Why did we move? (the long answer):

For the past 34 years, High Jump has changed the lives of more than 2,900 middle school students in Chicago. Support from the community and our partner schools (Latin School of Chicago, Francis W. Parker School, and The University of Chicago Lab Schools) has been essential in reaching and inspiring more middle schoolers to accelerate their academic journeys and set themselves up for success in high school, college, and beyond.

High Jump was founded in 1989 by Latin’s former Upper School director Eleanor Nicholson. In addition to providing a campus for High Jump students to learn at, Latin generously provided office space and administrative services for High Jump from 1989-2023. That’s over three decades of absolutely invaluable contributions that have amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars of in-kind support – resulting in more programs and resources for kids.

Over the years, High Jump has undergone massive growth – from the first cohort of 16 students to admitting one of our largest cohorts of 225 students in 2023. High Jump’s staff size and resource needs have also increased with this growth. In 2022 we embarked on a transition to form a new relationship with Latin that would best support this change and meet the needs of our growing organization. As of July 2023, this transition culminated with the move of our Administrative Staff to new office space in the Greektown neighborhood of Chicago. High Jump Scholars will continue to attend programming at our partner schools.

We took this big step confidently, knowing our partners and community would rally behind us every step of the way. We would not be where we are today without their support. If you have any questions about this next phase of our development or want to learn more about the power of High Jump to set students up for a lifetime of success, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.