Teen Follows Mom’s College Dream

Christopher Suggs’ mom interrupted her college dream to give birth to him and raise him with the attention he deserved.

Seventeen years later, Christopher is completing the dream — now that his top choice for college, Morgan State University, has accepted him for admission this coming fall.

His mom had a partner in helping Chris get there: New Haven’s LEAP youth academics and recreation agency.

LEAP organizes tours of Southern colleges for the teens who work at the nonprofit as youth counselors. Christopher ended up going on four of those tours.

On the fourth tour, Christopher, who is currently a Engineering and Science University Magnet School senior, instantly fell in love with Morgan State. He texted his mother, Krystal Augustine, asking whether he could buy a hat at the college. She was bemused about what had attracted him to this out of the dozen schools he had visited.

“I could see myself waking up here with positive energy. I could look outside the window and think that I really love it here,” Suggs remembered thinking.

LEAP offers children after-school and summer activities that range from swimming to gardening. Young people can then graduate into a leadership training program that prepares them for paid positions as junior counselors or swim instructors within the organization.

Suggs started with LEAP in eighth grade as a student and has been a swim instructor for two years. He taught four swim classes a day for over 30 hours a week during the summer.

The program turned the former introvert, by this own description, into a leader. He would encourage fellow coworkers with small pep talks: ​“The day is almost over. Stay strong!” He would sometimes stay after the end of his day to make sure everything was clean and put away, Augustine said.

Seeing him take on these new responsibilities taught Augustine to let go of him a little bit, she said. When his work hours conflicted with hers, she had to trust that he could figure out the bus system on own; now he teaches her about the bus numbers and routes.

LEAP staffer Victoria Wang said that this trust is part of what made LEAP different from other organizations when it was founded in 1992.

“A lot of public programs treated youth, especially teenagers, as a problem that needed to be solved. LEAP is about giving them the responsibility and the proper preparation, and they prove that they can create a positive space and be role models,” Wang said.

LEAP’s week-long, out-of-state college tours are part of the investment in the future of swim instructors and junior counselors that is built into the program. All of LEAP’s swim instructors and junior counselors have graduated and been accepted to college every year since 2012 (the furthest back for which statistics are available), excluding those who chose the military instead, according to Wang.

Augustine said that Suggs’ high school does offer college tours but that while the cost is probably significantly shaved down, it was not subsidized enough for her to afford to send her son.

Augustine works as a financial assistant at the Department of Psychology for Yale University.

All of LEAP’s high school seniors graduated from high school last year and were accepted to college, according to the nonprofit’s annual report published this fall.

Wang said that in light of budget cuts to public school counselors, LEAP is investing more in its college access programs, which also include SAT preparation classes. She said some students did not find out about all the paperwork they needed to turn in until April, when it was almost too late.

Suggs and his mom were organized about all of his college application deadlines. Augustine said that they sat down together to fill out the FAFSA financial aid paperwork on the first day the portal opened this fall.

Suggs heard back from Morgan State on Dec. 1, earlier than he expected. He turned to his mom and asked whether the acceptance letter was real.

“With all of my high school work and the responsibilities I take on, it was just a reminder — you’re doing good,” Suggs said.

Suggs has his own plans to lift up future generations of young adults with his degree. He said that he wants to study psychology and focus his career on helping address youth trauma and mental health in cities.

Meanwhile, Augustine hasn’t given up on her own dream. She has gone back to school at Albertus Magnus College with an eye toward working in human resources and recruitment. Despite the demands of her job and being a single mom, she made the Dean’s List with a 3.94 GPA, she said.

“My household is good. My kids are good,” she said. ​“Now I have to do something for me.”