At-risk Brentwood High students get to see career, college opportunities
Students involved in the Viscardi Center's PROSPER program tour the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant. Credit: The Viscardi Center
A program for at-risk Brentwood High School students is entering its fourth year, where juniors and seniors gain support to reach graduation and are exposed to career and college opportunities.
The PROSPER program, offered by the Viscardi Center, a nonprofit in Albertson that helps people with disabilities, provides nearly 30 Brentwood juniors and seniors exposure to college and career opportunities each year. Entering its fourth year, the Brentwood program is made possible by Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., which has donated over $600,000 to sustain the PROSPER program, said Viscardi spokeswoman Kim Brussell. Although the center serves people with disabilities, students of all abilities can participate in the program, she said.
PROSPER, which stands for “people reaching for opportunities to succeed personally, educationally and realistically,” began more than 20 years ago, first in the Freeport and Westbury school districts before it expanded in 2019 to Brentwood, Brussell said. So far, more than 1,000 students have participated. Brentwood is the only Suffolk County district in the nine-month, half-day program that runs during the academic year.
At its core, the program aims to boost students’ attendance to school, said Viscardi president and chief executive Chris Rosa. Students who participate in the program have a school attendance rate of only 40% to 50% before joining PROSPER, Brussell said. After joining, their attendance rate often balloons to 80% to 90%, she said.
“The ability to persist through to a diploma is really a game changer when it comes to the trajectory of these kids’ lives and the lives of their families,” Rosa told Newsday on Friday. “It really sets them on a pathway for social mobility.”
Students attend their school during the morning and leave campus to participate in PROSPER in the afternoon, including visits to various businesses and companies to learn about possible careers. Brentwood students meet at Suffolk County Community College.
“As schools across Long Island, particularly in underrepresented communities, continue to face major educational and social barriers, the PROSPER Program serves a critical function in helping students understand the relationship between education, the world of work and building a brighter, more fulfilling future,” said Broadridge president Chris Perry in a news release.
Brinley Hineman covers the Town of Hempstead and the City of Long Beach for Newsday. She previously was a reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a West Virginia native.
