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URBAN STUDENTS EMPOWERED

A college education is the most widely recognized key to long-term personal success, in terms of both earning potential and building a productive life. Unfortunately, students from low-income communities are seven times less likely to graduate from college than their high-income peers.

The plight of low-income students presents itself most starkly in large urban school districts, like Chicago’s, where only 18 percent of incoming high school freshmen end up enrolling in four-year universities and only 7 percent earn college degrees by age 25.

Developing an effective model to address that situation is the primary focus of Urban Students Empowered (US Empowered) a non-profit foundation based in Chicago and established in 2003 by Matt King, a Chicago public high school teacher tired of watching his students fall short of college. Together with co-founders Eddie Lou and Dawn Pankonien, King spent three years developing an effective program model, then retained Jeff Nelson to head up the effort to bring the program to teachers and students throughout Chicago and across the country starting in 2007.

The results have been impressive, to say the least. Of those students who have participated in the program to date, 98 percent have been admitted to a four-year college, and 83 percent of those have graduated or continue to pursue their college education.

US Empowered starts its program in each school by recruiting an outstanding teacher and then letting that teacher recruit 30 students every year. Those students, referred to as Fellows, are selected during their sophomore year and enter the three-year program as juniors, completing it after their freshman year in college.

From that point forward, the program is implemented via a three-step process.

1. In high school, one teacher works with 30 students for 40 minutes during every academic day. Students get training on how to succeed academically, are prepared for the ACT and SAT college entrance exams and receive counseling on how each of them can find the right college.
2. US Empowered Fellows also attend eight one-day conferences, usually held on a college campus during their junior and senior years. Each conference has a special focus, and topics include the college admission process, obtaining financial aid and understanding the college environment. The conferences also allow Fellows to exchange information and tips about how to succeed and how to get the most out of the program.
3. During freshman year in college the students remain connected to the teacher who led their program in high school and to other Fellows in their group through a weekly 2-hour online workshop that offers continuing support and counseling.

“Our primary role as an organization is to identify and train the teachers who will lead the program and provide the resources and financial support needed to make it successful,” said Nelson.

“We train teachers to teach the program’s curriculum and manage the recruitment and selection process. Each teacher has final say as to which students are enrolled in the program, but the teachers work with others at school in making those choices. All sophomores at the school are given the opportunity to apply.”

The program has grown dramatically from its early years. From 2003 through 2006 it involved just one school, one teacher and 7 students. Today, there are 550 Fellows at 15 Chicago public high schools, led by 44 teachers, as well as a full-time staff of seven at the US Empowered office in downtown Chicago.

“US Empowered took what was a unique approach in creating a teacher-led model, and now that model is being imitated by others,” noted Nelson. “We feel that approach is the best way to achieve systematic change. We currently are in the process of writing our next five year plan and want to enter three to five new markets by 2017.”

Kutchins, Robbins and Diamond, Ltd., has been actively involved with US Empowered since its earliest days when Eddie Lou, the program’s co-founder, asked KRD to lend a hand. Since then, KRD has provided a great deal of support, according to Nelson.

“I can’t overstate the positive impact that KRD has had on our organization since its inception. They manage our audit but do so much more, especially in the area of financial advisory services. KRD helped us create our financial systems and design our retirement plan. They have provided staff members with individualized investment counseling. Al Kutchins helped our pilot program get off the ground, and since then KRD also has been a generous financial supporter.   Along with Al Kutchins, Jean Signorelli and Scott Coleman of KRD have been extremely helpful.”

For more information about the program, visit www.usempowered.org.

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