Metro Center Saturday and Summer College Prep Academy [CEI-1199] is supplemental college-preparatory program that enables roughly 300 high school students from high- need communities to come to our central NYU campus on Saturdays throughout the school year, and for an intensive, four-week summer session, focused on academic enrichment, tutoring, mentoring, college readiness, career planning, and professional internship experience.

Students are provided wrap-around services to ensure their career and college readiness. Academic and support services linked with comprehensive college knowledge, employment preparedness, life skills, and leadership development workshops as well as service learning and internship opportunities. All program activities align with the NYS Common Core Standards and achievement of college readiness while emphasizing math and literacy in all content areas. Students attend activities and classes on campus at NYU on Saturdays, during the academic year and a full-time four-week summer component. Parental Engagement fostered through individual meetings along with a series of career and college planning workshops, information sessions, and assistance with completing financial aid and scholarship forms.  Program funding from the Meringoff Family Foundation and the Pinkerton Foundation has enabled staff to provide more individualized and intensive college preparation services to students and their parents.

Most recently a Pre-RN component has expanded this collaboration which aims to increase both the availability and diversity of the NYC nursing workforce. Students who want to enter this profession begin in high school to develop the skills and knowledge needed. These students learn basic sciences, anatomy and physiology and become certified in CPR and most importantly, through a series of guided instruction by professional nurses and nursing students, facilities visits and internships, they learn first-hand what a career in nursing demands.

Parent Engagment, College Applications & Financial Aid:

Formal orientation sessions and monthly family workshops (addressing topics such as "Preparing your teen for College" and "Financial Aid") are offered to assist parents in keeping their child on track with the college application process. This includes direct hands on assistance with the completion of online financial aid and scholarship forms.

Life Skills/Social and Emotional Well Being:

Students also regularly participate in workshops, discussions, and role playing activities developed by program staff, which are designed to address important life issues such as: social and emotional well-being, personal and professional communication, appropriate representations of oneself on Facebook and other social media sites, etc.  The program also partners with highly talented, inspiring, near-peer advisers from the Children's Aid Society Hope Leadership Academy, who lead students through highly engaging and participatory workshops that explore topics such as: healthy relationships, family life, race relations, bullying, and conflict resolution.

The Summer Program:

In addition to the Saturday program, Metro Center runs a four-week, intensive Summer program (Monday-Friday), which is devoted to career exploration, more intensive college preparation, and work experience through community service/structured 1199 Sponsored SWIP internship component/Summer Youth Employment as well as referral of students to the Ladders for Leaders program under the auspices of the Dept. of Youth and Community Services.  The college prep portion of the summer program includes: college readiness courses, college essay writing, SAT and ACT test prep, practice SAT and ACT test taking, college visits, financial aid workshops, Parent College Planning Workshops, and a college fair.

The College Prep Academy (CPA)/1199 Workforce at NYU Metro Center offers students a framework through which they can grow and maintain their fluency in the systems and processes needed to advance past the high school level. CPA/1199 WF tackles college and career readiness through an individualized approach that centers relationships with students and families to remove barriers to education systems and employment. The College Prep Academy/1199 Workforce at NYU Metro Center works not only to improve the academic outcomes of our young people, but also to understand the critical role of families in college and career readiness, and actively invest in youths’ development and growth. 

While it is standard practice to look to measures such as graduation rates or college acceptance rates to indicate success, the College Prep Academy (CPA)/1199 Workforce at NYU Metro Center takes a more expansive approach. In addition to improvement in grades and increases in college acceptance rates, at CPA/1199 “college and career readiness” also means:

CPA/ 1199 Workforce proudly served more than 494 Students and Families Served during the Program Year.

Over this same period of time: 

• 100% of seniors successfully graduated high school and matriculated to a post-secondary college or trade school with many earning Advanced Diplomas.
• 99% of College Prep Academy seniors completed the application for Federal Student Aid
• $464,500 in scholarships, in addition to the Federal and State Financial Aid and grant award, received by CPA/1100 participants with the assistance of CPA/1199 staff.

The program takes students through the steps of learning self awareness-> self management -> social awareness -> relationship building. Each program begins with growing students’ self assessment and advocacy skills. From there students learn to create their own goals and build relationships. Once this foundation is established, students then engage in learning financial literacy, media fluency, and academic success skills.