea. |
