The 2020-2021 school year has been a chaotic one, with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting it from beginning to end. It followed an even more chaotic spring, when the realities of the digital divide became fully exposed as schools had to go virtual.
The gap hasn’t been closed — it will take more than one year of effort to do that — but organizations and businesses have worked hard over the last year to make virtual education accessible, from local advocacy orgs such as REACH Riverside, One Village Alliance and NERDiT Now, to corporate pledges from the likes of Comcast.
One of the the organizations that has been laser focused on fighting the gap during the pandemic is TeenSHARP.
The nonprofit takes some of the brightest kids in the area who have been underestimated and under-resourced due to poverty, race or immigration status and prepares them for college via academic work, application advising and advocacy. Once given the resources, these committed students get into “elite” universities at a high rate, often with full-ride scholarships.
Every year, TeenSHARP teams up with the Delaware Department of Education for an annual college prep blitz, Delaware Goes to College Academy (DGCA), a free bootcamp providing college advising to high-achieving students from low-income households across the state. Usually Delaware has three in-person cohorts for DGCA, one in each county. But this year it’s digital — and has more than 500 participating students, the most it’s ever seen, the org said.
The bootcamp is a “jumpstart” aimed at reducing the stress of waiting until the fall to apply to colleges. It’s not just for rising seniors; freshmen, sophomores and juniors are also participating in the virtual program, getting themselves as prepared as possible, as early as possible. Some underclassmen who attend the bootcamp become members of the main TeenSHARP cohort, like Hasana Parker, a graduating senior at Smyrna High School who was accepted early decision to Pomona College on a full scholarship in December.
“Starting early can make all the difference for a student, and at TeenSHARP, we see it does,” said Atnre Alleyne, TeenSHARP CEO and cofounder, in a statement. “In 2020, college admissions were historically competitive, with more students applying than ever before. That won’t change much by the fall. As schools will be preoccupied with the new school year, we’re getting students ahead of the curve.”
Part of the DGCA curriculum is for students to design a personalized plan to address their gaps, as well as virtually meet with representatives of in-state and out-of-state colleges.
“This partnership allows us to reach more students so that we can provide them with the extra supports they need to prepare for their chosen life paths after high school,” said Delaware Secretary of Education Susan Bunting. “I have been encouraged to hear from the students who benefited from this bootcamp in the past.”
Next fall, previous students who joined TeenSHARP through the DGCA Bootcamp will be heading to universities including Bryn Mawr, University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame and Cornell University.
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