Georgetown University Expands Pre-College Training Program for Black Youth

Georgetown University, the highly ranked Jesuit educational institution in the nation’s capital, has announced a major expansion of its Meyers Institute for College Preparation. The program is offered to public school students in the predominantly black Ward 7 of the District. The high school graduation rate in Ward 7 is only 38 percent.

The program offers academic enrichment, mentoring, and college preparation programs for students from seventh grade through high school. In the past, a new group was enrolled in the institute every four years. Now with additional funding from the Meyers Foundation, a new group of seventh-grade students will enter the institute each year.

Students who are accepted into the program spend Saturdays on the Georgetown campus participating in coursework and other activities. In addition, the students spend five weeks of their summer vacations involved in institute programs. In the summer of their junior year in high school, the students reside on the Georgetown campus for the five-week period.

Since 1989, 98 percent of the students who have enrolled in the institute have graduated from high school and have gone on to college.