PHILADELPHIA — When Christopher Felix used to attend a weekly after-school class as part of a college access organization called Philadelphia Futures, his classmates would tease him about having to go to school “again” once school let out.
“A lot of people, when they’d see me going to Philadelphia Futures, they’d be like, ‘You’re going to more school,’” Felix recalled of his classmates at Northeast High School. “They’d be like, ‘For what?’”
Now, Felix has an answer that puts that question to rest — a full-ride scholarship to Lafayette College, a small, private and selective liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania.
That’s his reward for sticking with “Sponsor-A-Scholar,” the flagship program at Philadelphia Futures that provides, among other things, personalized college counseling, mentoring, academic support and up to $6,000 for college expenses.
Tuition at Lafayette College is close to $47,000. Felix’s scholarship aid exceeds that amount.
“I really enjoy the fact that it has paid off,” the 18-year-old Felix, now a freshman at Lafayette, told Diverse.
Felix’s story is just one of many like it for students involved with Philadelphia Futures. The nonprofit, established in 1989, is credited with getting hundreds of young people from low-income families connected to college, including institutions of higher learning that they might not have ever found or considered, or which might not have ever found or considered them.
