For more than 25-years a program has been providing advanced education for promising students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. WBFO'S Focus on Education reporter Eileen Buckley says Buffalo Prep serves students aspiring to attend a preparatory high school.
"We know other things that students don't know. We can help them. It gives you a leg up," said Tahynnis Newsome. She is an eight grader at the Buffalo Academy of Visual and Performing, but Newsome also attends the Buffalo Prep program in the late afternoon students at the University at Buffalo's South campus.
Students like Newsome are there to soak up as much education as possible in attention to their regular school work.
"In global right now we're learning all different kinds of things. In Algebra learning linear equations, how to graph them, and I'm actually doing them in 8th grade now, so it's actually helping me with my tests," said Newsome. "For Saturdays, we take chemistry."
And yes Newsome said Saturdays. The Buffalo Prep students are dedicated, attending weekday afternoons, weekends and spend their summers learning.
"Overall for Prep, I just love this experience. I want the title, and I know Prep is hard. I've been here since middle school. I'm one of the kids who has been here the longest and I want to be a Buffalo Prep scholar. I want to graduate from Prep because the reward from Prep is so much greater than me sitting at home," said Moore.
"My parents made me come but after awhile Buffalo Prep grew on me and it's an experience I have enjoyed," said Micah Moore, 8th grader at Catholic Academy in Buffalo enrolled in the program.
"Overall for Prep, I just love this experience. I want the title, and I know Prep is hard. I've been here since middle school. I'm one of the kids who has been here the longest and I want to be a Buffalo Prep scholar. I want to graduate from Prep because the reward from Prep is so much greater than me sitting at home," said Moore.
Buffalo Prep started more than two-decades ago with just ten students. Today it serves over 450 with plans to grow to 600-students by the year 2017. Students must apply and there is a waiting list.
"It is not getting any easier to be a student. The standards keep changing. The bar keeps getting raised higher and higher," said Marcia O’Neil-White, Executive Director of Buffalo Prep.
Each day she witnesses the hard work and dedication of students who are focused on academics well beyond the normal classroom hours.
"The biggest struggle is learning how to manage their time, so managing regular school and then managing course work that we are giving them. Spending their summers in academic work all day, every day and having homework when their friends are not doing that," said O'Neil-White.
"All of our students are economically disadvantage so that's part of the requirement for admission to the program, so we are really trying to level the playing field so that our students can enter into a college preparatory high school and succeed and go on to higher education," said Marcia O'Neil-White, Executive Director of Buffalo Prep.
As UB houses the students on it's campus, Buffalo Prep is totally funded by donors and foundations. It receives no government funding.
"All of our students are economically disadvantage so that's part of the requirement for admission to the program, so we are really trying to level the playing field so that our students can enter into a college preparatory high school and succeed and go on to higher education," said O'Neil-White.
More than 50-percent of the Buffalo Prep students attend through middle school and high school.
"One of the real hallmarks of our program is that work ethic and spending the time and working through various academic challenges, and it's not always easy and it's not always a smooth path, but we really do emphasize that sense of grit and determination that that will help you succeed, not only in school, but in life," said O'Neil-White.
Patti Stephen is the Assistant Director of the program.
"I think one of the most remarkable things about Buffalo Prep is our collaboration in the community," said Stephen. "We partner with over 18-area private and college preparatory public schools to ensure they get the best education in high school for every student."
The program provides college prep tutors in subjects like physics. Those who graduated from Buffalo Prep often return to assist in the classroom.
"It allows the younger students to see someone not too far removed from them to see they can pretty much do what I've done, said Kerris Sease, a tutor at Buffalo Prep and former student. She's now studying infectious disease at college. She started in Buffalo Prep in middle school and described herself as a 'nerd'.
"I think it's the fact that their parents see education as something important and invest the time," said Sease.
Past Buffalo Prep members say returning to assist as a tutor of teacher assistant is a great way to give back the gift of education they once received.
Claudine Karambizi is her second year of high school at Nardin Academy. "Buffalo Prep, honestly, will teach you how to be organized," said Karambizi.
Karambizi started at Buffalo Prep in 5th grade. She completed the program in 2013. She's aiming high for college and a career as a doctor. Karambizi is inspired by her grandfather, a doctor who runs a clinic in Africa.
"I saw his clinic, and the day before I went, a mother just gave birth. I would love to be an obstetrician-gynecologist.
It is stories like Karambizi's that uphold the mission of Buffalo Prep.