The charter network paid for her college books, the kind of expense that can easily send low-income students off track. And that was just the beginning.
In her freshman year, Harley’s dream almost fell apart. Her family moved away from New Jersey, so she no longer qualified for a resident scholarship. Harley called her mentor, who worked with state and college officials to have Harley declared a resident while still a minor.
When dorms were closed, Harley sometimes had nowhere to stay. She crashed on Taylor’s couch, babysitting for her mentor’s daughter in exchange.
Throughout college, Harley used all the skills she learned at North Star—advocating for herself, emailing professors and visiting them during office hours. One semester, when she was doing poorly in a class and felt the professor wasn’t sympathetic, she went to the dean and lobbied to withdraw and take a replacement class the following summer.
Harley wrapped up her finals in 2018 with a 3.3 GPA and a batch of recommendations. She had a B.S. in civil engineering and a plan to start her own construction company.
Her success was no fluke: Some 58% of Uncommon high school graduates are now completing college within six years, up from 43% a decade ago.
Harley’s commencement speaker, Leah Hope Jamieson, cited the late Nelson Mandela: “Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world.”
Still, Harley’s success couldn’t protect her from a pandemic. Since graduating, she has lost engineering jobs, including a $60,000-a-year position that ended because of Covid.
One thing stayed constant: She knew how to bounce back and where to turn.
Two years ago, she was jobless and without her family in Newark. She found a stint as a substitute math teacher. Her employer: Her alma mater, Uncommon Schools’ North Star.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.