News
To receive our monthly news email, please send an email to NatPernick@Hotmail.com with "send me DCP news" in the subject line.
Email newsletters:
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 obtaining our tax-exempt status. Once this is done, we will begin fundraising. 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.
End of News page