Yasin Atwoods had a good suggestion of what he wished to be when he received older: a truck driver.
However that was principally as a result of he by no means thought he’d be capable of afford a school training.
Then he heard a few new program by means of the Metropolis of Newark and Rutgers College that would offer a debt-free school training to 13 college students whose lives have been touched by gun violence, incarceration, or different hardships.
It was a proposal he couldn’t cross up.
Atwoods, who labored at Rutgers-Newark campus by means of the Abbott Management Institute, mentioned his boss approached him concerning the new Assured Training program.
“My boss requested me sooner or later, ‘If I used to be in a position to get you into Rutgers totally free, would you do it?’” he mentioned. And thru seeing the alternatives his coworkers had been in a position to have as Rutgers college students, he knew this was an opportunity he needed to take.
The Assured Training program offers full “final greenback” funding for college kids’ tuition and costs even after their monetary help has been exhausted, in keeping with metropolis officers. The Brick Metropolis Peace Collective, a division of the town’s Workplace of Violence Prevention, will present the additional funding.
Mayor Ras Baraka and interim Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Jeffery Robinson introduced the launch of this system final month, alongside the leaders of the opposite Newark organizations concerned, together with Tyreek Rolon of Newark Works and the Summer time Youth Employment Program, and Kyleesha Wingfield-Hill, govt director of the Workplace of Violence Prevention and Trauma Restoration.
In a press release, Baraka mentioned that a part of making progress within the nation “requires altering the panorama of upper training.”
13 college students had been chosen for this system at Rutgers College-Newark, some from public and constitution faculties and some who had accomplished their GED diploma.
There have been distinctive {qualifications} to use, mentioned Rolon.
This system targeted on Newark residents who had been affected by the prison justice system in a roundabout way, with a father or mother who was incarcerated, launched within the final two years, or misplaced to gun violence.
Recipients additionally needed to be a primary technology school pupil who had utilized to or participated within the metropolis’s Summer time Youth Employment Program or one of many metropolis’s Vocational Certification Packages.
As a part of this system, college students have necessary weekly group conferences, bi-weekly conferences with their mentor, and attend the college’s yearly convocation.
College students get assigned a mentor from the chancellor’s workplace and obtain entry to the college’s Honors Residing and Studying Group, a bit of the college that focuses on discussions and initiatives which have a extra international affect.
Atwoods mentioned his mentor has helped him in his first semester at Rutgers-Newark.
“My mentor, Miss Robin, she’s glorious, man,” he mentioned. “She has a beautiful spirit, and I can inform she actually cares about making me succeed.”
The town ran an identical program in 2022, with 40 Newark college students receiving a debt-free training by means of Morristown’s St.Elizabeth College.
Rolon mentioned that the 2022 program confirmed “If college students are absolutely supported and positioned right into a wholesome and protected atmosphere, they’ll have a greater alternative to succeed and flourish into the very best model of themselves.”
If any college students are contemplating an identical program sooner or later, Atwoods mentioned he recommends they make the leap like he did.
“In the event you actually have a ardour, and you realize that this might presumably carry you a profession sooner or later, go for it, the sky’s the restrict,” he mentioned.
Darius McClain is a Rutgers College-Newark reporting intern for Chalkbeat Newark masking public training within the metropolis. Get in contact with Darius at dmcclain@chalkbeat.org or attain the bureau newsroom at newark.ideas@chalkbeat.org.
