Photo courtesy of Lucas Ferrer
On Thursday, October 13, Choate welcomed a group of students and families from Prep 9, an academic program that prepares promising students of color for boarding high schools, for its annual “Prep 9 Day.”
Mr. Tim Bradley, the Associate Director of Admission, started the day’s proceedings by welcoming the prospective students and families in the Humanities Rotunda. The guests were divided into three groups, and Choate student hosts were paired up with them throughout the day. The guests fully engaged in the experience of being Choate students by visiting their tour guides’ classrooms and walking around campus.
The parents attended a School Life Panel in the Library Reading Room. They met Mr. Matt McDonald, the Director of Financial Aid; Mr. Amin Gonzalez, the Director of Admission; and individual deans and admission officers as well.
The Prep 9 program is designed for students of color in New York City from modest backgrounds, specifically eighth graders who might excel in boarding schools. The program asks middle schools to recommend students. Those students then complete a multi-tiered application that includes interviewing, testing, and writing personal essays. Only 30 to 50 students are admitted to the program.
Younger students participate in similar programs, such as Prep for Prep, which is designed for fifth through eighth graders.
Prep 9 prepares students for boarding-school curricula through rigorous academic programs that focus on math, English, science, and history. The workload is intensive.
Ms. Judi Williams, a former Prep 9 teacher and current Choate HPRSS teacher, said, “For history classes, Prep 9 students read Epic of Gilgamesh and Death of Socrates, and for English, they read Great Expectations. They go to classes every week day during the summer and write a bunch of papers about those challenging books.” She added, “You have to realize that we are talking about twelve- or thirteen-year-old kids.”
Jalah Scott ’20, a former Prep 9 student, recalled her experience in the program as “mentally and physically straining.” She said, “It was especially hard during the school year because I had schoolwork on top of Prep 9 homework.”
Prep 9 Day has been held at Choate for 26 years. Ms. Williams said, “Affirmative action is a controversial and sensitive topic, but the biggest and most important piece of it is opportunity. Working at Prep 9 and with inner-city students helped me to realize that they do not get to explore a bigger network of independent schools. The program opens the door and lets them know about prestigious schools.”
And the Prep 9 graduates who come to Choate bring important perspectives and experiences. Mr. Gordon Armour, a third form dean who participated in the panel, said, “I am glad that the Prep 9 program exists. Having kids from Prep 9 justifies our existence in a way. We need more of them, and it is important for Choate to host these intelligent and industrious students.”
Di’Anna Bonomolo ’20 said, “Prep 9 introduced me to Choate and helped me to mature emotionally, socially, and academically. It provided encouragement and saw the potential in me, and I am proud that I survived the process of Prep 9. The journey was tough, but the outcome was more than rewarding.”
