Low-income students have been either a rare or an invisible minority in higher education. Urban League’s Project Unity is fighting to change that.
Its goal is not only to get your child into college, but also to help him or her make it through college successfully.
“When we are encouraging our kids to go to college, we can’t expect them to go alone and sink or swim,” Dr. Pam Stanfield, Special Needs Access Director at Missouri Baptist University, told educators at a recent luncheon hosted by Project Unity.
“We have to protect them and show them that we care.”
The second annual “Unity Luncheon,” held at the Urban League Headquarters, called over 50 principals, superintendents and college representatives from all over the St. Louis area to band together to break the misconceptions of educating low-income youth.
“Today, when we talk about the education of low-income students, we’re not talking about race,” said Wellston School District Superintendent Charles Brown. “It’s about situations, circumstances and opportunities missed.”
Urban League’s education committee spearheaded Project Unity last fall in an effort to increase college awareness and assist low-income youth and their parents with the college process. The core of the project is to help make college and success a reality for even today’s seemingly “worse” students, those called behavioral problems or academic failures.
“We want to involve and serve as many school districts as we can to make sure education is available and is a right for every child,” said Christine Winfield, Chair of Project Unity’s education sub-committee.
“Every kid should have a strong network behind them especially when they go away to school.”
To offer support and prepare students for higher education, Project Unity hosts several college preparatory programs throughout the year including College Super Saturday, in which high school students get an opportunity to meet prospective colleges and receive help filling out financial aid and college applications. More than 30 colleges from across the Midwest will be on hand for this year’s event to take place from 2 to 5 p.m. on April 19 at Cardinal Ritter College Prep High School, 701 N. Spring.
Project Unity also hosts Parents as Professors workshops, in which parents of college graduates mingle with parents of high school students to discuss tips on how to prepare their children for the next stages of their academic lives.
“Everyone has the responsibility of making sure our young people are exposed to the basic resources that will help them in their educational journeys,” Winfield said.
“Take someone under your wing and show them the information they need and where to find it.”
Educators at the “Unity Luncheon” agreed the problem with public school education is not the students, but the educators themselves. They must do a better job at reaching out to students to show them that they care, educators said.
“For the most part, people in poverty go to schools designed around middle-class values and what they’re offering them doesn’t fit,” said John Martin, SLPS Deputy Superintendent. “Those kids need mentors with someone in the school who cares and want to help them succeed.”
Stanfield added, “Don’t give up on the troublemakers or discipline problems because you don’t know everything that’s going on in their lives. No matter how bad a kid may seem, we can’t give up on them.”
For more information on Project Unity, contact Christine Winfield at 314-749-8555.