Greetings from Central Office
At See Forever/Maya Angelou, the summer months are a time to celebrate and prepare for transition!
 In June, the See Forever Foundation (SFF) celebrated the commencement of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School (MAPCS) Class of 2008. This summer, our graduates are preparing to move on to college and other postsecondary options, including enrolling in college and universities like: Alleghany College of Maryland, Delaware State University, Trinity College, Tuskegee University and the University of the District of Columbia. Additionally, our students earned over $1.2 million in college scholarships including the 26 students from our MAPCS-Evans high school campus who received full college scholarships as a part of the D.C. Achievers Scholarship Program, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Read more about the MAPCS Class of 2008 and recent commencement honoring their achievements.
We also want to celebrate other successes this year:
- Our charter schools received high national rankings from a major evaluation that looks at schools’ value added impact on student achievement. Based on the results of a multi-year study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., MAPCS-Evans ranked 6th out of twenty high schools nationwide (all affiliated with New Leaders for New Schools); MAPCS-Shaw received similarly high marks, although it was not among those officially ranked by Mathematica. Learn more about this important distinction.
- We successfully opened our middle school, the educational program at the Oak Hill Academy and its affiliated transition center this fall. Additionally, our middle school campus received accreditation from the Middle States Association of College and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools this May after its first year of operation!
This is also a time for us to reflect on a transition in leadership here at the See Forever Foundation. In August, our executive director, Cynthia Robbins, will be leaving our team. Longtime SFF/MAPCS staff member Maggie Kennedy will serve as our interim executive director as we begin the search for a new executive director. A team of board members will also work with current staff to support the transition over the next few months.
Back in 1997, Cynthia was among the first funders to visit the See Forever Foundation. She arrived just around the time we were transitioning from an after school vocational program operated in a pizza shop to an actual incorporated school. As she toured the building, she envisioned a computer lab where our co-founder David Domenici looked over the shoulder of a student working on an old desktop; and pictured an Advanced Placement English class where students sat around a table with co-founder James Forman guiding them on proper sentence structure. This foresight served her well in the multiple positions she has held at See Forever since 2004 and in transitioning to her current role as the first non-founder to serve as executive director.
Cynthia led the organization through a significant growth spurt, built a skilled senior management team with broad experiences and secured the resources and relationships to support our school’s expansion, educational program and important wraparound services. On behalf of all of the students who benefited from her hard work over the years, we thank you Cynthia.
Ten years ago, See Forever/Maya Angelou was one school serving 45 students (up from 20 in our first year). Through the collective efforts of staff, board members, volunteers and financial supporters, we now serve approximately 600 students at two charter high school campuses, our high school located at Oak Hill and its affiliated transition center, and our charter middle school – the first in the city specifically designed to meet the needs of alternative students at that grade level.
The upcoming year is particularly meaningful for us as we prepare for our ten-year high stakes review with the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board. The entire SFF/MAPCS community has redoubled efforts to learn all that we can and to anticipate and continue to meet the needs of our students.
We hope you will continue to support our efforts to change the “at-risk” position to an “at-promise” proposition for underserved students in Washington, D.C. There is much to share at this writing, and there is much to do in support of the years ahead.
See you next year!
| Marian White-Hood |
Geoff Gilpin |
Director of Academics, Principal Support
and Accountability |
Chief Operating Officer |
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*Photograph Credit: Kari Anderson |
