High Jump at Latin School on Saturday 1st, 2022. Photos by Jasmin Shah

6 Questions with High Jump 7th Grade Students

When we work to quantify the impact High Jump has on our students and on Chicago’s educational landscape as a whole, it’s easy for us to give big, high-level stats that show the depth and breadth of our programs:

  • After the first cohort of only 16 students over 34 years ago, we now serve over 450 students annually who come from 48 zip codes across the city. 
  • 98% of students attend Chicago Public Schools, and 88% report receiving more advanced instruction at High Jump than at their home schools.
  • While 41% of all academically-strong, low-income students graduate from college, 87% of High Jump students graduate from college including from some of the country’s top schools – Stanford, Brown, Duke, UChicago, and Northwestern!

We’re proud of these stats, and even prouder to know the unique stories of every single one of our scholars and how the program has changed their lives.

To get a sense of the impact High Jump has, we checked in with five rising 7th graders this past summer. Working alongside the dynamic film team at Cuentos Films (two brothers, Alexis and Jonathan Lopez, who are both High Jump alums), here’s what we learned from each of them.

Tasmeen

What does High Jump mean to you?

“High Jump is an experience that I look forward to going to.  People know what they’re in for; people know what their goals are. They want to come here, and they share the same activities that I like to do. In High Jump, I’m not minimized; I’m maximized.”

How is High Jump different from what you expected?

“I didn’t know what High Jump was at first. Since it was in the summertime, I thought it wasn’t going to be fun! But after a lot of research, I realized I wanted to give it a try. Now, I realized that it’s such an open and pleasant environment that I want to come here every day!”

What have you gotten to do at High Jump that you’ve never gotten to do in school before?

“I have gotten to do so many more projects and work in groups more than I usually do. It’s such a friendly environment where I can always ask questions and never feel scared to not.”

What is your favorite class at High Jump?

“My favorite subject is humanities because of all the exciting extracurricular activities and projects we get to do, like the one we’re doing now about immigration.”

What are your friends at High Jump like?

“I have a lot of friends here now. One of my friends from my home school is at High Jump too and it’s really fun to know that she’s in my own pod because I had someone to know from the start. But I’ve also met so many new friends  from Rogers Park, from the west side of Chicago, east side. There are so many people I connected with from the start. At High Jump we’re all in the same grade, we’re all understanding of what we’re here for and have the same goals.”

What have you learned about yourself during your first summer at High Jump?

“I’ve learned that I want to keep up with my goals. Before High Jump, I wasn’t as active with my work, but with the projects we get to do, it gets me excited and motivated to do it. It has made me realize that I want to do this work. I also don’t want to just be in one box doing one thing. I have a growth mindset now, like we learned in our Learners and Leaders class.”


Mateo

What does High Jump mean to you?

“In my opinion it’s really worth it. It’s going to help you in so many ways, it’s gonna help you learn what you want to be when you grow up. It’s a great opportunity that you should not pass up if you get it.”

How is High Jump different from what you expected?

“At first, not knowing anything, I thought it was summer school – but when I read into it more, I knew it was an opportunity that was worth it. It’s going to help me by getting me into a better high school and learn more in general.

What have you gotten to do at High Jump that you’ve never gotten to do in school before?

“In math, we’re learning about algebra and algebraic expressions and I found it really interesting because it was really challenging – at my home school I don’t really do that kind of stuff. Right now, I’m really enjoying what I’m learning.”

What is your favorite class at High Jump?

“Music Arts is really cool. We’ve been learning about hip hop and how it was created and I didn’t know how it was made before I came to High Jump.”

What have you learned about yourself during your first summer at High Jump?

“If I push myself, I realize I can learn lots of new things. It really helped me notice that I can go further than I went before and push myself to learn more stuff than I thought I could.”


Ree

What does High Jump mean to you?

“High Jump means family, community, and love. Meeting new people and becoming friends with them and having fun.”

How is High Jump different from what you expected?

“I thought High Jump would be a waste of my time! And that I would lose time with my friends or family, but my expectations were wrong. Once I got into it I realized it was pretty fun!”

What is your favorite class at High Jump?

“My favorite class is Math – it can be challenging sometimes, but I push myself to get better. Algebra is pretty hard for me but my teacher is really nice and makes it more understandable.”

What are your friends at High Jump like?

“I’ve got friends from the south side, east, and west, but mostly north side. I wouldn’t have met my new friends without High Jump!”

What have you learned about yourself during your first summer at High Jump?

“High Jump has made me realize that I’m brave. At my home school, I wasn’t brave enough to talk more and socialize with other people. But now, here, it’s helping me to socialize more and to talk and be more active and creative.”


Leo

What does High Jump mean to you?

“What High Jump means to me is an opportunity to get into a nice high school by learning more stuff that you would learn in the next grade. But now you will have already mastered them because you learn them. You’re now ahead of the other people at school, and you don’t struggle so much.”

How is High Jump different from what you expected?

“When I got the letter from High Jump, I expected for it to be very difficult, but I realized when I got here that this is really cool and I like learning in this place because they explain stuff in a kind of fun way and the teachers are really nice. It’s overall a really nice program and better than I expected. I really like High Jump because we have a lot of freedom to have fun and learn.”

What have you gotten to do at High Jump that you’ve never gotten to do in school before?

“I think I can be goofy here at High Jump because there’s a lot of freedom and the teachers are not very strict and the TAs are not strict at all so I really like that. An example is rubik’s cubes because one of our TAs knows how to solve a rubik’s cube and I recently purchased a rubik’s cube and we really connected because we really liked it.”

What is your favorite class at High Jump?

“My favorite class is Humanities because it’s about immigrants and their stories and how we can fix it. So we had this project where we had to do a news interview and we had to act it out, and I was really looking forward to it because I’ve always wanted to act. And also because my project is about Mexico, and since I’m Mexican I really got into it and that’s why it’s my favorite class.”

What are your friends at High Jump like?

“High Jump is a great place to meet the people you like and want to be friends with. I got to meet really smart people who are like the same personality as me. High Jump is a perfect place to find smart, responsible people.”

What have you learned about yourself during your first summer at High Jump?

“What I’ve learned about myself is that there are many people that are like me. Before, I only met like a handful of people that are smart and kind of goofy in class. But when I came to High Jump I saw how many people there actually are like me.”


Cece

What does High Jump mean to you?

“High Jump means a way to get a better education for High School and go to a good high school. It’s prepared me for the tests I have to take in math, reading, and social studies to get into a good high school.”

How is High Jump different from what you expected?

“I wasn’t really expecting all of this – it’s better than what I was expecting. The community is really nice and it really takes you step by step with the work here.”

What have you gotten to do at High Jump that you’ve never gotten to do in school before?

“In math, we’re learning how to simplify variables which I had never learned before. I’m glad I found a way to learn that. I also got to go on a field trip to Altitude and jump on trampolines. Even though I hurt my knee, it was still worth it!” 

What is your favorite class at High Jump?

“My favorite class is Learners and Leaders because they’re teaching us about empathy and how to feel empathy for each other. And I really appreciate that because empathy has been a thing I needed to learn and something we didn’t learn about at my home school.”

What are your friends at High Jump like?

“There are so many friends I don’t think I would have met if I didn’t come to High Jump!”

What have you learned about yourself during your first summer at High Jump?

At High Jump I’ve learned that I’m an achiever and I get stuff done when it needs to be done. And I’ve learned to be more of a leader and have become a leader by helping pick up other people’s trash if they drop it on the floor, cleaning off the tables at lunch, and helping to put the balls away in movement.”


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