Neighborhood Initiatives Development Corporation

AFTERSCHOOL & SUMMER CAMP

EASTCHESTER XPRESS / CORNERSTONE

PREP 4 SUCCESS

HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

For more information call:
(718) 231-9800 extension 25.

The high school graduation rate in the Bronx hovers around 50%, a rate we find unacceptable for today’s workplaces that require not just completion of high school but pursuit of higher education as well. To address this problem and engage high school students in a program that will help them in school and the workplace, we developed Prep for Success.

Prep for Success is offered to students at the Columbus High School Campus at 925 Astor Avenue in the Bronx. The program has two components, one for ninth graders and another for 10th and 11th graders. Both are based on “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens” by Sean Covey. The Seven Habits allow teens to understand that they can take control of their own life and plan for a successful future.

THE SEVEN HABITS

	Be Pro-active
	Begin with the end in mind
	First things first
	Think win-win
	Seek first to understand, then to be understood
	Synergize
	Sharpen the saw

TARGET POPULATION:
The program focuses on students who are motivated enough to attend school and may be passing, but not really succeeding in their classes – C and D students. The goal is to provide the students with planning tools and social skills that will help them be more successful.

PROGRAM ACTIVITIES:
The students learn the seven habits in a series of interactive workshops delivered twice a week for twelve to thirteen weeks to a group of 25. Most weeks there is also a Friday meeting where students meet professionals who describe their journeys to their present occupations. Or there may be a life decisions conversation sparked by a movie in which a main character has difficult choices to make. Older students are taught workplace skills like resume writing, cover letters, and interview techniques. Any student who is struggling with school work will be referred to an appropriate tutoring program.

Once the students have completed the workshops the two different grade levels diverge. Ninth graders are coached to plan and carry out a service learning project to improve a condition in their community. As the project progresses, students are constantly asked to reflect on how well their planning matched what they were able to do, what went well, what went poorly. The hoped for outcome is that students will realize that they can plan and successfully carry out a project and they can use that success to motivate themselves to try other things.

Older students are placed in an internship which, to the best of our ability, is related to a career choice they are interested in. The internship is for 100 hours and allows the students to earn a small stipend. Internship supervisors are helped to understand the program and to evaluate whether or not the students have internalized the seven habits using measures such as attendance, being on time, offering to help rather than waiting to be asked, listening to instructions and carrying them out properly, etc.