Roxbury Prep-UMass partnership opens door to higher ed
Roxbury Prep High School students may be able to take courses through the University of Massachusetts Boston, attend special campus events or learn how to navigate the financial aid system as part of a new partnership between the university’s Honors College and the charter school.
The two schools recently signed an agreement to work together to ease high school students’ path to college.
While the details are still being hammered out, some possibilities that could grow out of the collaboration include an Honors College pipeline for Roxbury Prep students that would allow high school students to potentially enroll in honors college courses as soon as 2018.
Other ideas could include events and information sessions geared toward college readiness for students. University officials are also exploring the possibility of a dual enrollment course for the young students.
It is a partnership that is building on the Honors College’s efforts to build a pipeline for Boston’s students whether they attend district or charter schools and represent the diversity of the city, university officials said.
“They can see we are really interested in them. We are committed to helping them realize their full potential. We’re committed to helping them see the path to college is feasible and viable to them,” Honors College Dean Rajini Srikanth told the Herald.
Current ninth-graders at Roxbury Prep would be the first to benefit from the program.
“What is amazing is that since 1999, there has been a legacy built, and our dream has always been that every single student at Roxbury Prep enter, succeed and graduate from college. Each of you represents the dream that started then — for all our middle schoolers to not just have a college education, but to build that bridge through high school,” Roxbury Prep High School Principal Shradha Patel said during an event this spring in which officials signed to enter into an agreement.
Roxbury Prep was chosen for the partnership because of its connection with UMass Boston Chancellor J. Keith Motley, who with Evan Rudall and John King, U.S. Secretary of Education, founded the original Mission Hill campus of Roxbury Prep in 1999.