EXTRAORDINARY YOUTH START SUMMER BREAK

Typical elementary or high school students spend their summer break hanging out with friends, watching television or going to the mall. The thought of spending their days at a college campus refining skills in leadership would send most kids running in the other direction. However, a select group of students is giving up not just one summer, but seven consecutive summers, in hopes of changing their lives forever.

The Porter-Billups Academy, a non-sports institute partnered by Lonnie Porter, Regis University’s men’s basketball coach and Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons , helps students become leaders among their peers, see education as a path to success, graduate from high school and attend college.  About 90 percent of the Academy students will be the first members of their families to attend college.

For three-weeks this summer, the Porter-Billups Academy welcomes students. Ranging in grades from fourth through their junior year in high school, these students aren’t normally termed overachievers. Students are accepted into the Academy based on their at-risk status, with academic potential. The goal of the Academy is to enroll kids while they are in elementary school and put them on the path to higher education. In the Academy, students master skills that aren’t taught in a traditional classroom such as critical thinking, teamwork, conflict-resolution and money management.

Support continues throughout the school year to ensure that Academy students’ grades and behavior records are good. During high school, they take college prep courses, sit for achievement tests such as the ACT, and apply to colleges.