Black History Month: ‘College Bound’ prepares and mentors high school students to succeed

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — For more than 30 years, a D.C. nonprofit has been helping kids get to college, giving them opportunities to see their full potential.

It all starts in a space like this. One-on-one mentoring to prepare high school students for college and beyond

“The work of College Bound brings together students who don’t think that college is a reality, as well as students who plan to go to college and put them in homogenous groups, and they build these relationships where they support each other through the high school years,” said Kenneth Ward, the Executive Director of College Bound.

College Bound serves more than 200 students from more than 50 public schools in the D.C. area including Bailey Allen.

“This is called ‘Do You Want to Go to the Corner Store? I curated this project to shed light on how corner stores have impacted black neighborhoods especially,” said Allen, who showed off her artwork at her high school showcase.

She wants to study photojournalism at Temple University and Ward is helping her get there.

“What I want to make sure is you get scholarships,” said Ward.

“Yes, please. I need them,” Allen said.

Last year students in the program were given more than $250,000 in scholarships. But it’s about more than money.

“For a lot of us we just don’t know what’s possible and College Bound serves as that threshold to becoming,” said Monte Prillaman.

Prillaman is one of many success stories from College Bound. He was motivated as a high schooler, but without an extensive support system.

“My grandmother raised me since I was two or three years old. My parents suffered from substance abuse and I really didn’t have much, I guess you could say example or support system to kind of help me navigate these kinds of things,” said Prillaman.

College Bound helped him navigate when he was at McKinley Technology High School in Northeast D.C.   

“I was motivated, but I think when I got into College Bound, I found that support. I think that motivated me even more because I think when you don’t have that backbone, that foundation, there are just all these questions of like, how you’re going to do it,” said Prillaman.

“Every student has a college-educated mentor. They meet one night a week at one of our separate locations for two hours. We walk them through high school, we take them on college tours. We do financial literacy. We do something called STEM in your hood, which is really a glorified math workshop,” said War.

The program’s track record speaks for itself.

“College Bound is incredibly fortunate to graduate 100% of our kids in high school every year, and we continue to have a 100% college acceptance rate,” said Ward.

It’s not about just getting accepted anywhere.

“What we’re trying to do is to find the best fit for every student. Every student’s different. Some of our students thrive in HBCUs and our students are thriving at PWIs. We have our first student who’s at Harvard currently. She’s doing incredibly well.”

Prillaman went to Northeastern for a scholarship interview but Ward knew it wasn’t the right place for him.

“It’s an amazing college, but it wasn’t a good fit for him. And I looked at him. I said, ‘Where do you really want to go to college?’ He said, ‘I think I really want to go to Morehouse.’ He went to Morehouse, and had an amazing time at Morehouse,” said Ward.

Ward says after kids graduate high school, the support doesn’t stop.

“The students are in college. We’re in touch with them virtually. We visit all of our first-year students at least once; two or three times if necessary, to make sure that they’re getting acclimated to college and that they stay in school,” said Ward.

Prillaman says his College Bound peers formed a family. Even in college “We were able to still continue to have like this wonderful like relationship, not just socially but in academia as well to support each other,” said Prillaman.

More than 90% of first-year students last year returned for their sophomore year.

“We’re looking at six-year graduation rates around 75%, 80%, which is more than double their peer group,” said Ward.

Giving back is part of the program too, inspiring those still in high school.

“All of our students who are in college, when they come back to the city, they have to visit one of our academic mentoring sites over the winter break. And the students at the academic mentoring site, they get a chance to see our students who are in college,” said Ward.

While the mentor base is a mix, about 95% of students in the program are black.

“I think representation absolutely matters. I think it’s important for students of color to see people of color, doing amazing things,” said Ward.

Ward says until students know differently they can’t do differently.     

“I think it’s just important for students to believe that there’s something bigger than you out there. I mean it’s sort of cliche to say it gets better but I think it gets better and it exceeds anything that you’ve ever imagined,” said Ward.

Since graduating from Morehouse in 2018, Prillaman has been working for Macy’s doing digital merchandising and marketing. When he first moved to New York his College Bound mentor happened to be close by.

“To graduate, have a working profession and be in this major office downtown in Times Square in New York, and then be right next door to my mentor and be able to go to lunch with him, grab a drink with them, and just like kind of have that full circle moment, that was amazing,” said Prillaman.

He’s now working remotely in Bowie, Md., focused on caring for his grandmother. But his future goals include giving back.

“Being back here in D.C. is very inspiring. And I think that to be involved in College Bound in that same way, one day or more would definitely be a very fulfilling moment for me,” said Prillaman.

Prillaman’s advice to students now is to “Find you’re why, something that you’re passionate about and something that’s going to make you get up in the morning and make you push through all the pressures and everything that’s weighing against you.”

He was once the guy getting advice and now he’s the one dishing it out, inspiring the next generation.