By Mary Niederberger
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Advancing Academics gives good students help with the college search and application

While living at the Auberle home in McKeesport during his junior and senior years in high school, Thomas Nuttall had big dreams for his future. But charting the path to those dreams on his own was daunting.

Mr. Nuttall, now a high school graduate who lives with his uncle in Scott, knew that he someday wanted to own a jewelry store and to design some of the jewelry that he sold.

As luck would have it, Mr. Nuttall qualified for a new program called Advancing Academics that was offered for the first time this school year to good students who don't have the support they need to help with the college search and application process. "The mission is to improve economic opportunities for high-achieving, low-income students by helping them get into college and finance it and succeed once they are in college," said Lauren Hyslop, mentoring program coordinator for Advancing Academics. In Mr. Nuttall's case, he lacked support because he was living in a group home situation and didn't have parents and other family members around to help him. Other students chosen for the program lived with their families but had parents who were unable to help them with the college selection and application process.

Post Gazette Thomas Nuttall, 19, will begin classes at Community College of Allegheny County next month, thanks to a program called Advancing Academics.

"They may come from families where both parents are working a couple of jobs and their focus just isn't on getting them into college," Ms. Hyslop said.

The program is housed in the offices of the Human Services Center Corp. in Turtle Creek; Dave Copeland, executive director of the Human Services center, is the director of Advancing Academics.

Partnering with the Human Services center in the program are McKeesport Area and South Allegheny school districts, Communities in Schools, Auberle and the Knowledge Connection, an after-school tutoring program. Students must be recommended to the program through one of the partners, Ms. Hyslop said.

During the 2006-2007 school year, the program served 20 high school seniors identified through those partners. Each of the students was matched with a service coordinator who helped them to decide what they might want to study in school.

For Mr. Nuttall, that decision was easy. He's wanted to be a jeweler since his sophomore year in high school when he did a science report on lapidary, which is the skill of cutting and polishing gemstones.

"My future goal is to own my own jewelry shop and to make the jewelry I sell rather than have it shipped in," Mr. Nuttall said.

Through discussions with his coordinator, he decided to first pursue a business degree, starting at Community College of Allegheny County and later transferring to the University of Pittsburgh.

Upon completion of the business degree, Mr. Nutall hopes to open a jewelry store -- maybe in New York -- and use the profits from the business to finance his lapidary education.

Once the students decide upon their course of study, the service coordinator also helps them with their writing skills and with filling out college applications, preparing for interviews and searching for scholarships.

"They set up different college interviews and stuff and helped me fill out my financial aid work," Mr. Nuttall said.

All 20 of the students who participated in the program's first year are enrolled to attend college this fall.

Now, each of the students has been assigned a mentor who is an adult college-educated professional to help them throughout their college years.

Mr. Nuttall said his mentor has been helping him with his financial issues.

"It helps knowing I have someone to call. I probably wouldn't have gotten through the financial aid form if it weren't for their help," he said.

Beth Anne Ackinclose, an education specialist at Auberle, said that while Auberle has programs to help the students get ready for college and assists them in taking the SAT, the Advancing Academics program has benefits for Auberle residents.

"I do think that having a person take an interest from an outside agency means something and this program will continue to follow him as he moves on," she said.

The mentors are asked to contact the students at specific important times during the school year.

"When it's time to study for midterms, time to register for next semester, to think about housing for next year, to review financial aid. The number one reason kids quit college is they can't finance it or they forget to fill out financial aid paperwork," Ms. Hyslop said.

Advancing Academics will start its second year when the new school year starts. This time, 30 students have been identified through the partnering districts and organizations.

In addition, mentors are being recruited for both this year's class and the 30 students who will be in the next class.

Adult professionals, who have graduated from college and would like to volunteer as a mentor can contact Ms. Hyslop at lhyslop@hscc0mvpc.org or by calling 412-829-7112.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------