As the year comes to a close, MBRT took some time to reflect on a successful year of programming, events, and most importantly, student achievements. 630 students finished the 2021-2022 school year strong, meeting their ABC Goals rooted in good attendance, behavior and coursework. Our second class of Next Generation Scholars graduated in the late spring, with over 100 graduates receiving over $2.65 million of the Guaranteed Access Grant. Shortly after the end of the school year, the second annual NextGen NextLevel summer bridge event was held at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Graduates from Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Dorchester, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George’s and Wicomico counties participated in the full-day conference, where they participated in a variety of workshops focused on college survival, career, life hacks, self-exploration and a college and career fair.
Current seniors kicked off their final year of high school with College Bootcamps, which were held in early August at Coppin State University, Washington College, Goucher College and Salisbury University. During these visits, students begin the work necessary for applying to college: starting the Common App, drafting ideas for their college essay, creating their Federal Student Aid ID, and choosing up to five schools they want to apply to this year. Overall, 96% of students who attended one of the bootcamps felt mostly or very prepared for college application season.
With two classes of graduates under their belt, the NGS team has a network of alumni enrolled at institutions across the state. While visiting college campuses has been an integral part of the NGS program, coordinators can now leverage our alumni in strengthening the impact of these campus visits. During visits to Stevenson University and University of Maryland Baltimore County, several alumni including Syncere Turner (Class of 2021), Alexus Spriggs (Class of 2021) and Myona Moore (Class of 2022) joined the students on tours of campus, lunch and question & answer sessions. These visits also provided opportunities for alumni to reconnect with their NGS coordinator, proving that the relationships last long after high school graduation.
As our team looks to the new year, we are eager to continue to build connections with our current scholars, alumni, as well as our community partners. The success we experienced in 2022 would not have been possible if it wasn’t for our partners, members and community. We look forward to building upon these partnerships in the year ahead.
