Thursday, May 31, 2007

Program Guiding More to College

A high school pilot program designed to ready seniors for college has been successful beyond the expectations of schools officials, who plan to expand the program throughout Prince George's high schools in coming years.

College Summit, a nonprofit program that began at Crossland, Flowers and Laurel high schools in the 2005-2006 school year, gave a sharp boost to college attendance, officials said at a news conference last week. The program will be extended to Suitland, Oxon Hill and DuVal high schools in the next school year.

Venture Philanthropy Partners has pledged an additional $2.1 million to fund College Summit's expansion in the Washington area over the next three years. Three thousand Prince George's students are expected to participate in that time.

Crossland High in Temple Hills, whose students graduated Friday, was a model of how the program worked. Charles Thomas, the principal, said that more than 90 percent of his graduating seniors were going to college. Last year, it was 75 percent.

Although the program was not solely responsible for the improvement -- Thomas has also aggressively promoted Advanced Placement courses at his school -- he nevertheless gave plenty of credit to College Summit; 76 students participated in the program. The participating students wore medals at their graduation.

Latisha M. Johnson, a graduating senior who wants to study telecommunications at Morgan State or Bowie State, said her grade-point average jumped from 2.88 to 3.63 after she got involved with the program. Emmanuel Carter, another new graduate who plans to study culinary arts, said he learned how to write essays through the program, which sent him to Goucher College last summer for training. It was tough, Carter said, but worthwhile.

"When it came down to the end, nobody wanted to leave," he said. "We were like a family."

The Foundation of Automotive and Construction Technology for Students dedicated the 2007 Student-Built House and had an awards ceremony for Prince George's County students.

FACTS gives students hands-on experience in the automotive, construction, landscaping and design fields. Prince George's County public school students who excelled in the program and outstanding teachers received awards for their accomplishments. The house is at 8200 Student Dr., Clinton.

The University of Maryland School of Music and Laurel Marketing and Design won gold in the education Web site category of the 2007 Summit Creative Awards.

The official Web site of Maryland's School of Music, http://www.music.umd.edu, was developed in 2006 by Laurel Marketing and Design.

The Summit Creative Awards were created in 1994 to recognize small and medium-sized advertising agencies around the world.

-- Compiled by NELSON HERNANDEZ and MICHELLE BETTON

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