GOALS, HABITS, GROWTH: The Student Success Program Turns Ten

By Jen Hyatt

THE MISSION OF THE SUCCESS PROGRAM: SUCCESS SCHOLARS WILL DEVELOP COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS SKILLS, STRENGTH OF CHARACTER, AND A SENSE OF PURPOSE THAT WILL PROPEL THEM TOWARD A LIFETIME OF SUCCESS.

It is mid-October, and the cozy Success classroom, nestled in the basement of the Seminary Building, smells of fresh popcorn and buzzes with energy. In the glow of a neon “Success” sign, 9th graders in the C block Prep for Success class are busy writing up the results of their “Habits” interviews. They recently took a personality assessment, were tasked with identifying one habit they want to improve, and then interviewed three people to get advice on how to create an action plan.

Claudia Villagran is working on becoming “less self-critical.” She interviewed her Humanities teacher, Andy Cassarino, who helped her to become aware that her perspective is not necessarily what everyone else sees. Hadley Taft says she is “prone to burn out”; now, based on the feedback from her interviews, she will be working on time management.

Habits are a focal point of the Success Program; in fact, they comprise a core component of the program’s motto: “Goals. Habits. Growth.” These three guiding words form the foundation of the reflective work students do throughout the program, as they build skills and take active steps toward achieving their dreams.

in Summer Success Camp, a three-week program for incoming 9th graders that helps to ease the transition from middle school to BBA. Students build relationships and a sense of community through fun and interactive group activities. The intention is for students to enter high school with confidence as they make new friends, connect with their teachers, and get to know the Burr and Burton campus.

Claire Honan first encountered the Success Program while in middle school. A BBA mentor, Paige Mann ’22, met with her regularly and got her excited about coming to high school. Honan enrolled in Summer Success Camp, which, she says, made a big difference: “In the first week of camp, I was closed off. I’m an introvert and I get scared of these situations, but the combination of teachers and socializing was very good for me. It got me out of my house. I got my iPad, got in the swing of things. Knowing my teachers and knowing the campus made it familiar and helped me make connections in the community.” Myles Oulette agrees: “Three weeks wasn’t enough. I wish it was the whole summer. I loved the ropes course.”

The Success Program staff—director Jason Pergament, assistant director Billy Canfield, and academic interventionist Rachel Senecal—use class time to connect individually with students and ensure not only that their academic work is on track, but that they are happy and healthy. Throughout the course of a given week, this can take a variety of forms, from one-on one-conversations, to grade-level cohort check-ins during flex block, to on-the-spot crisis intervention, or providing students a quiet location to gather their thoughts and get work done.

Jasonna Amsden has already started thinking about a possible career; her personality assessment identified that she might like being a preschool teacher. Now she is researching what the job entails and the educational steps necessary to pursue that career path. Prep for Success is helping her to imagine, in concrete terms, what she can do with her life.

This kind of self-exploration is at the heart of the course, which is designed to help 9th graders in the Success Program develop a future vision, set academic goals, build habits of mind, and strengthen planning skills necessary to achieve their goals. Prior to enrolling in Prep for Success, students participate

Pergament explains, “Our job is to help students integrate into Burr and Burton with confidence. No matter what they grew up with or what they’re going home to, we give them a safe place to land.”

From Research to Impact

The seeds of the Success Program were planted when former BBA social studies teacher Kendra LaRoche pursued a Rowland Sabbatical in the 2011-12 school year, researching the socio-economic achievement gap. LaRoche’s study resulted in a proposal to develop a program better connecting lower-income students to the kind of resources and support critical for high school and post-secondary success. Then-trustee and Burr and Burton benefactor Barry Rowland provided the start-up funding, and in the Spring of 2012, Jason Pergament, a teacher at KIPP STAR College Prep School in Harlem, was hired as the program’s first director. Pergament formed partnerships with sending schools, introducing the program and identifying incoming 9th graders who would benefit from taking part. In the summer of 2013, the first Success Camp was launched with 32 students.

The Success Program has grown significantly—this year’s Summer Success Camp served 83 incoming 9th graders (more than one third of the 9th grade class)—and it has evolved over time: the target population is still primarily lower-income students, but enrollment is inclusive.

The Success Program has grown significantly—this year’s Summer Success Camp served 83 incoming 9th graders (more than one third of the 9th grade class)—and it has evolved over time: the target population is still primarily lower-income students, but enrollment is inclusive. Sending school counselors and families identify potential Success scholars: students are also recommended because of adverse childhood experiences or family situations, such as addiction, divorce, trauma, abuse, disability, anxiety, or incarceration. Billy Canfield, who brings a background of social work experience to the Success Program, joined the staff in 2019 to help serve the growing number of students and their diverse needs. “Success is a place to belong,” he says. “No matter what a student’s background is, no matter what their family situation is like, we will help anyone. We will meet them where they are at.”

Mindful of the range of challenges that students in the Success Program face, the program’s mission defines “success” in the following way: Scholars will become self-reliant; they will have a strong sense of financial and social independence. They will effectively navigate relationships and resources, with the goal of ultimately contributing positively to the greater good of the Burr and Burton community and society as a whole. Scholars will develop a sense of self-worth through the process of setting and realizing personal and professional goals.

For sophomores Izzy Nystrom and Makayla Barry, it was initially difficult to attain that definition of success, especially while navigating through the trials of COVID. They had a challenging 9th grade year, and struggled with their coursework. Rachel Senecal ’16 provided academic intervention support and helped them to transition to BBA’s satellite Target Program, where they now work more independently, with individualized instruction. Both formed a close bond with Senecal, and now travel to the main campus every day as part of an independent study course they co-created with her. Nystrom elaborates: “we get to research possible careers and things that interest us, so we can figure out what we’re passionate about. We wrote a paper, brainstormed ideas, and so far we’ve tried cooking, exploring nature, music, and photography. Now we’re designing a thrift room as a service project, so that people who need winter clothes can come get what they need. It’s been really fun.”

Community Support

Senecal is not only a Burr and Burton alumna, but she is a Success Program alumna as well. After graduating, she went on to complete a degree in secondary education with an emphasis in environmental studies and environmental education from Prescott College. Senecal completed her student teaching in BBA’s science department and filled a number of support roles at BBA.

Speaking of her experience as a student in the Success Program and now as part of its professional staff, Senecal shares, “I loved setting aspirational goals and having a community that was goal-oriented, that wanted to help make change. I joined the Mountain Campus because I wanted to be surrounded by people who wanted to improve themselves and the world. It feels rewarding to have been in the program and now to help run it—I feel like a success story. I thank the program and want kids to have the same ability to feel successful and find opportunities, to get that one-onone support and appreciation that I got.” the first two years of the academic interventionist position Senecal now holds, which arose out of the academic struggles many students, like Nystrom and Barry, faced during and after the pandemic. “COVID shined a light on the need for these programs,” says Mosher, “the mentorships kept kids connected in ways that other programs couldn’t, and that’s powerful.”

Senecal’s full-time academic interventionist position is underwritten by the Stratton Foundation, which began supporting the Success Program in 2012 on the heels of its first 24 Hours of Stratton fundraising event. According to Tammy Mosher, the foundation’s executive director, Success served as a “springboard” through which the Stratton Foundation could reach students in need, as well as “directly help enhance the Success Program and make it even better.” Because the Stratton Foundation’s mission, to break the cycle of generational poverty, aligned so closely with the goals of the nascent Success Program, an enthusiastic partnership was born.

The Stratton Foundation provided an initial grant of $75,000 and has since become an even more generous supporter of the Success program. In 2017, with the Charles S. and Millicent P. Brown Family Foundation, and as a result of brainstorming sessions with Mosher, members of the Brown family, and Pergament, Personal Life Plan Scholarships (known familiarly by Success scholars as “Brown grants”) were established. Success scholars apply for these grants in order to pursue summer internships, partake in college preparatory experiences, attend workshops and conferences–basically any concrete action step that helps them to move forward in achieving their career dreams. To date, over 125 Brown grants have been awarded to Success scholars.

Thanks to the Stratton Foundation and the Brown Family Foundation, $180,500 in grant funding has been funneled into the Success Program, directly impacting the lives of hundreds of BBA students.

Success Scholars

By the time Success Scholars are seniors, they have participated in a number of Success classes, as well as activities such as the annual Thanksgiving dinner for Success families, and alumni panels where they hear from former Success students now pursuing college educations, careers in the trades, or service in the military. A Senior Workshop class is offered in the fall semester for Success scholars who are applying to college or technical/trade school, and who are likely to be the first in their families to do so. Students are supported through the college application process, including completion of financial aid forms. They also investigate and apply for scholarships, and research various aspects of life on a college campus.

The Stratton Foundation and Brown Family Foundation contributed more funding in 2019 to support the peer mentorship program, which pairs current Success students with future Success students in BBA sending schools, thereby providing additional layers of mentoring and support– the kind Claire Honan experienced. Most recently, the Stratton Foundation and Brown Family Foundation additionally offered start-up funds to cover

Abby Muñoz Wells is one of those seniors. She received two Brown grants—one at the end of her sophomore year to travel to Dallas, Texas to participate in a Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Conference, and another this past summer to attend the National Student Leadership Conference at American University as part of its nursing program. Muñoz Wells spent nine days exploring aspects of nursing and experiencing hands-on simulations, such as learning how to suture, intubate and draw blood; she also became CPR certified. One of the first Success students to receive a Martin Scholarship in honor of late trustee Skip Martin, which will help her to pay college tuition and purchase necessary technology, Muñoz Wells applied to eleven schools with nursing programs, including Emory and Villanova. “I’m grateful for the Brown grants, because I went into my summer programs thinking I wanted to do something but I didn’t know what it felt like–actually doing it helped solidify that this is what I want to do. Those opportunities showed me that I really like leadership and I really like nursing.”

Senior Shae Muchler also received a Brown grant, which allowed her to travel to New York City and participate in intensive master classes in theater as well as see Moulin Rouge on Broadway. Reflecting on her four years at BBA, and on her involvement in both Success and BBA’s theater productions, Muchler muses, “I couldn’t even talk to anyone as a freshman—I had extreme social anxiety and now I am speaking at assembly.” Last fall, Muchler applied to theater programs at Emerson and NYU. “This class made us very ahead of the process . . . I don’t think I’d be where I am unless I was in Success. Billy and Jason have been huge supporters.”

To celebrate the culmination of their time in the Success program, seniors experience a post-graduation trip to a destination of their collective choice. This June, after some significant fundraising, Success seniors will travel to the Outer Banks. Past trips have included California, Colorado, England, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Students earn the trip through a point system based on their level of involvement in the Success Program, in extracurricular life at BBA, and in challenging academic experiences, such as an honors or AP level class, a dual enrollment college course, or a semester at the Mountain Campus.

A high rate of involvement and the accumulation of significant points, according to Pergament, is often an indicator of future success: “Time and time again, we’ve seen that kids who show up and engage end up in a better long-term outcome.” They also get a chance to travel to places they have never been, and to expand their world view one final time before leaving BBA.

Positive Life Outcomes

The “positive life outcomes” Pergament speaks of are evident for a wide range of Success alumni, like Dylan Kapusta, class of 2017, who was part of the second cohort to partake in Success Camp and Prep for Success. Kapusta recalls, “the Success Program helped me to hold myself to a higher standard when I entered high school. It helped me to get more involved and set goals for myself.” A three-season high school athlete, Kapusta credits BBA’s sports program as well as the Success Program with teaching him self-discipline. He also fondly remembers being a peer mentor to a student at MEMS, which led him to become curious about a career in counseling.

From BBA, Kapusta went to Emmanuel College, where he majored in counseling psychology and minored in both education and sociology. “The Stratton Foundation provided me with the Todd Richter First-Generation Scholarship to make that happen. Tammy Mosher was a great advocate for me and as a result the scholarship was recurring for all four years,” he says. In his senior year at Emmanuel, Kapusta pursued an internship with a school social worker at Mission Grammar School in the Boston area. After graduation, the internship turned into a full-time position as a counselor, and later to leadership positions as the director of the summer program, and now he is the director of the after-school program.

Like Kapusta, Derrik Whittemore reflects that the Success Program helped him achieve his goals. After graduating from Burr and Burton in 2017, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps and headed off to boot camp. As a reservist, he was mobilized and sent to Okinawa, Japan in October 2019. He spent eight months in Japan, during the pandemic, and received a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for his efforts throughout his full-year mobilization.

Whittemore says, “I appreciate that I had someone willing and knowledgeable to help me make goals and think about my future; otherwise, I would have been winging it. I got to travel to Colorado—my first time off of the east coast— which inspired me to want to travel more, something I get to do in the military. I still make goals and always try to achieve them– the Success Program set that up for me.”

In the ten years since its inception, the Success Program has served roughly 600 students. Pergament stays in touch with the alumni of the program, checking in from time to time to see how they are faring, and speaks to the joy he feels when he hears of their achievements: “Goals, Habits, Growth resonates. I’m so proud that we have such a strong group of Success alumni who generously give back to the community; they come back and help our current students to prepare for the real world. Our efforts echo through them.”