Greetings

What is

The Ivy League Connection?

The Ivy League Connection is a project created in January 2006 by two West Contra Costa Unified School District School Board members – Charles Ramsey and Madeline Kronenberg -- to provide students of the District with a chance to participate in summer enrichment programs conducted on Ivy League campuses.

West Contra Costa Unified School District is a diverse, urban school district located in the East Bay across from San Francisco, California. A great majority of our students have not had exposure to the thousands of colleges that exist. The Ivy League Connection is an effort to provide that exposure.

The goal is to significantly boost scholarship and develop leadership skills among all our students. The emphasis here is on having our student participants give back to the entire campus community – sharing what has been learned during the summer experience and assuming a leadership role on campus focused on fostering a “college-going” culture among all student groups.

The program began with an application to and acceptance in the Dartmouth College Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD) Program. Six El Cerrito High School students were accepted into this three-year program in January 2006. The SEAD program is designed to accept cohorts of six students from a single school. The students travel to Dartmouth College each summer for three summers.

This three-year model was so impressive that it was replicated at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania that summer. Cohorts of our students were sent (together with a teacher chaperone) to attend the summer programs.

In order to be selected, students had to be recommended by their teachers, complete student and parent applications, and go through an interview process. This has allowed our District to reach out to the community of alums as well as the professional community to assist us in the interviewing.

What have we accomplished?

Summer 2006:

We sent 14 students (from two District high schools – El Cerrito High School and Kennedy High School) to three Ivy League summer programs:

o Dartmouth College – Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD)
o Brown University – Leadership/Civil Rights
o University of Pennsylvania – Theater Arts

Upon their return, these students have taken on a leadership role on their campuses as well as visited elementary campuses where they shared their experiences. In addition, events have been held where the students have had an opportunity to meet alumni from the various Ivies.

Summer 2007:

We sent 22 students (from four District high schools – El Cerrito High School, Kennedy High School, Richmond High School and Pinole Valley High School) to the following Ivy League summer programs:

o Dartmouth College – Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD) (6)
o Brown University – Leadership/Civil Rights and TheatreBridge (11)
o University of Pennsylvania – Theater Arts (2)
o Cornell – Law and Justice (3)


Summer 2008:

We will send 33 students (from five District high schools – adding Hercules High School) to the following summer programs:

o Dartmouth College – Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD) (6)

o Brown University – Women in Leadership Institute (6)

o University of Pennsylvania – Biomedical ResearchAcademy (3)

o Cornell University (12) four programs:

Hotel Operations Management (1)
The Individual and the Social World (4)
Body, Mind and Health (3)
Freedom and Justice (4)

o Columbia University (6) three programs:
NYC – An Urban Case Study (1)
Investigations in Theoretical Physics (3)
Survey of Modern Mathematics (2)

The picture above represents almost all of our students who will be traveling to the Ivy League Schools in Summer 2008. The photo was taken at a school board meeting where the students and their families were recognized by the board for their accomplishments.