Chicago’s Urban Prep Academy is at it again.
Not only did all 252 seniors graduate, but every student in the graduating class of 2016 has been accepted into a four-year college or university.
The entire class of graduating seniors are African-American males, NBC reports. The students belonged to the charter school’s Englewood, Bronzeville, and West campuses.
“I’m so excited. I’m going to get emotional,” said proud mom Ebony Muhammad.
“It’s like a dream come true. I’ve been waiting on this a long time,” one student said.
Graduating senior Rudolph Long said he’s the first in his family to not only graduate high school, but to go on to college. And the young man from Auburn Gresham is doing so on a full-ride scholarship.
“I don’t think it’ll ever sink it. It hasn’t, but it just means that I’m changing the narrative for people not only from my family, but for African-Americans as a whole,” Long said.
This isn’t the first time the campuses have celebrated such an accomplishment. Since 2010, every single Urban Prep graduate has been accepted to a four-year college or university.
The lottery-based Urban Prep was launched in 2006 by Tim King.
“I feel a responsibility to affect some positive change,” King told TODAY. “Our students come from really tough backgrounds, we have a very high level of poverty among our students, but there’s this grit, there’s this determination.”
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