Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/246730
Our Enduring Partnership "When the first class of High Jump students (Cohort One) entered the program in the summer of 1989, few realized the hard work that lay before them. That first summer they met eight hours daily for eight weeks... Throughout the school year they met every Saturday to continue their preparation. Thanks to program funding provided by the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, they were pioneers, blazing the trail of a brand new program designed to prepare talented Chicago-area students from disadvantaged situations for admission to college preparatory high schools." – Latin School Bulletin, Fall 1991 Beginning in the mid-'60s, Latin School increased its efforts to matriculate and welcome students from a broader range of backgrounds and neighborhoods throughout the Chicago area. Real change in the student body, however, came slowly and there were significant bumps in the road. As the school accepted more students from different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds, most of whom were coming from their neighborhood public schools, teachers and administrators found that even the brightest, most motivated and high-achieving students were not well prepared for the challenging academics and new social environment they encountered. Students coming to Latin for ninth grade were most affected. When Eleanor Nicholson, a longtime educator who had worked at other independent schools in Chicago, took over the role of upper school director in 1986, she saw talented, newly-arrived students floundering. "I decided that several things had to be in place if the needed and desired diversity would take root at Latin," Nicholson wrote around 2001. "Students of promise had to be carefully selected, they had to have an Background: A High Jump teacher helps students. introduction to the expectations and ethos of a school like Latin over a period of time, and they had to enter secondary schools with confidence and, preferably, in company with others who have shared their experience." The need she saw inspired Nicholson to conceive of a tuition-free program that would provide academic and social enrichment for promising middle school students with About 100 High Jump alumni have gone on to attend Latin School since 1989. Members of High Jump's first cohort. LATI N SCHOOL OF CHI CA GO 115