Vincencial Agyapong, a soft-spoken 17-year-old in the Bronx whose mother works as a housekeeper, already feels the stress of taking out a $16,000 loan to start at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., this fall. “I’m scared to fail,” Vincencial said. “I don’t want to disappoint my mom.” Low-income students are far less likely than their more affluent peers to finish college, so a charter-school network, runs a three-week “summer bridge” program to give its high-school graduates such as Vincencial a better shot. In an environment meant to simulate college, they get advice on academics, budgeting and building a social life. Lindsay Page, an assistant professor of education at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied the issue, found that about 10% of intended college students in the U.S. are lost and that rates are as high as 30% among poor urban teenagers. Read now
