News
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Email newsletters:
Dec2009 Nov2009 Sep2009 Jul2009 Apr2009 Mar2009 Feb2009 Jan2009
Nov2008 Oct2008 Sep2008 Aug2008
Student email newsletters:
Jan2010 Jan2010 (#2) Dec2009 Nov2009 Oct2009
10 March 2010: Won’t you please take 15 minutes to write a letter of encouragement to a 9th grade Detroit Public School student who is making a commitment to work hard, graduate from high school and go to college? Click here for the background and instructions.
Our program was endorsed by The Detroit Public Schools Foundation.
4 March 2010: Our program was endorsed by Otis Mathis, President of the Detroit Board of Education.
23 February 2010: We have updated our Books pages, by adding the 2010 American Library Association - Best Books for Young Adults winners.
12 February 2010: The Detroit News published a Letter from our Executive Director, click here or here.
10 February 2010: Our program was endorsed by Charles Pugh, City of Detroit Council President.
4 February 2010: To subscribe / unsubscribe to any of our newsletters, enter your email address on our new Subscribe page (click here). You will then be emailed a link that allows you to change your newsletter preferences or your email address. Our newsletters are for 3 entities - The Detroit College Promise (nonprofit that provides scholarships to Detroit students), PathologyOutlines.com (free online pathology textbook) and DermatologyOutlines.com (free online dermatology textbook).
28 January 2010: We have updated our Links page, which now has links to our Scholarship Application and Scholarship Acceptance forms. We want all 28,000 DPS high school students to register for our scholarship, which will put them on the mailing list for our student newsletter, and help us raise funds for more scholarships. Our goal is to be able to offer scholarships to all DPS graduates within 2 years.
26 January 2010: We are trying to rebuild Detroit’s residential population, and have initially targeted the Jewish community, which had a large Detroit population in the 1950’s and 60’s. Our new website, www.MyJewishDetroit.com, lists existing Jewish institutions within Detroit. We have also started a newsletter that will highlight monthly activities of Detroit based Jewish institutions or events within Detroit. To subscribe to the newsletter, email subscribeMJD@gmail.com.
14 January 2010: Enroll in DPS - get a scholarship! We urge all students interested in receiving our scholarship to enroll in DPS by next fall. Starting with the class of 2011, we will offer at least 2 scholarships at all DPS high schools. Within a few years, we plan to offer scholarships to all DPS graduates. However, to be eligible, you must have been enrolled in DPS (and be a Detroit resident) either from the beginning of next fall thru graduation or from the beginning of 9th grade thru graduation. More details are available in our Business Plan (click here).
4 January 2010: Thanks to Mrs. Eva Kuhn Packard for making a contribution designated for her alma matter of Cooley High School. As a result, we are adding a third scholarship for Cooley for the Class of 2011 and subsequent years.
30 December 2009: We are now receiving contributions designated for scholarships at particular high schools, and have added a spreadsheet to the top of the News page (or click here) which details the number of scholarships offered this year and next at each high school. Ultimately, we plan to offer an unlimited number of scholarships at all DPS high schools, and this chart highlights our progress towards this goal.
22 December 2009: We appeared on WDET’s Detroit Today radio show, to discuss our program in the context of incentives to get people to live in Detroit - link.
8 December 2009: We had an interview on WWJ’s Making the Grade, with Greg Bowman - link, Yahoo News link.
We also had an interview in the Detroit Jewish News on 2 December 2009, link
7 December 2009: We have a new option for donors to support additional scholarships at a particular school. We currently offer unlimited scholarships to seniors at Cody-Upper and Douglass, and 2 scholarships each year to seniors at Cass Tech, Central, Pershing and Douglass. Next year, we hope to offer at least 2 scholarships at each of the remaining DPS high schools. Contributions designated for a particular school will be used to increase the number of scholarships at that school. The formula we plan to use is $1500 to fund one additional scholarship. The scholarship is for $500, but since we plan to offer the additional scholarships on an ongoing basis, we need to have funding for 3 years before we add it permanently. You can designate the name of the DPS high school on the check or in an email. For questions, please contact Dr. Pernick at 248/646-3269.
6 December 2009: We have updated the Scholarship Acceptance form (on the Procedures page) to reflect some minor changes in our procedures.
30 November 2009: Thanks to Judge Wade McCree, Wayne County Circuit Court - Criminal Division, for meeting with us and endorsing our program.
18 November 2009: We have posted our November 2009 student newsletter, with information about registration, FAFSA, City Heroes, the ACT and the Reggie McKenzie Foundation.
13 November 2009: We added a link to more resources for African-American based scholarships to the top of our Detroit Scholarships page.
12 November 2009: We have posted our November 2009 newsletter (click here), with information about our annual drive, expansion to new DPS high schools, Fun Run, scholarship presentations and student registration for our scholarship.
11 November 2009: We have launched our first Annual Drive with a goal of $2 million. These funds will allow us to expand from pilot programs at Cody and Douglass High Schools to all high schools within the Detroit Public Schools. We will also broaden our challenge to all DPS students to try harder, study more, and plan for their future. Please click here to donate $5 or whatever you can afford so we can accomplish this goal. Contributions to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit are tax deductible as allowed by law, and are paid directly to Michigan public colleges and universities for tuition expenses for our scholarship recipients.
9 November 2009: Crain’s Detroit Business published a short article about our Annual Drive (click here). The press release is here.
8 November 2009: All Detroit Public School students should register for our scholarship by December 1, 2009. Since we are adding scholarships this year and next, students should register even if we don’t currently have a scholarship at your school. To register, click on the Student Login button on the right hand side of the Home page. It only takes 1-2 minutes. If you know any DPS students, please remind them to register.
8 November 2009: We have updated our Detroit Scholarships page with information from the Detroit Community Scholarship Initiative and Michigan Department of Treasury. We also have a new section on Foster Care related grants.
7 November 2009: We gave a workshop at the Cody / Rouge Education Leadership Conference.
5 November 2009: We gave a presentation with the Community Scholarship Initiative, which is affiliated with the Detroit Parent Network’s Project Graduation, UNCF, Edu-Guide, the Coleman Young Foundation and the Skillman Foundation.
16 October 2009: We now offer $500 scholarships to a limited number of seniors, chosen at random, at Cass Tech, Central, Pershing and Trombly High Schools (two scholarships for each school). We are requesting that all high school students at these and other DPS high school students register online (click here).
15 October 2009: Thanks to all who participated in our Fun Run on the Riverwalk. Pictures from the run are posted on our Facebook Page (click here). The event helped us promote our programs and fund more scholarships.
30 September 2009: We added favorite books of US Senator Debbie Stabenow to our Books page. We hope that highlighting favorite books of elected officials will help promote reading, which will promote our mission of changing the education culture in Detroit.
17 September 2009: We added a link to our Links page, under Parents, for a brochure from the National PTA listing 100 ways to help your child and school succeed (click here)
17 August 2009: Crain’s Detroit Business published an article about our program changes for Fall 2009 (click here).
11 August 2009: We added to the Books page a list of books recommended by the American Library Association for young adults.
7 August 2009: We made a presentation to the Kiwanis Detroit #1 Club at the Detroit Athletic Club, Beverly Wiggins, President. They agreed to act as mentors for one of our students, and had several great ideas about working together.
21 July 2009: We have updated our Links page to include information for the various Cody High School programs and Trombly High School.
16 July 2009: We recently met with Frank Nemecek of the Warrendale Community Development Corporation, who posted some information about us on his blog, click here (scroll down to 16 July).
3 July 2009: We were interviewed by Alisa Zee of WYCD, 99.5 FM, Detroit’s Country, to be aired Sunday morning, 2 August 2009, or click here for the MP3.
29 June 2009: We are pleased to show increased test scores associated with the start of our program at Cody High School. In 2008, no Cody student had a score of 20 or higher on the ACT. For 2009, which was several months after we announced the start of our program at Cody, there were 11 students scoring 20 or above. According to Cody staff, part of the reason for improved scores was that students felt that had a promising future to work towards. Next year we will be offering prizes to all Cody and Douglass students with a score of 21 or more, and we will be working with the schools in other ways to improve test scores.
24 June 2009: Congratulations to Cody graduate and Detroit College Promise scholarship recipient Destin’e Clark, who was interviewed on Greg Bowman’s Making the Grade radio spot. Click here for the MP3.
5 June 2009: We sent out our first email newsletter for DPS high school students (click here).
20 May 2009: Our scholarship program was endorsed by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.
13 May 2009: Our press release about the expansion of our scholarship to Frederick Douglass High School was posted on the Detroit Public Schools’ website (click here).
11 May 2009: Crain’s Detroit Business published a brief article (click here) about our expansion to Frederick Douglass High School.
7 May 2009: Click here to view at video about The Detroit College Promise compiled by University of Detroit Mercy students Diamond Jenkins, Robin Underwood, Patrick Robinson and Erik Howard.
1 May 2009: Volunteers needed! We are expanding parts of our scholarship program to all DPS high school students in September 2009. However, we need volunteers (parents, staff, others) to help spread the word to students. Contact us at 248/646-3269 or email volunteerDCP@gmail.com to sign up or for more information.
25 April 2009: The April 20-26 weekly issue of the Arise Detroit Newsletter announced the expansion of our program:
The Detroit College Promise announces the expansion of its scholarship program in the fall to Frederick Douglass High School. All students that enroll in the first week of the 2009-2010 school year and stay enrolled through graduation will be eligible. The program is currently in place at Cody High School, and new 9th grade students next year will also be eligible. We encourage parents to consider enrolling their children in these schools. For more information, visit www.DetroitCollegePromise.org or call us at 248/646-3269.
Email info@arisedetroit.org to sign up for their informative newsletter.
21 April 2009: We have posted our April 2009 newsletter (click here).
20 April 2009: We are expanding our program to the Frederick Douglass High School, and sent out a news release today (click here). Next year, we anticipate having 500 students in our program from Cody and Douglass. Do you want to keep up with the latest DCP news? Follow us on www.Twitter.com, user name DetroitCollege. If you use Facebook, please search for Detroit College Promise, and sign up for our group, which will contain pictures of events and discussion topics.
30 March 2009: Our scholarship program is expanding. For the Fall, 2009 academic year, we will have 138 possible scholarship recipients. They are all eligible for funding if they attend a Michigan public college or university as a full time student, and FAFSA related financial aid does not pay for their tuition in full. For the Fall, 2010 academic year, we anticipate having approximately 450 possible scholarship recipients, based on the projected number of seniors in the Cody class of 2010 and in another DPS high school, to be selected in the next few months.
1 March 2009: We attended “A Celebration of Black History” by the Detroit Urban League Guild and College Club. We will be urging students at our high schools to participate in the College Club, which meets once a month and helps students prepare for college.
24 February 2009: The IRS has granted us 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. A copy of our tax exempt letter is available by clicking here. We currently have 130 applications from graduating seniors at Cody High School.
5 February 2009: The IRS found two minor issues with our tax exempt application. We have addressed them, and hope to receive our tax exempt status letter soon. We will then start applying for grants, and will add an online contribution feature to our website.
We are developing an online scholarship application, which will make the process easier for us as we expand our scholarships to additional schools. It will also enable students to update their information as needed.
We met with Belinda Raines, principal at Northwestern High School in Detroit, who wants our scholarship program at her school in Fall, 2009. We estimate we will need to raise $2500 per graduating senior to start the program. This will allow us to operate the program for 2 years, and to pay $1000 per scholarship recipient, if needed, after application of FAFSA related grants.
3 February 2009: We have updated the Documents page of our website, which now details the process of applying for an application. Our Detroit Scholarships page also has a detailed list of national scholarships at the top, and more information about The Detroit Compact.
19 January 2009: We issued a press release (click here) about our current 113 scholarship applicants from Cody High School.
15 January 2009: We gave a presentation to a staff meeting at the Cody 9 Academy. We have previously presented our program to the staff at the Cody upper school.
14 January 2009: We have simplified our application form even further. We no longer require a social security number or submission of transcripts. However, we have added a date of birth, and have indicated that an email address is mandatory. For the graduating classes of 2009 to 2012, the only eligibility criteria are continuous enrollment at Cody High School and residency in Detroit, both from December 1, 2008 through graduation. For graduating classes of 2013 and forward, the criteria are continuous enrollment at Cody High School and residency in Detroit from the first day of 9th grade through graduation.
11 January 2009: We received a donation of $5000 from the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. We recently emailed our monthly newsletter. As discussed there, we now require students to fill out the FAFSA financial aid form (link), and our award towards tuition and mandatory fees occurs only after application of federal, state and college grants. This will stretch our scholarship dollars so that we can help more students. We have now updated our website accordingly. We now have enough money to pay each graduating senior at least $500, if needed, and we may be able to pay more after a few months of fundraising.
10 December 2008: An interview with Greg Bowman was aired for his radio show, “Making the Grade” on WWJ Newsradio 950 (link). Crain’s Detroit Business published a short article about us on 7 December 08 (link). Western Michigan University published two new studies that the Kalamazoo Promise, in its first two years, has led to a 12% increase in student enrollment and raised teacher expectations (working papers 4 and 5).
2 December 2008: We officially started accepting applications from Cody High School in Detroit, our pilot high school, on 1 December 2008, and issued a press release (click here). An article appeared in La Prensa, billed as Ohio & Michigan's Oldest and Largest Latino Newspaper (click here), and a short brief appeared in the Detroit News (click here). The AAA Schoolhouse, a publication of the Detroit Public Schools, also wrote about our program (page 2, click here).
20 November 2008: We met with Steve Wasko, Executive Director, Office of Public Relations, Detroit Public Schools, and gave a presentation to a Detroit School Board committee with Board Members Maria Thornton and Annie Carter present.
18 November 2008: We appeared on Arise Detroit’s radio show on 16 November 2008 on WCHB, 1200 am with Luther Keith, their Executive Director. We have a new issue of our Monthly newsletter.
13 November 2008: (a) We have added several new endorsements for our program. Endorsements are accessed from the Endorsements page or by clicking here. (b) The IRS has indicated it is behind on processing applications for tax exempt status, and it appears that our application may not be processed until early 2009. As a result, we are seeking another non-profit to act as a fiduciary to handle our funds until we get our tax exempt status. (c) We have revised our business plan (click here).
26 October 2008: The Detroit Jewish News, 26 September 2008, had a nice two page article about us. Click here for the link. Channel 4 (WDIV) had two interesting segments about the Kalamazoo Promise. The second mentioned us briefly. Click here and here for the videos.
20 October 2008: We are currently seeking endorsements from elected officials, local organizations / businesses and community leaders, to post on our Endorsements page (click here for the current list). This list is also accessible by clicking on the Donors link.
6 October 2008: (a) We met with The Skillman Foundation last month, and plan to pilot our program at Cody or Osborn High Schools, which are part of their Good Schools, Good Neighborhood Program. We estimate we will need $500,000 in pledges to begin the program at each school. (b) We received our Acknowledgement Notice from the IRS on 11 August 2008 regarding our tax exempt application. We hope to receive our approval letter by the end of 2008. (c) We also received our Charitable Solicitation License from the State of Michigan Department of Attorney General. (d) We are working on advancing our program by (1) getting pledges from businesses or individuals to contribute to the $500,000 needed to start a pilot school (current total pledged is $43,000), (2) getting 1000 pledges of $20 or more, to demonstrate widespread community support, and (3) getting 1000 names on our monthly email list, to promote widespread awareness of our charity. Contact us if you can help.
27 August 2008: We met with and plan to partner with the Northwestern High School Success Project (see article), which currently has 40+ business partners, to develop a Promise type program. More details will be forthcoming. We also met with Sanual Mixon, Executive Director, Office of Pupil Personnel Services, Detroit Public Schools, and her staff, to discuss our program and how we can work together. DPS Superintendent Connie Calloway, in her newsletter to her staff, recently wrote about our program:
I was very encouraged to learn about the efforts of a local businessman to start Detroit’s version of the Kalamazoo Promise. This has the potential to be great news for our students and we look forward to learning more about it from the organizers.
The impact the Kalamazoo Promise has had not only on the students and schools but on the overall vitality of the community is well documented.
Like the recent announcement of a venture fund to help fund turnaround school initiatives, this is a strong example that within our community including among our business leaders there is a sense that positive change is forthcoming at DPS.
21 August 2008: Our website now lists members of our Board of Directors and Advisory Board (on the Board page) and Endorsements (on the Donor page). To view our current business plan, click here. Today we appeared on WDET’s Detroit Today radio show (click here for the audio). To volunteer to help The Detroit College Promise, please email NatPernick@Hotmail.com with “volunteer for DCP” in the subject line. We will send you an email from time to time of tasks that would be helpful.
19 August 2008: In response to a media release (click here) announcing the start of our fundraising efforts, the Detroit News published an article (click here) as did the Detroit Free Press (online only, click here). We were also interviewed by Fox 2 News (click here), Channel 4 News (click here), Michigan Radio, WWJ and WMUK-Kalamazoo (click here).
18 August 2008: Crain’s Detroit Business published a nice article about our program today (click here). The Detroit Free Press recently published a Letter to the Editor about the program (click here).
11 August 2008: We have started seeking pledges of financial support, and are ready to start the program once we receive pledges totaling $500,000. If you have not already done so, please email your pledge to NatPernick@Hotmail.com (“I pledge $___ to The Detroit College Promise”, and indicate your name) or click here for a pledge form. Please also ask friends, colleagues or businesses to make a pledge, so we can start this program ASAP. We do not plan to seek payment of the pledges until December 2008. We have set up a partnership with Communities in Schools, who will help high school students with college preparedness.
14 July 2008: We established a nonprofit with the State of Michigan, and are in the process of obtaining our tax-exempt status. We attended the PromiseNet conference last month in Kalamazoo, and learned a great deal about setting up and administering the scholarship/grant program. We plan to begin our scholarship program with the high school graduating class of 2009, if we can get sufficient pledges by November 2008. Our Scholarship page lists all known scholarships/grants aimed specifically at Detroit students - contact us with any updates.
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