Young Adult’s Succeed

High school can be a very stressful time in in a student’s life between adolescence, classes, exams, and planning for the future. Junior year in particular introduces a new level of intensity as students begin planning to take the SAT examination, and look into colleges to attend.

Since the Spring of 2016 through our Community School efforts, we have been working in collaboration with Let’s Get Ready to implement their SAT Prep program. The program model pairs college students with small groups of students in the 11th grade to coach them on tips, tricks, and strategies so they can successfully complete the exam to the best of their ability. Our students who live in and around the Zone qualify for free or reduced price lunch (a qualifying indicator of low-income), access to expensive SAT Prep courses such as Kaplan or Princeton Review are often out of reach for most. Through the Let’s Get Ready program students are able to access high quality support that begins to level the playing field with their higher in come peers.

In Fall 2019, we were excited to see over 135 juniors inquire about SAT prep. For nine weeks, students will dedicate two nights a week for a total of six hours a week on college prep and readiness. One student involved in the program this year by the name of Leah said “I did not realize the importance of the SAT until I began researching for colleges and what types of scores are required to attend some schools. I feel lucky because the program is free for all anyone, and both my family and I are comfortable that this is an after-school program that is held at my school building.”

What makes this collaboration run smoothly is the partnership buy-in from Let’s Get Ready, Long Island City High School and Zone 126 that are focused on supporting the needs of the students who need these services the most. Ms. Wang a Long Island City High School teacher who stays after-school to support the programs implementation says “It is wonderful to see our students, especially new immigrants who have financial hardships take advantage of this program. It is great to hear the peer-to-peer conversations about life goals and how to obtain them. It is truly amazing to see this work come alive for our students and how it really does impact their future lives.”

This opportunity has provided an experience for our high students to think of college as a reality for them and not something abstract. Our fall cohort will culminate by taking the scheduled December SAT and we are in preparation to welcome the new Spring 2020 cohort.

In Photo: Jeimy Portillo, Program Coordinator and (r) Michelle A. Makabali, Community School Director at the Let’s Get Ready registration table signing students up for programming)