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Greetings!
April has been an extremely busy month and May will prove to be twice as exciting. On May 7th Uplift Education will hold its first ever "College Signing Day" for 26 Peak Preparatory Seniors (see College Signing Day below for more information). I'm also proud to share with you that our two new campuses, Laureate Prep and Heights Prep, are quickly filling up their enrollment. Heights Prep, with 6th and 7th grades, only has 30 openings remaining. Laureate Prep, with kindergarten through 2nd grade, has nine openings in 1st grade and nine openings in 2nd grade remaining. We've also recently added kindergarten and 1st grade at Hampton Prep and have a few openings remaining. If you know of any families who could benefit from a college-preparatory education, please encourage them to apply.
Our 5th grade students have had an exciting and fun opportunity in the past few weeks as part of our Road to College Career Fairs. Each school sent students to Rise No. 1 in Inwood Village to learn about operating a green restaurant and enjoy a special lunch with chocolate soufflé for dessert. NBC covered our Hampton students' visit. See below for a link to the video.
And finally, Uplift Education is now on Facebook. Click the link to the right or visit http://www.facebook.com/uplifteducation to view our page. We hope you will become one of our "fans" and share the page with your Facebook friends.
Shine through,
Yasmin Bhatia, CEO |
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News & School Highlights |
| · Hampton Prep visits Rise No. 1
· Uplift's Heights Prep to be part of combined effort to improve education in West Dallas
See The Dallas Morning News article here.
· The Dallas Morning News editorial praises promise of West Dallas partnership
See
the editorial piece here.
· 28 qualify
for Duke TIP State Recognition
Of
our 97 7th
graders who took the SAT/ACT through Duke TIP, 28 qualified for State
Recognition. Two will receive National Recognition on May 24 at Duke for
scoring above a 1900 on the SAT. | · Peak students on ExxonMobil Green Team
Luis Reyes (junior) and Juana Padron (senior) from Peak Prep have been selected for the ExxonMobil Green Team! The eight-week summer program provides paid internships for high school students. Students work in teams to develop environmentally-focused projects, attend classes at SMU, participate in field trips and leadership sessions, and implement their service project as a group.
· Recent grant awards
Thank you to the following funders for their recent gifts: Citi Foundation, $50,000 for Road to College, and The Stemmons Foundation, $100,000 for the Science and Math Summer Institute at North Hills.
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 North Hills student named 1 of 300 nationally to receive $20,000 scholarship from Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
Samir Meharali named to 2010 Dell Scholars class
As a part of a unique scholarship program designed to identify and support college education for low-income or financially underserved students, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation's Dell Scholars Program awarded 300 students with $6,000,000 in college scholarship funds, including Samir Meharali from North Hills Prep.
Dell Scholars are chosen because they participate in an approved college readiness program and maintain at least a 2.4 GPA while dealing with personal responsibilities at home or in their communities. For Samir, his family's jewelry business was hit exceptionally hard by the economic downturn. So for the past two years he has spent evenings and weekends running the family store. He was also involved in Model United Nations, Mock Trial, the IB program and Boy Scouts, and held several student leadership positions.
Samir found out about the program from Ms. Hargrove, his counselor at North Hills Prep, who encouraged him to complete the application and required essays. In March, he got an e-mail letting him know that he had been selected as a semi-finalist, and immediately e-mailed Ms. Hargrove to share the great news. Just a few weeks later, on April 10, he awoke early on Saturday morning to check his e-mail to find out that he had in fact been selected for the scholarship. In his words, "I was so excited. I screamed so loud I woke everyone in the house up."
Samir is currently making his final college choice - between the University of Texas Austin Business Honors Program and Bentley College in Boston. He will receive $20,000 to support his college education, and the Dell Scholars Program will also provide him with technology, resources and mentoring to ensure he has the support needed to obtain a college degree. The additional resources have contributed to the Dell Scholars program retention rate of almost 95 percent.
Congratulations Samir!
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 US News & World Report ranks North Hills among Best International Baccalaureate (IB) Programs
North Hills is highest ranking Texas school on the list
North Hills Prep has one of the nation's strongest IB programs according to US News & World Report. As Uplift Education's oldest campus, North Hills is currently certified for the Primary Years Program and Diploma Program, and is anxiously awaiting its certification for its Middle Years Program.
The IB program is globally recognized as a premier college preparatory program. High school students can take individual IB subject tests (earning college credits if they score high enough), or they can opt to earn an IB diploma after completing a series of IB courses and writing an extended essay.
US News & World Report ranks IB programs based on the percentage of students participating in the IB program and passing the IB exams. North Hills was the highest listed Texas school, with 45.6% of students participating in the IB program, and a 93.1% passing rate on IB tests.
Click here for the full list.
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Tour an Uplift school May 3-7
Uplift opens campuses for public tour to celebrate National Charter School Week
With more than 4,900 schools serving 1.6 million students, not to
mention strong bipartisan support in Congress, charter schools have a lot to be
excited about this year. To show our support of National Charter School Week, Uplift will offer public tours of its schools during the week of May 3-7.
This is a great opportunity to see Uplift's classrooms in action, meet with our leaders, learn more about our work in the community, or introduce a friend to why you support Uplift Education.
To schedule a tour, contact Deborah Bigham, Chief Development Officer, at 469-621-8493 or dbigham@uplifteducation.org. |
 College Signing Day May 7 at 2 p.m.
Celebrate Peak Preparatory's first class of seniors as they sign their college acceptance letters
Uplift Education invites you to join us at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 7 in the Peak Prep gymnasium for College Signing Day.
Our first class of graduating seniors from Peak Prep will be signing their college acceptance letters and passing the college torch to our kindergarten students. A BBQ reception will follow.
For more information and to RSVP, contact Deborah Bigham at dbigham@uplifteducation.org.
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| Bottom Line |
12 of our 14 schools were rated Exemplary or Recognized by TEA for 2008-09. | |
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