Bright students with high potential who attend inner-city schools can sometimes be lost in a system unable to accommodate their aspirations. The result is trapped potential and blocked opportunities.
Through an intensive, fourteen month program, New Jersey SEEDS unlocks that potential and opens the doors of opportunity to independent secondary schools by preparing them to thrive in their new environment.
“Intelligence was not an exception, but a rule at Seton Hall Prep,” Michael Fletcher says when contrasting it to the public school system he grew up in. Michael, a New Jersey SEEDS alumni and Princeton University graduate, is now pioneering the Young Scholars Program at New Jersey SEEDS, which starts children on the path of opportunity at an earlier age.
Cassie Pendergrass does not take opportunity for granted, saying “if I was not exposed to New Jersey SEEDS, I would not know what opportunity feels like.” Cassie, a New Jersey SEEDS and Drew University graduate, is now involved in early childhood education because she wants to give children the academic skills and emotional capacity to own the sense of opportunity they need to reach their goals.
Stories like Cassie and Michael’s are the inspiration behind many of our donors’ generous support of a program that unleashes potential and opens worlds of opportunity for aspiring individuals.