According to a mountain of statistics, students of color get fewer opportunities to excel academically and are less likely than their peers to graduate from high school and earn a college degree. The reasons why are complex and difficult to address. Rainier Scholars, a program for talented minority students in Seattle, has one answer: hard work—and lots of it.

Promising students are selected for the program in the fifth grade, and they make a very serious pledge. They agree to spend an entire school year taking after-school classes every Wednesday and Saturday—including three hours of homework every night—and spend two summers doing intensive academic work. The level of rigor—and the expectations—couldn't be higher. But the self-confidence the scholars gain is immeasurable.

The students haven't yet reached their teenage years but they're still reading difficult texts, such as Romeo and Juliet and The Odyssey.

"Here, it's cool to be smart," explained Calvin Lyons, the executive director of Rainier Scholars.

A Rigorous Curriculum
The foundation supports Rainier Scholars as a part of our efforts to help people in our community with few resources have an equal chance to succeed.

In a sixth-grade Rainier Scholars language arts class, the 12 year olds select a text, explain why it's meaningful to them, and recite it from memory. Then the rest of the class discusses the selection and gives feedback on the delivery. The goal is to speak loudly and clearly—and with confidence. A teacher once asked his students to give their oratory from across a busy street to make sure they could be heard above the din of traffic.

In science class, students learn the fundamentals of physics—leverage, force, motion—by building race cars with compact discs for wheels that use rubber bands for power. They build the cars in teams and keep troubleshooting until the car is fast or goes as far as possible.

In math class, students work together on complex algebra problems.

In history class, they conduct critical analyses of the Bill of Rights, deciding which amendments to keep in the constitution of an imaginary country they created.

In short, this is a rigorous curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking and collaboration. And that's just the two-year academic program. Rainier Scholars supports students over an 11-year cycle, all the way through college graduation. Over the years, students receive academic and career counseling, leadership training, internship opportunities, tutoring, and mentoring. The goal is to help students thrive in advanced courses of study, attend the college of their choice, and graduate ready to assume leadership roles in the community.

Promising Early Results
"Is the bar high?" asked Dr. Ronnie Cunningham, the program's dean of students. "Absolutely the bar is high. But do we support our kids through it? Absolutely."

Rainier Scholars is just six years old. Its first class has not yet applied to college, but the preliminary results are impressive. More than 90 percent of the scholars have been admitted to academically rigorous programs in local private or public schools. And 80 percent of the program's students will be the first in their families to graduate from college.