After the supreme court rulings in 2023: students of color, low-income students and first generation college students are faced with challenges and concerns on whether there is sufficient support for them to graduate from college. In light of this, we explored how Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has taken a new approach to support young people in attaining their degrees through The Transitional Youth Leader Program. The program is a near-peer persistence and alumni support strategy that emerged out of the Office of School Counseling and Postsecondary Advising (OSCPA). The program hires CPS alums enrolled in or recently graduated from a 2-year or 4-year college to provide resources and support to younger CPS alumni at their college.
As program supervisor Kwame describes the TYL program aims to provide resources and support students through college. “We’re so focused on students succeeding academically. We work to eliminate financial barriers, then we say ‘there was no excuse for you to not succeed.’ I know that personally and anecdotally, that that’s not right. It can be hard for someone socially to adapt to a new place. There’s usually a lot more going on than, for example, ‘I lost my financial aid’ or ‘I did poorly.’ That’s the lens that I approach my work with.”
In this series, we interviewed Transitional Youth Leaders, who reflected on their experiences with mentorship, the challenges students face in college, and their hopes for the upcoming school year.
