Through a very demanding and selective application process, the Gates Millennium Scholarship identifies students of color who are outstanding young leaders and scholars. The scholarship funds all unmet need associated with the cost of undergraduate, and potentially graduate education. Janaisa Walker (Class of 2016) is our first Gates Scholar from Brooklyn Collaborative. Janaisa will be attending Syracuse University – we are so so proud of Janaisa! (Below is a photo of Janaisa with Mayor Bill de Blasio, holding evidence of her scholarship award. She learned the day before the photo was taken that she had won, and had brought the certificate into school. On her way out of the subway, she bumped into the Mayor, who was bringing out the vote on Election Day. Thanks to crew leader June for capturing this awesome moment!!!) (For more information about Janaisa, see also a recent article she published on Spark Action!)
- Janaisa Walker is our first Gates Millennium Scholarship recipient in the history of Brooklyn Collaborative. This scholarship will fund all of Janaisa’s “unmet need” throughout her undergraduate and graduation education.
- Our highest achieving students continue to be admitted with very generous funding to the country’s most selective colleges. We have our first matriculant at Hamilton and Pitzer Colleges, our second at Syracuse and Brandeis Universities, our third at Cornell University, our fourth at Franklin and Marshall College, our fifth to Union and Skidmore Colleges, another headed to Brooklyn College, two more to Baruch and three more to Muhlenberg. These colleges are providing the bulk of the $4.825 million in grant and scholarship the Class of 2016 has earned so far toward their degrees.
- Our CUNY matriculants have fewer choices within our City’s public university system. A larger percentage of our middle and lower-achieving students are enrolling at 2yr colleges this year. This is primarily because CUNY’s “senior” (i.e., 4yr) colleges have grown increasingly rigid about their requirement that students demonstrate “college readiness” by earning combined SAT scores above 1000.
- Our middle-achieving students have had some very positive results. We have our first students headed to SUNY Brockport and SUNY Plattsburgh, our third student to Warren Wilson College, our second, third and fourth students to SUNY Purchase, our fifth headed to Russell Sage College, our sixth to Cazenovia College, and our ninth student to SUNY Fredonia, along with a number of our students heading to CUNY colleges likes City Tech and John Jay.
- We continue to hear news regularly about our students graduating college, continuing with their studies in grad school or doing cool things in the world of work. Maritza Medina is graduating from Cornell University this month. Faustino Vidal is pursuing graduate study in photography. Stephanie Blake just participated in a mock session at the NYS Assembly and graduates in a few weeks from Russell Sage College. Karim Abdelgadir, a student who had a 70 average in high school, is earning his bachelors degree from Sage College this month.
GO BROOKLYN COLLABORATIVE on our consistently outstanding college outcomes!