For five weeks, the 15 students who chose the Summer Institute will spend three hours a day in intensive writing, math and research classes. There will be homework, and plenty of it, said Joan Mazzotti, executive director of Philadelphia Futures.
It will cost $10,000 - money secured from the Brook J. Lenfest Foundation - to educate the students, who come from high schools such as Fels and Germantown High Schools. The money is well worth it, Mazzotti said.
Philadelphia Futures successes are in the stories, and in the numbers. Since it began in 1990, the "Sponsor-A-Scholar" program has shepherded 710 students to high school graduation. Of that group, 694 - or 98 percent - have gone to college; 246 have graduated.
"What we are finding is a total lack of academic rigor in the neighborhood high schools," said Mazzotti. "We help these kids believe in themselves, give them the expectation that they will go to college and they will succeed. We're just leveling the educational playing field for them."
Philadelphia Futures students are attending colleges and universities from Bryn Mawr to Drexel to Bloomsburg.
Some knew they wanted to go to college, but didn't know how to get there. Others didn't realize their potential. Some needed an extra push, and then another.
But the tie that binds them all is perseverance.
Azsherae Gary, 19, graduated from Roxborough High and is now headed to Bryn Mawr College. On the night of the Class of 2007's celebration at the Convention Center, she was relaxed, happy and looking forward to this summer.
Gary will juggle work as an intern at the American Red Cross with her Summer Institute workload. But after four years in the program, Gary doesn't mind the time crunch. Philadelphia Futures has "shaped me to think new things, have experiences I might not have had otherwise," she said.
