With so many relationships built with seniors in the spring, there was no way program providers were going to let the pandemic summer ruin seniors’ plans for college and careers. Luckily, Hartford has a number of diverse programs that serve recent Hartford Public Schools (HPS) grads across the spectrum of need.

Hartford Promise had 146 HPS grads to help steward into college, while smaller programs like the Hartford Public Library and Urban League had 10-20 students. Fortunately, Summer Youth Employment (SYELP) funding was at a level that could provide jobs for recent grads, and a good number of seniors who participated in HSIP in the spring transitioned to SYELP, along with some seniors who applied on their own. As the largest college-prep program in the region, Career Beginnings stewarded more than 125 HPS seniors to college. Meanwhile, Achieve Hartford assigned peer mentors to all 222 HPS grads accepted at Manchester and Capital Community Colleges. 

The table below lists the number of HPS grads served by just six of the many programs providing post-secondary transition support this summer, with overlap among the programs for reasons related to slightly different programming or collaborative case-management. Programs have been meeting every Friday all summer to share data and discuss challenges students are facing in the transition from high school student to young adult. 

As a group of practitioners, the worry now turns to fall success amid intense hesitancy among many students to rejoin classes in person and/or get the vaccine. Plans are in the works to address this difficult time for the Class of 2021 in a way that is collective and strategic. More to come on this next month.