Higher Achievement’s Ward 8 Center Open and seeking Mentors

Wash Syndicate

After years of community anticipation, Higher Achievement opened its Ward 8 Center this summer at Savoy Elementary School at 2400 Shannon Place SE, a short walk to the Anacostia Metro station.

The formal ribbon cutting for the Ward 8 center held last month was attended by Mayoral candidate and City Council Chairman Vincent Gray and former Mayor and current Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry, who led scholars in a chant, “My mind is a pearl. I can do anything in the whole wide world.”

“Young people motivated me to get back into politics,” said Barry, who has been on the City Council since 2004 and made a public pledge to volunteer with Ward 8’s Higher Achievement Center.

Higher Achievement provides an “additional lift” to schools and families in East Washington according to Gray. Thirty-nine percent of all children in the city live in Wards 7 and 8 said Gray who frequently visited Higher Achievement’s Ward 7 Center at Kelly Miller Middle School on 49^th Street NE while representing the Ward on the Council.

In an interview, Ward 8 scholars K’Nihja Yong and Brooke Shelton-Epps, fifth graders at the Washington Middle School for Girls, shared an excitement for Higher Achievement. Both admitted to being talkative and sometimes disruptive in class, but with their summer experience at Higher Achievement, they confessed to becoming more focused and coming to the realization, with the support of Higher Achievement staff that they can use their personalities to help other students in their class who might need help. Higher Achievement has given them “confidence in helping others” and has made them role models amongst their peers.

Ward 8 Center Director Durham, a 1982 graduate of Higher Achievement, says the community is “very excited” about the program’s presence.

Before opening its Ward 8 Center, the organization raised funds to cover three years of operations.

“The communities of Ward 8 have a lot to offer and we have a lot to offer to the communities of Ward 8. We’re not going anywhere. This sense of longevity is refreshing and lets Ward 8 know that we have made a commitment,” says Durham.

In their initial year, Ward 8 has fifty 5^th and 6^th graders culled from an applicant pool of sixty-five. Recruitment for rising 5^th graders will begin in January with staff visiting local schools and soliciting recommendations from teachers.

The staff and scholars of Ward 8 had a busy summer taking a field trip to the offices of Voice of America, the official radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government since 1942, and staying in the dormitories of Penn State University while on their college trip.

In the last decade Higher Achievement, started in the 1970’s at Gonzaga High School in NW, has undergone exponential growth and in the process built itself as a national model for after-school academic enrichment programs. Last November, First Lady Michelle Obama presented Higher Achievement with the Coming Up Taller Award in recognition of their outstanding community arts and humanities programs, one of 15 nationwide recipients selected from more than 400 nominees.

With centers in Wards 1, 4, 6, 7, and now Ward 8, Baltimore and Alexandria, Higher Achievement provides 650 hours of out-of-school instruction each academic year to 5^th through 8^th grade students known as “scholars” with the ultimate goal of placing students in competitive and selective high schools throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

By aligning their curriculum with DC Public Schools, working closely with the families of each scholar, and providing their own unique programs such as a citywide spelling bee, Higher Achievement “ratchets up the academic culture of excellence” according to CEO Richard Tagle. Using data tracking to hold staff and mentors increasingly accountable to produce scholar outcomes, Higher Achievement provides a “360 degree view of scholars” that has helped the organization to expand its sphere of influence.

Dominique Tucker, a resident of Fort Dupont, graduated from Higher Achievement’s Ward 7 Center in 2007 and is now entering his senior year at St. Albans High School in NW. This summer he has attended a program at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut before working as a summer instructor at Ward 8.

With after-school instruction on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, Higher Achievement has traditionally utilized area college students and community members to fill the ranks of their mentors who volunteer from 6pm – 8pm and lead small groups of scholars in workshops with curriculum that is supplied in advance and online.  

“Higher Achievement draws from an intellectually curious group of students making the enrichment of mentoring mutual,” says Rick Stoddard, a past mentor with Ward 6. “We are another adult outside of their parents or teachers who are expressing care and interest in their lives.”

Ward 8 is actively recruiting 50 mentors. Those interested in mentoring can email volunteer@higherachievement.org or call 202.544.3633 x233.