Ninth-graders from two D.C. public high schools paid a visit to the Hilltop on Friday as part of D.C.’s College Awareness Month.
Students from Columbia Heights Educational Campus and Phelps High School were greeted by Georgetown student volunteers and were guided in several activities including a discussion with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, lunch at O’Donovan Hall and a campus tour led by Blue and Gray.
The event, which was organized by a 17-person student committee in conjunction with D.C.’s Double the Numbers coalition and Georgetown’s Ward 7 Initiative, was meant to expose inner-city high school students to a university setting and encourage them to pursue higher education. According to DTN, only 9 percent of ninth-graders in D.C. public schools graduate high school in five years and continue on to graduate college, a number that amounts to less than half the national percentage.
“This is a looming crisis for them and all of us,” the organization’s website states.
Ryan Wilson (COL ’12), a student co-chair of the Awareness Day committee, noticed the grim college prospects for D.C. students last year while working on the president’s Diversity Initiative. He suggested the college awareness event and has worked on it with co-chair Cassandra Locke (NHS ’12) for much of the year.
“We wanted to encourage college and the idea that all the students should attend college,” Wilson said.
According to Wilson, the day began with a forceful first activity.
“They did a really powerful icebreaker that asked them to think about the sort of things that could prevent them from going to college,” he said.
In D.C. Public Schools, there is no shortage of obstacles, either. Teachers and parents have been known to be apathetic, and a Washington Post exposé from 2007 noted that the learning environments themselves are often hostile to learning.
“Across the city, nine violent incidents are reported on a typical day, including fights and attacks with weapons. Fire officials receive about one complaint a week of locked fire doors, and health inspections show that more than a third of schools have been infested by mice,” the article said.
Georgetown already has several programs in place in order to encourage members of the D.C. community to overcome these obstacles and pursue college. The Ward 7 Initiative supports a partnership between the university and D.C.P.S., offering programs through the university like DC Reads, After School Kids and the D.C. Street Law High School Clinic. The College Awareness Day added yet another project to Georgetown’s cache of aid programs.
Despite all of this aid, however, DCPS students still face lower acceptance rates than Georgetown’s total average.
“It is a bit lower than the national average. I’d say it’s a 15 to 18 percent round estimate over the last few years,” said Kamilah Holder, senior assistant director of the Office of
Undergraduate Admissions.
For high schoolers just beginning the process, last Friday’s event was much more concentrated on the positives of college rather than the difficulties of getting there. At the very least, the event demonstrated to students the benefits of hard work in high school, and brought the kids outside and away from their own classes for a day.
“They seemed to really enjoy it. All the feedback that we received was really positive,” Wilson said. “Overall a great event, a great opportunity for Georgetown to reach out to students in Ward 7.”
