Bridge to opportunity for gifted city students Where the Gesu/Young Scholars Go

The eight boys in Sister Carmela Dauerbach's science class at the Gesu School in North Philadelphia bent over strips of filter paper, a beaker of diluted sulfuric acid, and Skittles and M&M's of the same colors.

The task facing the seventh graders from the Young Scholars Fund's academic enrichment program was to find out whether the two candy makers used the same dye to create the bright, matching shades. The answer: sometimes, depending on the color.

Gesu, a private Catholic elementary school for inner-city children, has an enviable academic record. In a city where the public schools overall have a 60.5 percent graduation rate, 99 percent of Gesu graduates finish high school, and 75 percent go to college. Young Scholars, which provides a bridge to the area's college-prep schools, has been a key component of that success.

"This really grew out of an idea that the Jesuits have had in the United States for some time - working with middle schoolers to prepare them for the best possible high schools and colleges," said the Rev. George W. Bur, Gesu's president, who is leaving the school to take a post with the Jesuits at St. Joseph's University.

The program, which spans grades six through nine, not only prepares students academically but also introduces them to elite schools in the area.

In just a few years, Young Scholars has helped send more than 125 talented pupils from Gesu, and a handful of other inner-city schools, to such private institutions as Germantown Friends and the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, and to top public schools, including Central and Philadelphia High School for Girls.

"If there was one word that I had to zero in on for developing a philosophy for [Young Scholars], it was options," said H.L. Ratliff, program director. "When I first came to Gesu School, we had students who were able to matriculate to all kinds of schools, but the parents and the students were unaware of all the possibilities."

Ratliff created Young Scholars at the request of Main Line businessman Winston J. "Win" Churchill, chairman of the Gesu board. Ratliff, 43, an alumnus of St. Joseph's Prep, had helped develop a mentoring program for minority students at that school. Churchill asked him to establish a program at the adjacent Gesu school for middle schoolers who could handle academic challenges.

Young Scholars was launched during the 1996-97 academic year with $200,000 in start-up funds from Warren V. "Pete" Musser, chairman emeritus of Safeguard Scientifics Inc.