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

YES Prep Brays Oaks Students Learn West African Culture from American Field Service Country Director

March 09, 2011 by Sarah Straub

"So... if I were a part of the Akan tribe, my name would be Wednesday?" asked one of Sarah Straub's 6th grade students.

Kwame Otchere, Country Director for American Field Service (AFS) in Ghana, came to YES Prep Brays Oaks to talk to our students about West African culture and traditions. "Kwame" means "Boy Who Was Born on Saturday" and the tradition is for each member of the Akan to receive three names: 1) The Day of the Week When They Were Born, 2) A Strong Family Name, and 3) A Name That Shows Their Role. "Otchere" means "warrior" and Kwame said that this was because he has been fighting his whole life for cross cultural understanding.

Kwame taught us about his life in Ghana and even Google-earthed his home in Accra. He said he painted his roof blue so that he could always see

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YES Prep Teacher: Fighting for the Forgotten Population

March 08, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

Standing atop the hill that Frederick Douglas once called home in Southeast Washington DC one misty Sunday morning, everything I had read about the inequality in America became real. Anacostia, a once thriving community home to one of the most prominent figures in American history, was dying. Meanwhile, just across the river in one of the wealthiest cities in the world the policies that permitted this disparity were being made by men and women who seemed to turn their backs on the horrendous living conditions of the forgotten people of Anacostia. How could such extreme poverty exist in the capital of the wealthiest nation in the world? I felt a sense of responsibility as I looked out over our nation’s capital. I didn’t think that this realization would change the trajectory of my life

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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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