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Wake Forest program ensures academic success
? Project Ensure brings African-American students to the university
By CAROLE RAG1NS
Chrontde Sr-iff Writer
For three weeks during the
summer, the Ivory Tower halls at
Wake Forest University echo with
the voices of African-American
professors teaching high school stu
dents curricula from an Acrocentric
perspective.
Project Ensure, a program
sponsored and funded by Wake For
est University and the Babcock
Foundation, is a pre-college pro
gram aimed at increasing the num
ber of black students going to col
lege.
"The underlining goal is to see
that students maximize their high
school experience, graduate from
high school and then go to college
? ideally a four-year institution,"
said Dr. Ernest Wade, director of
the program. Wade serves as direc
tor of Minority Affairs at Wake For
est.
Students are selected in the sec
ond semester of their eighth grade
year, based on California Achieve
ment Test scores and recommenda
tions from counselors and teachers.
There is also an interviewing pro
cess for students and parents.
Once students are accepted,
they remain in the program until
they graduate from high school.
During the academic school year,
students meet once a month to learn
about different issues and topics.
at er and drama, African history and
life skills.
"We want to give students a
sense of self in terms of how black
people came to where they are
today ? historically speaking," said
Wade. "We want them to know it
didn't all start with slavery."
facts are ignored in high school text
books," said Pollard.
"They want to know that what
they're doing (in their education)
has personal meaning ? communal
meaning," he continued. "I try to
help them understand that they can't
disconnect their physics and math
Africans and those of African
descent, to the rest of the world,
much the way Europeans have con
nected their ancestral contributions
to the world.
Faith Kelley, a junior at North
Forsyth, has been in the program
for three years. "I feel that this pro
Photo by Mike Cunningham
Teacher Alfred Mann assists Project Ensure students In disecting a rabbit during an anatomy class.
Students pictured (left to right) are Austin Mann, Faith Keiley, Alicia McKlnney, Yvette Gray.
Before coming to the Wake
Forest campus, students visited col
leges in the Washington, D.C. area,
touring Howard University, George
town and the University of Mary
land. Last year, they visited several
from this other dimension of them
selves ? their history and her
itage." ?
Project Ensure students say the
program has not only helped them
to excel academically, but also it
connects them to the African cul
ture and' contributions made by
gram has enhanced my academic
abilities. I've brought my grade
point average up and have been on
the honor roll continuously. It helps
me to understand black people and
my heritage, and how we're better
than what the mainstream makes us
out to be," she said.
Photo by Mike Cunningham
Dr. Ernest Wade, director of the Project Ensure program and Minor
ity Affairs office at Wake Forest University, drops In on a class.
This year, the writing process was
taught
Tony Hinson, a junior at North
Forsyth said, "It has not only
enhanced my academics but it has
also given me the motivation to
know that I can succeed at any
thing, as long as 1 put my mind and
heart into it."
The program is in its third year
and students currently in the pro
gram are rising juniors and seniors.
Entry into Project Ensure is highly
competitive because funding is liin
ited. A maximum of 60 students
from different socio-economic back
grounds as well as achievement lev
els are accepted into the program.
Students are invited to live in
the dorms, take classes and get a
feel for what college life is about.
They are taught a core of classes
that they will take in the fall such as
algebra, geometry, pre-calculus,
physics, anatomy, chemistry and
English. In addition, students are
taught courses ort Malcolm X, the
colleges in Atlanta. The college
experience is designed to give stu
dents a chance to compare different
kinds of campus lifestyles and
insight into where they could be
after high school.
"College visitations are before
the program begins because we
want students to see where they can
end up," said Wade. "It serves as a
motivational tool for them to look at
the things they need to do in order
to end up in the right place."
Dr. Alton Pollard, associate
professor of religion at Wake Forest,
teaches the class on Malcolm X for
Project Ensure. Although students
learn about Malcolm X and his
times, Pollard says that much of the
course work in Project Ensure
shows students the connection of the
African culture to other cultures. "In
other words, the Afrocentric curricu
lum is not taught from a narrow per
spective ? students are taught con
tributions made by other cultures of
non-European descent because these
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tion of "handicapped" in Section
504 of the federal Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 and the Fair Housing
Amendments Act of 1988.
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Dr. Alton B. Pollard, associate professor of religion at Wake Forest
University, conducts a class on Malcolm X for Project Ensure stu
dents.
College-bound students will
also be assisted in preparing for the
college application process and
meeting deadlines. Parents will also
be informed on how to assist their
child in applying for college. Wade
says parental involvement is impor
tant to a child's success.
Working with Project Ensure
has kept Wade in touch with the
youth culture. "It's a mission kind of
thing. I know if you put in the time
and the work now, that it's going to
make it so much easier for them. I
know if you build the right founda
tion ? in spite of the obstacles ?
their personal building is going to
be right but you have to stick with it
because its real easy to give in,"
Wade said.
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