College Crew Prepares To Hit Newhallville

Longtime classroom aide Patricia Robinson will hit the streets of Newhallville with a blue T‑shirt and an armful of ​“parent kits,” as the city launches a new door-knocking campaign to help families prepare for college.

Robinson (pictured), who worked as a paraprofessional in city schools for 24 years, showed up Thursday morning to the Bethel A.M.E. Church at 255 Goffe St. to accept a new mission: Knocking on students’ doors to help their families prepare for college.

Robinson is one of the first volunteers to join the CollegeCorps, which is being launched to complement the New Haven Promise scholarship. Over 2,000 city high-schoolers have signed a pledge to take part in Promise: If they maintain a B average in school, live in New Haven, and keep up good behavior and community service, they’ll be rewarded with up to a 100 percent college scholarship for in-state public universities. The program is funded by Yale University and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, as part of Mayor John DeStefano’s campaign to close the achievement gap, cut the dropout rate in half, and help kids succeed in college.

DeStefano issued a call for more volunteers at a press conference Thursday on the windy sidewalk outside the church. He said the city chose that spot because it’s near James Hillhouse High School, which had the largest number of kids sign the Promise pledge.

Bethel A.M.E. pastor Joseph Hooper has offered up his church has a base camp for volunteers.

“An opportunity like Promise is a godsend,” said Hooper. The church will host trainings on June 17 from 4 to 5 p.m. and June 18 from noon to 1 p.m.

Volunteers will get Promise T‑shirts (pictured) and ​“parent kits” with college-readiness advice. On June 24, volunteers will distribute door-hangers to homes of kids who signed the Promise pledge. The following day, they’ll canvas the neighborhood, talking to parents and students about the Promise program, and how to prepare for and succeed in college.

The College Corps plan to canvas a different neighborhood each month, starting in Newhallville and Dixwell, moving to Fair Haven, Hill North and Hill South. To focus their efforts during this summer’s launch, they’ll target the homes of the 2,019 students who already agreed to take part in the program, not the kids who didn’t sign up.

Robinson, a member of Bethel A.M.E. church, said she plans to attend the training and set to work knocking on doors. From her vantage point on Elliot Street in the Hill, she said she is concerned to see kids dropping out of high school.

New Haven Public Schools’ dropout rate is 27 percent, according to the district.

While many students announce they plan to pursue college after graduation, half of them stop taking classes after the first year.

Only 50 percent of NHPS students enroll in a second year of college within two years of graduating from high school. The district aims to boost that number to 55 percent for current high school seniors, then another 5 percent each year for each subsequent class.

Robinson said all three of her children attended college. Her youngest, 21, is a junior at UConn.

“There are a lot of kids who want to go to college,” too, Robinson said. She she plans to help their families prepare to get there.

Michelle Edmonds-Sepulveda, who knocks on doors every day as a school truancy officer, is helping with the effort.

“There’s a misconception that parents don’t care about their kids’ education,” said Edmonds-Sepulveda. She said they do care — ​“they just need the tools” to get involved. Parents who never went to college don’t automatically know how to apply for college loans or write personal essays. Edmonds-Sepulveda, who’s also a former West Rock alderwoman, sat on a panel that came up with the ​“parent kit” to give them some guidance.

The kit includes tips for four age groups: pre‑K to 5, grades 6 to 8, high school and college.

“Talk early and often with your child about going to college,” the pamphlet advises. ​“Limit TV, phone and computer time. Engage in structured activity.” The kit gives phone numbers for resources to accomplish these goals.

A crew from the Dixwell/Newhallville senior center showed up to observe Thursday’s event. DeStefano noted that in the seniors’ time, you could have walked five blocks to the city’s largest employer — Winchester Repeating Arms. Now, to reach the city’s largest employer, you have to walk five blocks the other way — to Yale University.

Working at Yale takes ​“a different kind of muscle,” the mayor said, ​“the one inside your head.”

DeStefano noted that Thursday’s press conference came on the heels of another one — about tackling violent crime. The best thing the city can do to reduce violence, he argued, is to give young people a good education.

Schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo said just as the city is rolling out a new evaluation system that holds teachers accountable, ​“we’re asking parents in our community to stand up” and get involved in their kids’ educations.

He issued a call for volunteers to ​“help us to help our young people learn.” Volunteers can visit the Promise website, call (203) 776‑6473, or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Mary Bostic (pictured), who’s 74, joined two dozen people on the sidewalk to hear that call. She said she was passing by the nearby senior center to pick up a rent rebate check at the time. She and her 9‑month-old great-granddaughter, Natria Wade, stuck around to hear the remarks.

Bostic, a retired bus driver for CT Transit, lives nearby at the Florence Virtue Homes. She said she didn’t have the means to send all her four kids to college — two ended up going. Now she encourages her 15 grandkids, and their children, to get college degrees.

“If you don’t have an education, you’re not going to be able to exist in this time,” Bostic opined. ​“It’s a computer world.”

She said she would volunteer for the effort — if she didn’t have her hands full babysitting 9‑month-old Natria.

Edmonds-Sepulveda said she does plan to volunteer her time to knock on doors this summer.

“The first knock isn’t going to create this magical thing” that will solve everyone’s problems, Edmonds-Sepulveda said. ​“But we’ve got to open the door.”