Practice Makes Perfect www.practicemakesperfect.org, the non-profit organization dedicated to narrowing the scholastic achievement gap among inner city students, will celebrate its first cohort of college-bound high school seniors.  Many are students who, until joining the Practice Makes Perfect summer program, never thought college was in their future, let alone Cornell, Brown or Dartmouth, among others.  The event -“You’re Accepted!”- will take place April 26 at the organization’s headquarters at Beespace, an incubator that provides early-stage nonprofits with valuable physical space, resources and collaborative opportunities.

Practice Makes Perfect (PMP) is a comprehensive summer education program with a proven “near-peer” model to support at-risk students in elementary and middle school. PMP pairs academically struggling children with older, higher achieving mentor-peers from the same inner-city neighborhoods, in a six-week, full-day summer school program that includes community service. Children are tutored to minimize  “Summer Slide” (what educators call the learning children forget while on summer break).

By reinventing summer school, PMP helps at-risk children and young mentors embrace a culture of learning and aspire to college. “High school students who tutor the younger ones receive leadership development, career training, and college prep support, including SAT prep, guidance on college selection and applications, and applying for financial aid and scholarships,” said founder Karim Abouelnaga, 22, himself a graduate of inner city public schools before heading to Cornell. 

Since its inception in 2011, Practice Makes Perfect has worked with hundreds of students in the Harlem, Long Island City and Bedford-Stuyvesant communities to engage them and prepare them for the new school year.  The group is currently seeking to sign on additional schools whose at-risk students could benefit from this program prior to its May 16 registration deadline.

Practice Makes Perfect has been recognized by the Clinton Foundation and has received funding from Ernst & Young, the Pershing Square Foundation, and the Andrew & Ann Tisch Foundation, among others.

This event will celebrate the achievements of college-bound high school seniors who rose through the Practice Makes Perfect ranks to, in many cases, be the first members of their family to attend college.  Attendees will include Abouelnaga, founder and Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer Brandon Espinosa, 24, student honorees and the organization’s supporters.

About Practice Makes Perfect, Inc.
Practice Makes Perfect is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2011by six Cornell students—three of whom graduated from two of New York City’s most struggling public high schools. The organization was created on the strong belief that all children—regardless of race or socioeconomic status—have an equal potential to compete intellectually in our society. PMP achieves this through a comprehensive six-week summer enrichment program and engaging students to better prepare them for the next school year. For more information about PMP, visit PracticeMakesPerfect.org to learn more.

Practice Makes Perfect, Inc.

Practice Makes Perfect, Inc.

Practice Makes Perfect (PMP) addresses inequities in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods over the summer. Research has found that two-thirds of the ninth-grade achievement gap between lower and higher income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities when students lose between 2.5 to 3.5 months of academic learning each summer. At the most competitive universities, only three percent of students come from families in the bottom quartile. Practice Makes Perfect is a comprehensive summer education program with a proven “near-peer” model to support students from kindergarten through college matriculation. Our programs pair skills development for younger students with leadership development, career training and college prep for older students. Through a unique multi-relational approach, PMP pairs academically struggling elementary and middle school students with older, higher achieving mentor peers from the same inner-city neighborhoods, all under the supervision of trained college interns for a six-week, full-day academic experience.

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