family, whose nurturing network carries on through college at either UNL or Omaha’s Metropolitan Community College. For students who do make it through the program’s high school requirements, NCPA then pays all of their college expenses — tuition, books, room and board and fees — and continues to support them with social events and retention plans and weekly seminars. “You’re going to need a blank piece of paper,” Deena tells the freshmen. “This is your time to write down what is your why. … “Why are you here?”
My why is to get a college degree and use it to get a job that is for the benefit of humanity.… My why is not to be the best there is, but to be the best me that I can be.… My why is because there are so many like me who need me to stand up and tell them that they are not defined by their tragedies and they will set the world aflame with their capabilities one day, just as I intend to do.… My why is because I deserve to accomplish my dreams, and my family deserves to see me do so. I will change the world someday.…
NCPA is funded through grants and private money. It started at Grand Island High in 2006. Two years later, it expanded to Omaha North High Magnet. Thanks to a recent $2.5 million grant from the Sherwood Foundation, it soon will expand to Winnebago School and Omaha South High. Kay Clarke teaches English at Grand Island High. Over the years, she’s watched NCPA students in her classes thrive and grow into great citizens. One girl’s story stands out. It was the story of a girl with intelligence and drive but also some chaos in her life. The English teacher watched as that girl rose to become a NCPA star, one who returns home to Grand Island to mentor kids like the one she used to be. The student’s name? Alyssia Casillas. “The character traits that are stressed in the program — being respectful, responsible and committed — began to show in Alyssia’s participation in class,” Kay says. “She became more confident in her abilities, and I began to notice her leadership potential. “Since then, she truly has blossomed into an outstanding young woman.”
Alyssia sits on a high stool at the Starbucks near City Campus, sipping a hot latte. Why is she here?
To tell her story. “For me, the NCPA was huge,” she says. “It helped me defy the odds.” Alyssia graduated with a sociology degree from UNL in May 2015 and is now in her final year at UNMC’s dental hygiene program. She’s passionate about educating people on oral health. It’s not just cleaning teeth, she says. You can tell a lot about a person’s overall health by looking in their oral cavities. Being a dental hygienist, she says, will help her help people. She’s telling her story, she says, because she knows generous people might read it and see why it’s good to support the NCPA and its students. She’s also telling her story because she wants to thank the people who’ve already helped the program grow and thrive and to thank her NCPA mentors, who, she says, “just really had our backs.” “They made that college experience that might have been extremely scary and hard so much more exciting and comfortable and enjoyable for me.” So why did her mom cry that day a decade ago? Because that envelope with Alyssia’s name on it had come from NCPA. Congratulations … “It was crazy when I got it — four years, full ride. I was like, ‘What does that even mean?’” She smiles. “But my mom knew what it meant at the time, even if I didn’t.”
Colleen Kenney Fleischer graduated from UNL in 1988 with a news-editorial journalism degree. She was a writer at the Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal for many years and is currently the director of storytelling for the University of Nebraska Foundation.
The Nebraska College Preparatory Academy is a fundraising priority for the university’s Our Students, Our Future initiative. NCPA is helping the university serve the state and nation by creating a smart, educated workforce for the future. NEBRASKA MAGAZINE 23