- CEOs of Urban Prep Academies and ‘I Have a Dream’ Foundation to speak at MLK events
Left to right: Tim King, founder, president and CEO of Urban Prep Academies and Iris Chen, president and CEO of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation. January 11, 2012 – Valparaiso University's 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will feature the inspirational president and CEO of Urban Prep Academies, a nonprofit organization operating a network of public college-prep boys schools in Chicago, as part of activities taking place Jan. 11-18.
Tim King, founder, president and CEO of Urban Prep Academies, will speak during the MLK convocation, which begins at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 16 in the Chapel of the Resurrection.
Before the 2006 launch of the first Urban Prep Academy, the all-male charter public high school in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, 60 percent of the city’s young black males were dropping out of school and fewer than 3 percent were completing college.
“I wanted to create a school that was going to put black boys in a different place, and in my mind that place needed to be college,” said King. “Our graduates’ rate of college attendance makes a difference in their own lives and in the vitality of their communities.”
A video profiling the school and the students can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZnvFNBgFNA.
Across the network of three schools, African-American males are admitted via a non-selective lottery; on average about 85 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, 15 percent have special needs, and more than 85 percent enter high school reading below grade level. Yet King said every member of the first and second graduating classes at Urban Prep Academy have gained admission to a four-year college.
Also featured during events that day will be Iris Chen, president and CEO of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation. Chen will speak at the day’s closing ceremony at 4 p.m. in the Christopher Center Community Room.
The foundation serves as an organization that empowers children in low-income communities to achieve higher education and fulfill their leadership potential by providing them with guaranteed tuition support, and equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and habits they need to gain entry to higher education and succeed in college and beyond.
“I encourage our entire campus community to seize the opportunity to see these exceptional leaders, and hear their inspirational stories,” said Valparaiso University President Mark Heckler. “For our students, and all of us, they serve as examples of the differences that can be made in our society through thoughtful leadership and service work.”
More on Valpo’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration can be found online at valpo.edu/mlk.