Community Challenges

Bright Prospect students live in low-income communities where each day they face economic and cultural barriers to success. Most live in low rent apartments. Many of those who are buying their homes have been unable to keep up with house payments and are facing foreclosure or have already lost their homes. Some are or have been homeless. All live at or below the poverty line. In their neighborhoods, domestic violence, substance abuse, gang activity and crime are all prevalent. Not only does this environment not encourage college preparatory behavior, it actively discourages it.

Family Challenges

For a young person in this uncertain community environment, succeeding and excelling in high school, let alone preparing for college, is a formidable challenge. Many have immigrant parents who speak little or no English, have limited formal education, and work at minimum-wage jobs. Thus, even the most supportive families often have neither the knowledge nor the experience to help their children take the necessary steps toward college. Few are aware that they can afford college. For these students, school frequently takes a backseat to the need for their employment to supplement the family income. A single setback—an illness, a layoff, a late rent payment—can signal disaster for a household. Some students live with both parents, but many more live with a single parent, or an aunt, a grandmother, an older sister or foster parent. Some students are shuffled from one living situation to another. The prospects for scholastic achievement under such circumstances are dim.

High School Challenges

High schools served by Bright Prospect are staffed by highly dedicated but overloaded faculty and administrators and often rank in the bottom one or two deciles in scholastic performance. Class sizes are large and growing. Each guidance counselor typically shoulders the responsibility for 700 or more students. Furthermore, political pressures dictate that counselors focus on the most troubled, at-risk youth in order to reduce their drop-out rates – they are able to give little or no attention, and virtually no college counseling, to high-performing, studious individuals.

College Access Challenges

Although many colleges have scholarship funding earmarked to diversify their campus populations, even the most prestigious college’s recruitment budget is limited, and outreach to qualified students from under-performing, distant high schools is too expensive and time consuming. As a result, ideal candidates from schools such as those we serve are typically overlooked. Few recruiters from public universities, and virtually none from private colleges, ever visit these high schools or meet these students. Candidates for our Scholar Support Program are almost always unaware of smaller, liberal-arts colleges that may be more suited to their academic interests, learning styles and goals, and that have the resources to provide them with full financial aid, which is often significantly better than these outstanding students could obtain at public institutions.

College Retention Challenges

Focusing solely on helping high-achieving youth from low-income families gain admission to college does not guarantee a successful outcome. Nationwide, two of every three low-income students attending college will quit before graduation. Daunting obstacles often derail such students—unfamiliarity with the college environment, insufficient preparation, culture-shock, a lack of ongoing social support, the wrong choice of college, demands brought about by family circumstances. Setbacks large and small often abruptly end a promising student’s college career.