The Answer - A blog about Education, Preparation, and Commitment.

YES Prep Alumnus: Graduation from College is Now an Expectation

March 08, 2011 by Tenesha Villanueva

Joel Muñoz Jr. graduated from YES Prep Southeast in 2002.  He attended University of Houston where he majored in Business Management with a minor in Spanish and graduated in 2006.  Joel currently works at YES Prep West as Dean of Students.  He had this to share about his experience at YES Prep and time in college. 

What is your favorite YES Prep memory?

My favorite YES Prep memory is of the first day of school of my freshman year (1998). My mom dropped me off at school and I saw all of the students wearing their school uniform. On their uniform, it had the YES Prep logo that I created for the school. It was also on all of the letterheads, business cards and parent letters that went home. The school ended up using the logo for four years. Now, every time I visit the YES Prep

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The Third Place: Creating a safe space for Students and Counselors at YES Prep

March 07, 2011 by Jeremy Tatum

Relationships are the key element to making a difference in the lives of young people at YES. This sets us apart from the rest. It is the foundation of our effectiveness. Some might allude to the SSC role as “The Great Mystery”. Like many at YES, a Student Support Counselor at YES Prep wears many hats. So, how do you build strong, lasting relationships with students when you may not see them each day in a classroom setting and you often interact with them in particularly difficult and unpredictable circumstances with one of you and hundreds of them?

The non-instructional lifestyle of a Student Support Counselor is sometimes difficult, hectic, and unpredictable. Each moment with a student is valuable beyond measure. One must maximize each miniscule moment with students to build a

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FROM ZERO TO INFINITY: A New Path to College Begins in Houston’s Northside

March 07, 2011 by Matt Neal

YES Prep began in the late 1990s in a parking lot east of downtown Houston, envisioned by a small group of idealistic, dedicated upstarts who wanted to make a change. Their efforts planted a seed of hope, of possibility, of city-wide transformation.

It’s more than a decade later, though, and that seed has grown into quite an expansive tree! We are past the heady days when the primary driver of student success was the sheer tenacity of those early pioneers. While grit is still an essential ingredient, YES Prep now has a fully developed college-preparatory curriculum in grades 6-12, a collaboration structure that is the envy of school systems around the country, a teacher training program that offers full certification to our early-career professionals, and eight distinct campuses

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Nine YES Prep Staff Members will compete in the Texas Independence Relay This Weekend

March 04, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

this weekend, nine guys from YES Prep (and a friend of YES Prep) will be running the Texas Independence Relay race that starts in Gonzalez, TX and ends at the San Jacinto Monument in Houston. We will be running 40 legs totaling over 203 miles. We start at 8:51 Saturday morning and we should arrive in Houston between 1pm and 3pm on Sunday. Come on out and enjoy the festivities and cheer us in. If you’ve never been where Texas won its independence, this is a great opportunity to do so. Our team name is the YES Prep Cattle Co. and the members are listed below.

Jason Bernal, Head of Schools – HO/EE
Mark DiBella, Head of Schools – HO/NC
Jeremy Jones, Senior Director of Recruitment & Selection
Bill Keener – Friend of YES
Marc Ybarsabal, High School Math Teacher – NC
James Sheridan,

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YES Prep North Central Student Is a Semi-Finalist for the Jack Kent Cooke Award

March 03, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

A couple weeks ago, we found out that 7th grader Tyra Williams has moved on to the semi-final round of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholars competition! To put this into better context, each year, more than 1,000 high-achieving 7th graders nationwide apply for the Young Scholars Program and only approximately 50 students are ultimately selected. Although Tyra has not yet been selected for this prestigious award, this is a huge step toward being selected, and she will spend an upcoming weekend in Washington, DC preparing her final application with 5 other students from YES Prep and Uncommon Schools.

What opportunities and support do Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholars receive?
Working together as a team, the Young Scholar, parent or guardian, and a full-time Foundation educational adviser

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