The National Collegiate Preparatory Public Charter High School in Southeast D.C. raised 16 percent of the funds needed to send a new class of students to participate in an education enrichment program this school year. The program seeks to expand student horizons and open up new opportunities for them to attend college and succeed.
With a goal of collecting $15,000, the school aims to send 15 students on its 2016 summer trip to Panama from May 2 – 6. Various fundraising campaigns, such as a webpage dedicated to receiving donations, a Facebook page and a partnership with Network for Good, an organization that provides donor-advised fund uses through the Internet and mobile technology, have generated $2,400 so far leaving the school with $12,600 to raise before the trip.
Since its inception in 2009, the school, located at 4600 Livingston Rd. S.E., has sent academically distinguished and often underserved juniors abroad to study in South American countries such as the Dominican Republic and Panama. “International Studies has always been a part of our school’s academic design,” Dianne Brown, principal of the prep, told the AFRO. “Believing that students will be better prepared to handle the the dynamics of college education, we chose Panama as the destination because it reflects the African diaspora, uses Spanish, has an IB program, and is reasonable in cost.”
While in Panama, students are expected to engage in an International Baccalaureate program, learn and speak Spanish, volunteer at an orphanage and or senior home, and gain a sense of curiosity and exploration for the world around them, Brown said.
“We would like to have a funding source for children who believe that their economic situation would not even allow them to consider applying to our program,” she said. The school typically gives one full scholarship to a deserving student to attend the trip.
In the near future, the prep would like to see an expansion of funding for their students as well as a larger scope of places for them to travel, including Africa, Italy, and Spain. “It still puzzles me that some of our children have never even seen the ocean. Teachers holding hands of juniors as they walk into the ocean is astounding. This is why we have our program, why we need educational equity. It really is the experience of a lifetime,” said Brown.
Students and staff view the program as more than just an international vacation, but also a way to interest students in obtaining a college education.
“After I came back from my trip to Panama, it really made me want to go to college,” De’Andre Mitchell Taylor, alum of the school and freshman at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, told the AFRO. “I saw how big the world was and I knew I had to make a difference in my community.
To donate, visit tinyurl.com/NatPrepTrip.