Mentor Day Goes to College

Moo Bae, Thurgood Marshall Academy '11, George Washington University '15 leads a tour for mentors and students.

Ever wished you could have a preview into college life? Last Saturday, TMA students got a glimpse into George Washington University during Mentor Day. The weather was perfect on Saturday as students and mentors from TMA exited large yellow school buses and arrived at the Marvin Center, the hub of GW’s campus. TMA alum and current GW freshman Moo Johnson led mentors and mentees on a tour through the Foggy Bottom campus highlighting study spaces, dormitories, and dining options.

Pairs also joined Amada Caliz, TMA alum and GW senior or set off on their own using self-guided tours to lead them around the beautiful GW campus. Following the tours, the group gathered together for a panel on college that focused on HBCUs and public universities. Mentors who attended Howard, Hampton. UNC-Chapel Hill, and University of Illinois-Champagne, joined Moo to offer advice and answered questions from students about their experiences in college. After the panel everyone spread out and enjoyed lunch at different establishments in Foggy Bottom including Baja Fresh, Johnny Rocket’s and Whole Foods.

It was a great way to spend a beautiful spring day and start thinking about next steps in the college process!

4th Annual MLK Day Scholarship Event

The TMA Library, filled with students and volunteers.

 Thurgood Marshall Academy marked the 2012 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday with the fourth annual Martin Luther King Day Scholarship Event. Over 40 students, most of them from the senior class, attended and applied for a wide range of scholarships and summer programs. Each student was matched with a volunteer from the community who helped students edit essays and decipher application requirements, and offered advice on college and scholarships. Both the library and the computer lab were packed with students and volunteers! 

Kathleen Williams works on a scholarship application.

Seren Snow and volunteer hard at work in the computer lab.

Marquise Williams and a volunteer confer about a scholarship essay.

Student Advisor and Alumni Coordinator Emma Levine, who helped organize the event, stated: “The Martin Luther King Scholarship Day was an excellent opportunity for seniors to complete scholarship applications, and underclassmen to complete summer programs applications.  Many students said that they completed over 5 applications during the event—hopefully this will translate into seniors getting a lot of money for college!”

Jasma Grantham fills out a scholarship application.

Students interested in more scholarship opportunities should see Mr. Mitchell or check out the TMA Community Service Guide here.

Congratulations!!!

Portfolio has finished and students, teachers and staff are off to begin their Winter Break. Before we leave we want to congratulate TMA senior Shamir Fauntleroy on a very exciting accomplishment. Shamir has been accepted to be a Posse Scholar at Pepperdine University. Through the Posse Foundation, Shamir's four years of tuition will be covered and he will receive support a college mentor through the Posse Foundation. Congratulations Shamir!

TMA Juniors go to Virginia

A special report by Ms. Levine, TMA's Upper School Student Advisor and Alumni Coordinator.

On Friday, April 8th, Thurgood Marshall Academy juniors visited Virginia State University and the University of Richmond. At Virginia State, a historically black college in Petersburg, VA. TMA juniors met with VSU students, who shared their experiences at the school and discussed both their favorite and least favorite things about VSU. The juniors also went on a tour of Virginia State, followed by lunch in the school's cafeteria. Following lunch, juniors traveled about an hour to visit the University of Richmond, a predominantly white school in Richmond, Virginia, where they heard from an admissions representative and went on a tour of the school. While some students like VSU better and others liked U or R better, both schools gave students a sense of the different types of colleges and the varying requirements at two colleges.

Mentor Day at Georgetown University!

On Saturday, March 5 the Mentor Program visited the beautiful campus of Georgetown University. Led by mentor Kathryn Cogswell and TMA Staffer Jess Joswick mentors and mentees got a tour of the university that included tips and special information they learned from the guide’s time at Georgetown. The groups got to explore the library, visit a dorm, see the student fitness center and the newly built Business School. After the tour, the group sat down for a panel discussion with current TMA Mentors where they learned what college life is really like. They also got some tips on what they need to do to end up at the right school for them. The day ended with lunch at the Leavy Center. We hope everyone had a great time and that all the TMA students will be ready to return to a college campus soon as enrolled students!

TMA Celebrates Seniors!

With heavy hearts the TMA community - faculty, staff, and students - must soon say goodbye to the wise elders among us. But as the seniors go we hope to celebrate their accomplishments and the indelible stamps that each of them has left on TMA.

As part of the effort to recognize our seniors, we held a college acceptance assembly in the gym. The names of the seniors were read aloud, and they were recognized by their fellow classmates, teachers, and staff with boisterous applause (see below). Each student was presented with a t-shirt from the college that she or he will be attending in the fall of 2010. Additionally, two seniors, Abdisomial Hashi and Parris Roberston were presented with NEW laptops and backpacks from Google in recognition of their exceptionally high SAT math scores!

TMA is working hard to achieve its mission of preparing students to succeed in college and to actively engage in our democratic society, and we couldn't be more proud of the TMA class of 2010! Congrats!

Maryland Day wows the Mentor Program

This past Saturday the Mentor Program participated in our annual college trip by attending Maryland Day.  The event drew over 50,000 people, and we were thrilled to be among the crowd.  The entire campus was engaged in introducing the University of Maryland experience to the general public.

Students watched a rugby match, attended a seminar on getting ready for college, and even did some rock climbing.  Apparently Marquis Williams is part spider, as he climbed the wall in under 5 seconds (unofficial time).  TMA students also had a chance to hang out in the student center, grab a bite to eat, and look over class offerings for various majors.

Our students are going to college.  This trip was a nice reminder that all of the hard work it will take to get there will be worth it.

Heading Home

This past Wednesday I woke for school and proceeded with my regular morning routines. My alarm clock rang, I rose and my day began. I stayed on schedule but I had a little extra incentive because I knew that day Thurgood Marshall's "incredible junior class" had a college trip scheduled. But not to just any college trip; the colleges were found in my home state of Delaware! Of the two colleges we would visit, I was more than familiar with one, Delaware State University and less familiar with another, University of Delaware.

The first stop on our college tour was Delaware State University. I am very acquainted with this college and campus because it is where my mother graduated with a bachelors degree in business administration. On top of that I have been to numerous activities and events there myself from a pre-k program to sports camps and from academic enrichment programs to homecomings. Yet, as we entered the campus, I myself saw things that were new to me. In the past couple years Delaware State has been actively taking steps to improve their school's view and student life with upgrades such as the addition of a state-of-the-art student center, fully equipped with two full basketball courts, an overflow work out area, a full length track that surrounds the top floor and a Olympic-style aquatic center. The campus has improved in numerous areas and those improvement showed. At tour's end, many TMA students expressed their new found interest in learning more about or possibly attending Delaware State; citing the calm and cool campus life and intimate class and population size as major reasons.

The second tour took place on the grounds of the University of Delaware, where the feel was a little different but still was positive. UD is home to a considerably larger population of students than Del State, almost seventeen thousand more, but the opportunity pulled many students in. The Blue Hens also have an amazing student center where we, the "prospects" could see where and how students spend their down time or choose to study. The campus style at UD is different from DSU's as well. The University of Delaware gave a relaxed rural feel to everyone that entered the area.

By way of areas on campus like "the green", an area were many students met and conversed or did work. But what stood out most was the talk of the educational opportunities that varied from those at Del State. UD offers many diverse majors, that definitely provied something for everyone. For example the authentic business center caught the attention of many students from Thurgood, saying that they would love to work in such a realistic center in preparation for their actual jobs. I myself was even interested in what the school had to offer, being that my group's tour guide majored in the exact subjects that I plan to, assuring me that the programs were very exciting and hands on.

Overall I think each experience was eye opening , allowing many to get an idea of what type of college lifestyle and atmosphere they really wanted. The difference between the two colleges also gave a prime example of just how diverse each college really is from each other. As I made my "bittersweet" departure from my beloved state, I couldn't help but be proud of the impression that my hometown colleges made on others. The pride and joy of a state nicknamed "the Little Wonder" still lives in the colleges.

Address to the Senior Class

Back in August of 2009, the seniors at Thurgood Marshall were gearing up for an exciting door to their life. This door both closes their time as High School students, as well as opens the door to a bright future filled with college success stories.

Although the future looks bright, the road along the way has been a bit bumpy. Many students have stressed over which schools to apply to, who got accepted where, scholarships, FAFSA, family, friends, and on top of all of that, MORE SCHOOL WORK. Teachers at Thurgood Marshall continue to remind Seniors to not catch any cases of "Senioritis," and for many, this has been hard. But I am proud to say that we as a class have progressed forward, creating memories along the way, to a time close to what some view as the end. But as we approach prom, graduation, and college life, we must remember that this is the beginning to more memories, more success stories, and more opportunities to enrich the lives of one another in our Warrior Family.

I encourage you all in the senior class, and even those who will soon rise to the position of senior, to continue to work hard and to finish strong. The stress that we are experiencing now is only the weight we need to pump up our intellectual muscles so that we can go into college and adulthood swinging.

This is OUR last year, last semester, and last quarter as seniors, but is certainly not the end to a pride that we have developed - TMA Warriors.

TMA College Fair - Open to ALL high school students! May 6, 2010

How did TMA alumni RaShawn Grant and Dominique Griffin end up as freshman in a University of Vermont dorm? They spent four years working hard, they examined their college choices, and they connected with organizations that are designed to support their journeys. While it's on the students to do the hard work, we'd like to announce an opportunity for students to examine their choices and connect to college-support organizations.

On Thursday, May 6th, TMA will open its gym to host our first annual College Fair. The fair will be held from 5:30-8 PM and will feature representatives from over 20 colleges across the country. Additionally, representatives from College Success Foundation, OSSE, FAFSA, POSSE Scholarship Foundation, Gates Millenium Scholarship and the United Negro College Fund will be in attendance.

The focus of the fair will be on financing your college education, as well as finding great college choices for those all over the GPA spectrum. The fair is open to any and all. Should you have any questions prior to the 6th, please feel free to email samitchell@tmapchs.org.

We look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!

Text Alive - 12th Graders learning about Shakespeare

On Wednesday, March 17th the entire 12th grade class of TMA had an adventure in downtown DC to watch the Shakespeare Theatre's performance of Henry V. The students had extensively studied the play as part of their English coursework with Ms. Lyons. Watching the play was one of the beginning steps of the Text Alive! program. The Text Alive! program invites public school students and teachers in grades 9-12 from DC, Maryland and Virginia to explore the themes, complex characters and language in William Shakespeare’s plays. In April, students will have the opportunity to act out scenes from Henry V with the support of the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Senior Shavari Cox had the following to say about the field trip:

Henry V is what we will soon be performing in April. But on Wednesday March 17th all of the seniors took a trip to the Shakespeare Theatre Company to see Henry V be performed. So exciting, I was really into it! Seeing the play gave me and my classmates ideas on how to better our performance. It was entertaining, some parts even made you jump out of your seats.

My favorite part was the marriage between Catherine and Henry V, also the part when the French and English men were preparing for the war. Did I dislike anything about the play? No, I really enjoyed watching it, it was not boring or anything.

Thanks to the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Shavari Cox for sharing her reflections! We will keep you updated on their upcoming performance in April!

March Madness?

The six-year graduation rates for the 65 teams playing in this week's tournament is 46 percent.  Should there be an academic component in the college basketball championship?  Ben Miller explores the possibility on The Quick and the Ed:

Adding Academics to the Big Dance

TMA Seniors Take College Tour

Seniors from Thurgood Marshall Academy's Class of 2010 took a trip to two colleges earlier this month. At 6:30 AM we arrived at TMA with our blankets and Ipods, ready to visit some potential college choices. After being "randomly" separated into two groups, we hopped on the charter buses chaperoned by teachers and staff - college counselor Mr. Mitchell, art teacher Ms. Shabazz, English teacher Ms. Lyons, and Dean of Students Ms. Bobo - and embarked on a two and a half hour trip to our first destination, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Many of us slept on our way there, resting for the busy day of learning ahead of us; we were happy once we finally reached U. Penn.

The Ivy League school is in a tight-knit community that shows the school's history. There wasn't much going on outside, probably because of the chilly weather, but our tour guide reassured us that the school is very busy socially on any other day. We were showed the campus and even went inside the business center which was very modern on the inside. Most of us were a little disappointed by the lack of racial diversity we saw while walking around the campus but were happy to hear about the school's strong academics.