The Caribbean American Center of New York (CACNY) and Summit Academy Charter School are hosting a college preparation workshop for city middle school and high school students on March 11. Together the center and the school are holding “Mission Impossible: College Bound,” a day-long event showing students and parents how to use free and useful services available to them before enrolling for higher education.
The 10-hour free event will walk families through the variety of necessary information they needed to know for college enrollment, such as applying for financial aid, colleges, admission process, and scholarships said the executive director of CACNY, Jean Alexander. “I wanted to reflect a series to is going to provide and going to impact the children in need in New York,” said Alexander.
CACNY has conducted similar workshops for years, particularly in schools in areas with large Caribbean populations, including Westinghouse High School and Benjamin Banneker High School. She said that the lack of information immigrant families are not privy to make them think the application process is more challenging than it really is.
“There are lot of things they don’t know, like children who eligible for free lunch — they can apply to 10-12 colleges without paying a single cent in application fees,” said Alexander. “During the event we’re having, we’ll have somebody who will only be dealing with that issue — making sure they know that this is there for them and they don’t have to think that even if it costs $25 to apply, they don’t have to come up with that money.”
Alexander said this workshop was important to her because these were not events she could personally particpate in when she immigrated from Trinidad to the United States.
“Me not having those opportunities made it so much more important that I do the best to help other young people, especially the immigrant community,” she said.
“Mission Impossible: College Bound” at Agnes Y. Humphrey Campus [27 Huntington St. between Hicks and Columbia streets in Red Hook, www.summi
