Twenty juniors from New Visions Charter High School for the Humanities 2, located in the South Bronx, have earned the privilege to travel on a five night college and Civil Rights trip to New Orleans and Atlanta this June. We will be visiting Morehouse, Spelman, Georgia Tech, Tulane, and Georgia State, as well as the MLK Memorial, Human and Civil Rights Museum, Whitney Plantation (the only plantation in the country to focus on the slave experience), and other sights of historical importance. 

Students have earned this privilege by being chosen after a selective application process, and then participating in a trimester long course where they are learning about the places we will visit, civil rights history, and how to become college ready. 

We are a Title I school located in the South Bronx. Only 10% of elementary and middle school students students in this district are proficient in reading, the lowest percentage in the entire city. Most of the students here have faced tremendous challenges both inside and outside of the school. These students are eager to represent and demonstrate the best of that the South Bronx has to offer the world. For many of the students, this will be their first time on an airplane, or the first time leaving the state. The school has offset most of the cost, but it is still necessary to fundraise to help raise additional funds. All contributions will go directly to the trip, and helping these students realize their dreams. 

In the words of the scholars that will be attending:

Hello, we are students from New Visions Charter High School for Humanities II and we are aspiring to attend a college trip to Atlanta and New Orleans.

People think a lot of things about kids from the South Bronx, and most of them are negative. We want you to know that we are dedicated to our education and want to see what the world has to offer us--we don’t want to be seen as statistics, we want to be able to walk in a room and think--we made it, we belong here--whether that place is a college campus, nice restaurant, or an airport lounge.

We want to listen to jazz in New Orleans, walk in MLK's footsteps on the Morehouse campus, eat jambalaya, and learn about our very important history, with the hope that this experience will help us mold and shape a positive future for ourselves and our community. 

With your donation, you are helping us realize our dream -- from the BX to NOLA and ATL.