February 1, 2024
Mychal Wynn
Amidst the assault by many governors, state legislators, and state departments of education on teaching facts and attempting to remove historical truths from textbooks and school libraries, we pause to celebrate Black History Month and to reaffirm the historical breakthroughs occurring each year with our cohort students breaking through barriers into places and spaces where they have historically been underrepresented.
Our History Makers
In 2012, our son, Jalani Wynn, was selected as a Gates Millennium Scholar.
In 2012, Julian Nelums from South Cobb High School (GA) made history as our first Posse Scholar.
In 2013, our son, Mychal-David Wynn, made history as the first student in our program to graduate from Amherst College.
In 2015, Mikayla Hanna from Lake City Early College High School (SC) made history as the first UMBC Meyerhoff Scholar from the state of South Carolina and the first QuestBridge College Prep Scholar from her school district.
In 2015 and 2016, Mikayla Hanna and Rebeca Pacheco from Lake City Early College High School (SC) made history as the first 2 Gates Millennium Scholars in the history of their school district.
In 2017, Kimberly Hadaway from Paulding County High School (GA) made history as our first QuestBridge College Prep Scholar and the first student in our program to be offered 6 full scholarships (Amherst, Duke, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Washington & Lee, and Williams).
In 2018, Kristen Starks from Southwest Guilford High School (NC) made history as our first University of Richmond – Richmond Scholar.
In 2018, Damian Lee (Lake City Early College High School (SC)) and Otis Burns (Northern Guilford High School (NC)) made history as our first Northeastern University Torch Scholars.
In 2019, Yuzu Do from The Academy @ Smith (NC) made history as our first Elon University Odyssey Scholar.
In 2019, Sarah Lucas from Milton High School (GA) made history as of our first North Carolina A&T State University Dowdy Scholar.
In 2020, Sydney Barron from Early/Middle College @ GTCC (NC) made history as our first North Carolina Central Cheatham-White Scholar.
In 2020, Sydney Soskin from the St. Petersburg High School IB Program (FL) made history as our first University of Chicago Odyssey Scholar.
In 2021, Jada Foote from South Cobb High School (GA) made history as our first North Carolina A&T State University Cheatham-White Scholar.
In 2021, Tyra Grant from Collins Hill High School (GA) made history as our first Georgia Tech Clark Scholar.
In 2021, Faith Kumi from the Marietta High School IB Program made history as our first Ron Brown Scholar.
In 2021, Ian Fernandes from Karen Wagner High School TSTEM Academy made history as our first student to be offered admission to Caltech (Ian chose to attend Princeton).
In 2022, Justin Cleckley from Hillgrove High School (GA) made history as our first Georgia Tech Gold Scholar.
In 2022, Joanne Lioe from the St. Petersburg High School IB Program made history as our first Jack Kent Cooke College Scholar.
In 2022 and 2024, Juliana Itehua and Jayla Jones from Lake City Early College High School (SC) made history as the first 2 students in their school district to be offered admission to Williams College.
In 2022, Samual Patterson from Walton High School (GA) made history as our first Rhodes Scholar.
In 2023, Kimberly Hadaway, from Paulding County High School (GA) made history as our first Ford Foundation Fellow and first National Science Foundation Fellow.
In 2024, Tuyen Nguyen (St. Petersburg High School IB (FL)) and Chase Williamson (Union Grove High School (GA)), made history as our first students who will enroll at Caltech.
Congratulations to Tuyen Nguyen, from the St. Petersburg High School IB Program (FL), who is the only student in Pinellas County Schools to make it to the Semifinalist round of the Jack Kent Cooke College Scholarship. If Tuyen is selected, she joins other cohort Jack Kent Cooke College Scholars, Omar Dixon, Jr. (Brown University), who was selected in 2023 and Joanne Lioe (Johns Hopkins University), who was selected in 2022.
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation announced that 558 high school seniors have been named semifinalists for the highly competitive Cooke College Scholarship Program. The Cooke College Scholarship provides Scholars with the opportunity to graduate with as little debt as possible. The award, which is last dollar funding after all institutional aid, can provide as much as $55,000 per year to pursue a bachelor’s degree at any accredited undergraduate institution.
This year’s Cooke College Scholarship semifinalists were selected from the largest pool the Cooke Foundation has received to date. Applications will be reviewed once more to choose the finalists to receive the scholarship. The 2024 Cooke College Scholarship recipients will be announced in April.
“We are awed by the breadth and depth of applications we received this year; there are so many talented students across the country, and we’re honored to have the opportunity to recognize their hard work,” said Executive Director Seppy Basili. “These students experienced tremendous challenges due to COVID at the outset of their high school careers which makes their accomplishments even more impressive.”
Congratulations to Latanya Munlyn, from J Paul Truluck Creative Arts and Science Magnet School (SC), who has been selected as a Semifinalist in the Seeds of Fortune Inc.’s 2024-25 Yale Women in Economics Scholarship Program.
“Seeds of Fortune Inc. Scholars in Partnership with Yale Women in Economics is a 10 Month program that delivers an Economics capstone project and college prep.
30 Scholars are selected to learn economics with Yale University professor’s in the goal of having young women of color enter the field of economics, as well as use the knowledge to rethink the economy for their communities.”
Repeating History
In 2016, Atlanta-area cohort student, Kimberly Hadaway, as a high school junior, created a free online ACT Prep class as part of her leadership and community service. Colleges paid attention as Kimberly went on to earn a personal score of 33 on the ACT, as she helped many other students expand their college and scholarship opportunities. Kimberly went on to receive 6 full college scholarships valued at $1.8 million.
8 years later, Kimberly has received a BA in Math and Chemistry from Williams College and is pursuing a Ph.D. in math at Iowa State University. Now, we have a group of cohort juniors who are building on Kimberly’s work by expanding beyond ACT Prep to incorporating learning styles, study skills, and learning strategies. As they pursue their work they are already learning that achieving high test scores is less about good prep and more about good learning. There is simply no substitute for content knowledge, which comes not from prepping, but from learning.
We are equally excited about the role that our students will play in not only guiding students in what they should be doing, but in providing testimonials of what they did. These are 5 ordinary students doing something extraordinary that will make a difference in the academic success of thousands of students.
Next month we will recognize our inaugural College Cohort Scholars based on their first semester academic performance GPA:
3.0 – 3.49 – Scholar
3.5 – 3.99 – Scholar with Honor
4.0+ – Scholar with Highest Honor
We have extended the deadline for participating students to submit first semester report card (grades 6 – 8) or high school transcript (grades 9 – 11) by 11:59 pm February 15, 2024. We will announce our College Cohort Scholars in our March newsletter.
10th and 11th Grade: We had great discussion groups at our January meeting and will continue the format in which our 10th graders join our 11th grade discussion group. Mr. Doug Lucas and Rev. Dr. Yolanda Davis will facilitate the discussion.
9th Grade: I (Mr. Wynn) will continue to facilitate the conversation with our 9th graders and will shift our focus to how students can build their résumé during the second half of the school year.
Emerging Middle School Leaders: Last month, Tuyen Nguyen did a great job during the absence of college adviser, Peyton Wilson. Students will continue with their assignment of responsibilities in their community service project.
ACT Prep and Learning Strategies Plan: Jocelyne, our Community Outreach Coordinator, and her team will continue their discussions toward finaliziing our ACT Prep Project.
Mark Your Calendar:
- February 10, 2024
- March 9, 2024
- April 13, 2024
- May 11, 2024
Monthly meetings are restricted to students registered in our program and their parents.
