Urban College of Boston

CONTACT:

178 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02111
(617) 348-6325
www.urbancollege.edu

Tina Cabral, Assistant Director of Institutional Advancement

DESCRIPTION:

Every night, hundreds of Boston neighborhood residents leave their workplaces, pick up children from school and day care, get home, put dinner on the table, and hurry off again — often without eating themselves — to the Urban College in downtown Boston, where they have a three-hour class leading to an Associate Degree in General Studies, Human Services Management, or Early Childhood Education. Around 10 p.m. they head back home — to make sure their kids are in bed with their homework done, to prepare lunches for the next day, and finally, as midnight approaches, to settle into their own homework in the quiet of the kitchen. As one student said, "These people didn't just assume they would go to college. They are here against all odds."

The Urban College of Boston (UCB) is considered a national model in providing low-income, inner-city residents with higher education opportunities, because it is enhanced by a strong support system which includes tutoring, counseling, financial aid, and direct referrals for childcare, employment, housing, and other needs. UCB's retention rate is 50% and 89% of recent graduates surveyed are attending or planning to attend a four-year college. Our economy needs drastically to upgrade its unskilled workforce. UCB is doing it, but it needs more scholarships, more tutors and counselors, and more computer hardware and software. This is a life-line for many deserving adults, and you can help them help themselves.

(2001: CULTURE: Education: Formal: Schools)