For high schoolers, help on the road to college

Judi Walls, who has lived in West Philadelphia for the past four years, had always seen the University as "an entity that sat all alone by itself and just catered to the elite." A new project designed by members of the Delta Upsilon fraternity, however, has changed her opinion. The College Now Collaborative, DU's biggest philanthropic endeavor, matches fraternity brothers with college-bound high school sophomores to help them with study skills and test preparation. Three of the 20 high school participants – who were selected based on their scores on aptitude test scores they took before high school – met their mentors for the first time at a barbeque outside the DU house on Walnut Street Tuesday night. Walls, whose son Rich Sexton is participating in the program, said she is "very grateful and appreciative" for the program. "I think it's a good way for the University to give something back to the community," she added. Her son said he hopes to find out more about "what college is like outside of the classroom." The mentors work with the students as they go through high school by preparing them for standardized tests and helping them with their college applications, said Collaborative Chairperson David Doctorow. Doctorow, a DU brother and College junior, said the program is being carried out in conjunction with the College Access Center of the Philadelphia School District. The Collaborative, which earned DU the Greek Alumni Council's special accomplishment award, is not the fraternity's first effort to help students in the West Philadelphia community. Brothers from DU also have a program in which they adopt a first grade class at Lea Elementary School each year, Wharton senior Robert Gillman said. But in their work with the elementary school, he said, "you don't see the difference because of the classes upturning. You can't tell if the math lesson you taught [was successful]." Gillman is enthusiastic about the Collaborative because "you get to see the progress." Although the fraternity hopes to affect students' lives, he said, he also feels that "personally, as mentors, we gain a lot." "If [the mentors] find that they like helping kids, who knows what that could lead to," he said.