The Elm City’s New Haven Promise has been inspiring students for years, encouraging them to set their sights on college as a child through an annual winter celebration.
The initiative’s 10th “Snowball” Celebration was another success Friday morning as students at the Fair Haven School sized up several of the state’s public and private colleges through dance and movement.
“We start in Pre-K,” explained Fair Haven School principal Heriberto Crodero. “They take on Gateway and kindergarten with Quinnipiac. As you’ll see, they all kind of take a different university and as they go through, they get to experience every single university here in the state of Connecticut.”
“You don’t get to university by thinking about it when you’re a senior or a junior in high school,” Quinnipiac University President Judy Olian said. “You get to university because you start out early.”
Ivanaliz Zayas is an eighth grader at the K-8 school, which has had the most New Haven Promise Scholars than any other neighborhood in the city.
“Sports help you a lot getting into the colleges that you want to go to and different programs that will help get you the good grades you need,” Zayas said.
Olian said this is where they belong.
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“This is exactly what we should be doing, preparing the youngest of the youngest generation to see their future in education,” Olian said.
