Last summer, then-rising-high-school-senior Megha Khemka enjoyed one of the on-campus classes she’d been taking through the University of Chicago’s Collegiate Scholars Program (CSP) for Chicago public high school students so much, she asked professor Daisy Delogu how she could dive in deeper. The request sparked a mentorship, with Delogu later writing one of Khemka’s college recommendation letters and helping her enroll in another of her philosophy courses for undergraduate credit in the fall. The experience and relationship wouldn’t have happened, Khemka says, without CSP.
“What’s so great about the Collegiate Scholars Program is not only is it free but it also really expands your horizons,” Khemka—a recent Walter Payton College Prep graduate who was accepted at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Brown universities, among others, and plans to attend Harvard—said.
CSP and the Office of Civic Engagement’s other college and career readiness programs prepare students—many of whom come from low-income backgrounds like Khemka—to gain admission to, pay for, and thrive in college and excel in future careers. The programs provide free support to nearly 300 students annually. Of this year’s 56 graduating program participants, 64 percent will be first-generation college students. Collectively, they represent 29 Chicago public high schools; received 292 acceptances from more than 90 colleges and universities, including 11 highly-selective colleges; and will be awarded more than $5M in financial aid over four years.
“UChicago is doing a great job providing accessibility to a lot of kids, including Megha, who otherwise would not have had that opportunity,” Amit Khemka, Megha’s father, says.
Ready for collegiate rigor
For Christopher Bennett, CSP offered exposure to college-level expectations and resources. Bennett, who lives in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood and attended Kenwood Academy, says the program helped him with time management and public speaking and allowed him to experience state-of-the-art science labs he’d never encountered in his school. Bennett’s mother, Barbara, also credits CSP with seeing her son’s strengths and challenging him in ways that will serve him well when he heads to Purdue University’s Fort Wayne campus in the fall.
“For him to experience that level of rigor was great,” Barbara Bennett said. “It was very eye-opening for him that this is real: ‘They’re not babying me, they’re not coddling me, I have to do my work regardless.’”
LaNiya Jordan, who attended Muchin College Prep and lives in Woodlawn, relied on geometry and algebra tutoring offered through the South Side College and Career Catalyst Program throughout the school year and found the college application process much easier to navigate having gone on some of the programs’ college tour trips. The Catalyst program, another of UChicago’s college and career readiness offerings, introduced Jordan to other opportunities as well, such as the UChicago Youth Internship Program, where Jordan spent last summer interning at the University on a health sciences track, and the National Student Leadership Congress, which took Jordan to Washington, D.C. for a week to present on an issue she cared about—climate change—in front of a mock congress alongside other student leaders from across the country.
Workshops, panels, and additional events that guided participants and their families through topics like financial aid or connected them with professionals in different academic areas or industries were another highlight Khemka, Bennett, and Jordan all found valuable as they look toward their futures.
Confidence and a sense of community
Jordan says her Catalyst program experience has given her confidence that will surely come in handy when she arrives at the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus in the fall.
“Learning how to better advocate for myself was a big thing,” Jordan said, pointing to the readiness programs’ annual summer career fair and other events as times when she was able to sharpen those skills. “During the career fairs, you have to go up to people and you have to talk to them and introduce yourself and I feel like that’s a good skill to have in college because you’re going to have to put yourself out there.”
The experience cultivates a unique sense of community and belonging, too. For Khemka, growing up as the only child of a single immigrant father in the wealthier Lincoln Park community, where she often had access to far fewer resources than her peers, engaging with such a diverse group of fellow scholars, many of whom had similar socioeconomic backgrounds, was especially meaningful.
“I think what’s really great about UChicago’s community engagement is that it does bring in people who maybe otherwise would never have had the opportunity to be in that environment and puts a bunch of people who are very talented and very hardworking and come from all different walks of life together obviously to learn from the University but also to contribute to that classroom atmosphere,” Khemka said. “They really encouraged us that we don’t have to turn into something else in order to succeed in what seems like a very different and unknown environment, but that the perspectives we bring are valuable in and of themselves.”
