Young Women’s Leadership Charter High School Celebrates 15 Years of Success

Lee Edwards | As of Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Young Women’s Leadership Charter High School (YWLC) Senior Aaliyah Johnson credits her education and her experiences at YWLC as the catalyst that led to her becoming a Gates Millennium Scholarship Program recipient. The Gates Millennium Scholarship Program promotes academic excellence and provides an opportunity for outstanding minority students with significant financial need to fulfill their academic goals.
Young Women’s Leadership Charter High School (YWLC) Senior Aaliyah Johnson credits her education and her experiences at YWLC as the catalyst that led to her becoming a Gates Millennium Scholarship Program recipient. The Gates Millennium Scholarship Program promotes academic excellence and provides an opportunity for outstanding minority students with significant financial need to fulfill their academic goals. Photo by Lee Edwards.

The Young Women’s Leadership Charter High School (YWLC), 2641 S. Calumet Ave., the only all-girls public school in Chicago recently celebrated its 15th year anniversary during the school's annual fundraising luncheon at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, 720 S. Michigan Ave.

Each year YWLCS enrolls nearly 350 urban girls grade 8-12 and prepares them with the tools to graduate high school, continue through post-secondary education, and go on to lead fulfilling and productive lives. Any young woman residing in Chicago and of the right age is eligible to attend YWLCS, but admission is based on lottery.

The YWLC’s student body is eighty-five percent African American, ten percent Latina, and five percent Caucasian.

This spring, 150 students were selected, the largest number in its history according to YWLC CEO, Theresa A. Nelson.

The YWLC luncheon raised a record $600,000 last year.

“We’re thrilled to have all of our donors, students, board members, this is the one day where everyone of our supporters in the community come together to celebrate Young Women’s Leadership Charter High School,” said Nelson told the Chicago Citizen Newspaper.

For three consecutive years, YWLC’s senior class has attained an impressive 100% college acceptance rate and this year, boasts two Gates Millennium Scholarship Program (GMS) awardees.

The GMS promotes academic excellence and provides an opportunity for outstanding minority students with significant financial need to fulfill their academic goals. The GMS was established in 1999 and was originally funded by a $1 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Today, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) administers the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program.

“Being a student here at Young Women’s has been life changing, it provided me with so many opportunities, for example, I’m Gates Millennium Scholar and I do not think I would have achieved that without having Young Women’s education,” said YWLC senior, Aaliyah Johnson. “Being around my peers who are pretty much all like me has definitely been an experience; very different from your typical high school setting. It has definitely helped me become more outspoken and really given me the opportunity to voice my opinion more.”

Johnson, an AP (Advanced Placement) math student, intends on majoring in Math at Barnard College, an all-female college, in the fall.

Ald. Will Burns (4th Ward) was among several dignitaries who attended the event.

“I think it’s really important that we have high quality educational options particularly for young girls so I’m happy to support Young Women’s Leadership Charter High School because it offers young girls the opportunity to have a high quality education here on the south side of Chicago and in the fourth ward,” said Burns.

The luncheon’s keynote speaker, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, and granddaughter of the late first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt discussed the value of educating women, leadership, and women empowerment.

“No one is perfect but sharing the willingness to correct your own course of action, doing what you say, calmly asking for help, being clear and open, those are the people we look up to, those are the people want to follow, those are the people that we each can become when the moment requires it of us,” said Roosevelt. “Everyone has opportunities for leadership every day in every aspect of our lives.”

For more information about the Young Women’s Leadership Charter High School visit http://www.ywlcs.org/.

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