Kenwood Academy

On Tuesday, June 25th we visited Kenwood Academy. Kenwood Academy is a neighborhood school located in Hyde Park. It was recognized as one of the nations Best High Schools and received a Silver Medal from US News World Report. It's mission is to engage students toward, one word: college. Students at Kenwood take rigorous classes that prepare students for college level work.

On Tuesday, we entered the building and went through the metal detector and gave our ids to the security guard before being escorted to the library. The Library was beautiful, two story building with tons of books, computers, and quiet places to study. While at Kenwood we had a chance to talk to the assistant principal, Mr. Narain, who was a fellow student of Kenwood Academy, math teacher, and now part of the administration staff. He had three very different perspectives on the school which were very interesting to hear about. Mr. Narain received a great education from Kenwood Academy that prepared him well for college. After college he came back to his high school to teach high school math. He mentioned that the need for teachers right now are in math and science areas. He went back to school for his masters in education and became an assistant principal. Mr. Narain was young as an administrator, but other staff respected him because of his knowledge and background of Kenwood. One problem that the school has are people enrolling in school but lying about their address. Because Kenwood is a neighborhood school to be enrolled in the school, the student's housing must fall within the premises of the school's district. Kenwood has a great reputation and many parents try to get their students into the school so that they don't have to send them somewhere else.

We also talked to people who run the GEAR-UP Program. The program has ran for five years starting in 6th grade and 7th grade and now the counselors are with same class who are current sophomores and juniors this year. The GEAR-UP Program is to help students to prepare for college and keep students on track for graduation and course prep work. The program also helps work with parents helping them with fininacial aid opportunities, FASFA form and preparing the parents for when their students leave for college.

We also meet with the local community members who are on the school board for Kenwood as well as other staff members. They all love where they are at in life and their community and they encouraged us to find something that we are passionate about and something that we love to do.