Who it helps: Provides middle school education for underprivileged students in urban St. Petersburg and Tampa.
Where to give: Online at academyprep.org or by mail at 2301 22nd Avenue S., St. Petersburg, 33712. For more information on giving, contact Shannon Jager at 727-322-0800 ext. 2104.
Not a charter school or public school, Academy Prep was founded in 1995 in St. Petersburg to provide a prep-style private education to the children of low-income families. (It opened an Ybor City campus in 2003.) But it's far from a coddling, feel-good-but-do-little kind of education. Students who get Academy Prep scholarships (and those are the only ones who attend) must commit to hard work and long hours in a rigorous learning atmosphere. That means up to 11 hours a day, six days a week in year-round school.
"They are here at 7:10 in the morning and they are here until 6 o'clock in the evening," said Ben Fisher, the executive director of the Academy Prep Foundation. And half days on Saturdays, often for field trips or other education events.
Since its inception in St. Pete (the Tampa school has not graduated a class yet), 68 lower-income students have completed Academy Prep. In the neighborhoods where these children live, an average of only 35 percent of those who start kindergarten finish high school. The Academy Prep numbers are higher; only one student has dropped out of high school after leaving the Prep, thanks to an aggressive after-graduation program in which a full Ph.D. educator monitors and assists their progress. Four Academy Prep graduates are now in college.
Parents of Academy Prep kids must commit to giving service hours and supporting the school's programs.
Academy Prep is modeled on the Nativity Mission School in the Lower East Side of New York City, which focuses educational energy on middle-schoolers with extended days, weeks and school years. Nativity has seen 80 percent of its graduates finish high school and college since its inception in 1971.
It costs $12,500 to educate one child for one year at Academy Prep. You can help sponsor a student by making a contribution to fund textbooks or another part of the program. Gifts can be made via the monthly giving program, or as cash, check, credit card or stock transfers.
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2005.