Spotlight on a PHENND 2013 Conference presenter: Interview with Suzanne Lyons

Posted by on March 22, 2013

Suzanne’s work with supporting college access and college success for underrepresented students started right here in Philly. After graduating with a Masters in Social Work in 2005 from the Penn School of Social Policy and Practice, Suzanne served as a Graduate Assistant in Du Bois College House at Penn, the predominantly African-American student housing hall, for two years. She then moved to Boston to work for the Posse Foundation supporting students on the Union, Denison and Bryn Mawr college campuses as well as helping increasing college awareness and access for high school students in Boston public schools. Suzanne then came back to Penn as a staff member at Civic House and Upward Bound, where she able to dig even deeper into the realm of college access working with high school students in Philadelphia. The experience in college access she gained from her work with individual students, community based organizations, large higher education institutions and different school districts made her a logical choice to serve as the Assistant Director of the New Haven Promise scholarship program, a role that she took on in August of 2012 at the same time as Patricia Melton, the Executive Director, with whom she will be presenting.

New Haven Promise is an innovative example of collaboration between a governmental municipality, institutes of higher education, a public school district and corporations. Founded in 2010, by New Haven’s Mayor John de Stefano, Jr. and the president of Yale University, Richard C. Levin, New Haven Promise was modeled after other Promise programs in the similar modestly sized cities of Pittsburgh, PA and Kalamazoo, Michigan, as both a means of increasing student achievement and stimulating community development. The founders’ main mission of was to develop and promote New Haven as a city committed to student success and as a desirable city in which to live. The promise in the title of the program indicates that if a student meets the eligibility requirements they can get up to full tuition for any public Connecticut state college or university, or up to $2500 for attendance at a private institution (because privates usually have more financial aid to give). These eligibility requirements include having lived in New Haven since at least the 9th grade and being enrolled in public schools (including the two New Haven charter schools), high academic achievement and good citizenship, demonstrated by 90% attendance, at least a 3.0 grade point average, and performing 40 hours of community service. To incentivize parents to move to and stay in New Haven, the students that have lived the longest in the city (since Kindergarten) are eligible for the largest amount of scholarship.

Q:  How did you get involved with New Haven Promise and what is your role in the organization?

A: Patricia Melton, the Executive Director and I were asked in August to come to New Haven to help build and move the program forward from its start-up stage.  The most pressing need was to solidify the infrastructure of the program as the number of participants has grown a lot since the start. Patricia, a Yale alum, participated in Better Chance when she was in high school and also has many years of experience working with higher education and community organizations, so we make a good team.  My role is getting our scholarship program streamlined and making sure policies and process are working and consistent.  Additionally I am reaching out to our Scholars who are now on college campuses in order to create a college support network from the ground up.  Patricia and I are able to take the best of what we have seen through our work in cities across the country to use in New Haven—we look at best practices from programs like Posse, Upward Bound and A Better Chance and put it to use!

Q. What have been the rewards and some of the challenges working with New Haven Promise?

A: As of this year, our college support network has 220 New Haven Promise Scholars on 17 different campuses, representing the first two cohorts of Promise Scholars! It is nice to be in a smaller city [than Philadelphia]. It is much easier to get into all of the schools because it is possible for all the interested parties to meet together on a regular basis. Now our team is really trying to get the big picture of what is happening in the school district and working on how to engage lower performing students at a younger age. We have developed a suggested monthly curriculum for K-8 teachers called Pathways to Promise to help them get their younger students thinking about college, setting goals and advocating for themselves. We are also partnering with College Summit, a national non-profit, in all but one of the high schools, to engage our most motivated high school students in training to become peer leaders to help us build a college-going culture that is spearheaded by the students.

Q: How are college students involved to help create this college-going culture?

A: Partnering with the school district, Gateway Community College, and College Summit, we brought together 50 high school senior students to Gateway Community College for a College Kickoff day in October to hear a panel of College Summit Alumni Ambassadors talk about what they wished they had known in senior year about the college application process.  Our Promise Scholars are also often tapped by ourselves, community organizations and the local schools to come back and talk to younger students about what it’s like being a New Haven student in college. Another unique thing we have done is large community canvassing events. Between August and October we knocked on 1500 doors in New Haven neighborhoods to talk to parents about what to expect for their kindergarteners, the New Haven Promise program, and United Way’s Boost program which works with schools to address the non-academic needs of students. These canvasses brought together high school and college students in addition to community members to bring key information to the doors of New Haven’s parents.

Q: How do you see your program developing over the next few years?

A: The next few years are going to be quite eventful for us.  By the 2014-2015 school year, we will have a full four cohorts of Scholars on campuses across the state and the first class of Scholars will be graduating.  As such, there will be a tremendous amount of growth in our campus and career programming as we work to ensure that our Scholars are fully supported from high school all the way through college graduation.  We will also be building out our web presence in addition to continuing to engage the community through impactful volunteer opportunities.   There are a lot of exciting things to come, so I would definitely encourage people to stay tuned!

Q: Any ideas for scaling up to bigger cities?

A: This is something I have thought about often, coming from Philadelphia’s college access community.  There is a lot of potential in comprehensive programs like the one we are building in New Haven, and it takes a great deal of hard work and coordination.  We are simultaneously working at the macro-level and the grassroots level, coordinating with key institutional leaders, parents, and organizations.  Any city, large or small, needs to determine what works best in its current climate.  Some cities may find neighborhood-based models more effective to address the issue of size/scope; others may decide to just focus on district schools versus both district & charter.  I look forward to discussing this more with workshop participants’ as we look at how a model like New Haven Promise could work in larger cities like Philadelphia.