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Greetings!
It's hard to believe that summer is here and the 2010-11 school year has come to a close. It has been an extremely successful year at Uplift, culminating with our inaugural Uplift-wide College Signing Day event last month.
The Class of 2011 received more than 1,100 college acceptances and earned more than $22.5 million in scholarships and grants. More than 66 percent of our seniors received financial aid for college, including some of the nation's most competitive scholarship programs: one Gates Millennium Scholarship for a full-ride for undergraduate and graduate studies, six $20,000 Dell Scholars Program recipients, five National Merit Scholarship winners, and seven National Merit Commended Students. The Class of 2011 also included 72 students designated as AP Scholars or AP Distinguished Scholars based on their AP test scores - providing another validation of Uplift's rigorous college preparatory education.
Also, as we announced last month, The Washington Post has ranked North Hills Prep and Peak Prep as the #10 and #11 top public high schools in the nation. The 2011 High School Challenge marked North Hills' sixth consecutive year in the Top 20 and Peak's first year of eligibility for the list. These rankings are based on the number of AP tests taken by students at each school as a measure of the rigor of the curriculum provided at the school.
In other media coverage, the most recent issue of the Harvard Education Letter featured a story on Uplift's use of predictive research to hire great teachers. Uplift knows that having great teachers and school leaders in front of our students is key to our goals for student achievement and preparing each student to enter and succeed in college. We're excited to have a national education publication cover this aspect of our human capital strategy and have already seen the story re-run in several other education blogs and newsletters.
On the heals of these great successes, we will be working diligently over the summer to prepare for the opening of our two newest schools, Infinity Prep in Irving South and Pinnacle Prep in Oak Cliff. In light of news coverage of the continuing debates over school finance at the state-level, I want to assure you that Uplift is fiscally prepared to not only launch its two new schools for 2011-12 but also continue its growth to bring its college preparatory education to more communities and families in North Texas.
Thank you for being a part of our continued growth and success. I hope you share in our pride from the success of the 2010-11 school year.
Shine through,
Yasmin Bhatia
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 | | College Signing Day Highlights Video |
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2011 College Signing Day a huge success
3,000+ students, parents and community members cheer on seniors as they share their commitment to college
Uplift celebrated its first year with graduating classes at all five of its high schools with its inaugural College Signing Day at SMU's Moody Coliseum on May 24. There were more than 3,000 students, parents and community members in attendance to cheer on the seniors as they announced the colleges and universities from which they would graduate in 2015. The North Hills Prep Panther Band kicked off the event with a medley of college fight songs, and Yell Leaders from each Uplift campus got the crowd going with spirit chants for each school. Dallas Mavericks mascots Mavs Man and Champ were also on-hand to pump up the atmosphere and add to the event's fanfare. The event closed with a poignant moment between Peak Prep senior Noe Nunez, who is headed to Vanderbilt University on a full-ride scholarship from the Gates Millennium Scholars program, and Summit International Prep kindergartener Aryin Collins, as Aryin promised to also graduate from College one day. Special thanks to the event's Presenting Sponsors: The Todd and Abby Williams Family Foundation, Ken and Stacy Murphy and The Goldman Sachs Foundation. Thanks also to Scholar Sponsors the Baird Foundation, BDO, Summit Financial Group, Technology Media Group, SNAP! Event Productions, Catherine and Will Rose, the Vin and Caren Prothro Foundation, and Hitachi. Scholarships for Uplift students were also provided through the event by Michael Dardick, Tony Dona, and Melissa and Barry McNeil. Click here to watch a six-minute video of the 2011 College Signing Day highlights. The Dallas Morning News covered the event on the front page of the Metro section, and Fox 4 also reported the event throughout its newscasts. |
 | Ricardo Morales,
Summit International Prep valedictorian |
Senior speakers talk success, hard work and direction at graduations
Valedictorian, Salutatorian, Class President and Elected Speakers acknowledge the obstacles they overcame on their path to college
Summit International Prep's valedictorian Ricardo Morales' graduation address was one of this year's most popular speeches. An excerpt from the speech is below. Click here to read the full address. Personally, I'll be the first to say it, but I don't belong up here. I come from a low-income family and I am the son of two Mexican immigrants whose education does not go beyond middle school. Historically, people who have grown up in the surroundings such as mine and share similar backgrounds, never see the light toward higher education. Though my history says I do not belong up here giving a valedictorian address and my academic success is a rarity, with the help of Uplift Education, I have proudly proven my history wrong. And tonight, graduates, as you stand on the side of the stage remember the people who said our feet would never be able to touch it. Remember those who said you were never good enough and proudly show them that you are. If people doubt your abilities in the future, show them exactly what you're made of - brilliance. While many may have said that you'd never succeed, never go to college, never get a diploma, or ever graduate, you've proven them wrong. Now, in the future, those who doubted you won't be able to go a day without seeing or hearing about your successes. Did we prove them wrong or what? Tell this class they aren't good enough and you'll be proven wrong. Tell this class that they will never succeed, and they'll prove you wrong. Tell this class that they don't have the potential to graduate, and in a couple of minutes they will proudly walk across this stage. We are Summit International's first graduating class. We are the high school class of 2011. We are the college class of 2015. Yes, the first chapter of our lives has come to a conclusion, but we still have a Nobel Prize winning novel to write. The past may be filled with negative attitudes of those who challenged us, but the future now lies in our hands. Give it your all these next four years, and if anybody ever doubts you, show them that you can do it ten times better than anybody else. For more highlights from Uplift's graduations, click here to watch the student speakers from Peak Preparatory's graduation.
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Special Acknowledgements
Uplift honors Scholarship Winners, Exemplar Teachers, and Educational Leadership cohort
The end of the year brings with it several special acknowledgements for our students, teachers and school leaders. Congratulations to the following individuals for their accomplishments and dedication. Road to College Scholarship Winners These scholarships are made possible through donations from Uplift employees and are awarded to graduating seniors. Overall Winner - $1,500 scholarship Candalaria Mercado (Williams Prep) School Winners - $1,000 scholarships Taelyr Roberts and Evan Sims (Hampton Prep) Keyana Hemyari and Joachim Valdez (North Hills Prep) Karina Gracia and Kellina Sysavath (Peak Prep) Jovana Cruz and Yanadira Mendez-Magana (Summit International Prep) Consuelo Gutierrez and Jacqueline Perez (Williams Prep) 2011-12 Exemplar Teachers
Exemplar Teachers represent the best instructional classroom leaders at Uplift. They help drive student achievement and teaching by serving as demonstration classrooms where other teachers can observe; identifying other teachers on their campus to mentor; and sharing lesson plans, projects, and assessments. Sharlene Andrews (Hampton Prep) Karen Edwards, Shehnaz Wadhwania (North Hills Prep) Meghan Pittman, Misti Whitley (Peak Prep) Andrea Anderson-Parks, Abby Bear, Brandon Pope, Candice Reid (Summit International Prep) Dakota Rubin (Williams Prep) SMU's first cohort for the Master's In Educational Leadership The following Uplift team members were selected for SMU's first cohort for the Master's In Educational Leadership with a focus in Urban School Specialization program. Uplift represents 10 of the 23 spots.
Alexis Adams (Infinity) Nina Bhatia (Infinity) JC Sanders (Infinity) Andrea Anderson (Summit) Beth Coughenour (Summit) Lindyn Kish (Summit) Brian Hills (North Hills) Chris Garcia (Peak) Kelsey Blackwell (Hampton) Ben Dickerson (Williams) |
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