Reclaiming The American Dream IV: Reinventing Summer School

When Omar was growing up in Richmond, California, he heard the planes overhead going to and from the Oakland and San Francisco airports. Although many in the blue-collar, East Bay city were disturbed by the noise, Omar had a different reaction: his was a classic young person's dream, that of becoming an airline pilot. He also realized that dream would not be easy; Richmond is a community troubled by both poverty and crime, including school violence.

But Omar, now a high school senior in a Berkeley charter school, is well on his way to realizing his dream. Over the summer past, he was able to enroll in California's leading commercial flight school despite a cost of nearly $5,000, which would have been difficult for his family to afford. What made possible lessons at the California Airways school was the work of Beth Schmidt—one of four recipients of the Manhattan Institute's $25,000 2014 Richard Cornuelle Awards for Social Entrepreneurship—and the organization she founded, Wishbone. In an era where school reform efforts across the country are seeking better ways to boost the achievement of low-income students, Schmidt has come up with an entirely original but complementary approach, focused on making the most of the summer months when students are not in school.

Omar is one of 150 “low income, high potential” high school students in the San Francisco and New York metro areas being connected by Wishbone to summer programs through which they can pursue strong interests—but which they would not likely be able to afford on their own, or of which they might not even be aware. Founded in 2012 by Schmidt, a one-time Teach for America tenth grade English teacher in South Central Los Angeles, Wishbone was inspired, in part, by her own memories of growing up in a middle-class Connecticut family. As a girl, she responded to seeing Olympic figure skating on television by saying, “I want to do that”—and was able, thanks to lessons and access to skating rinks, to become a championship-caliber figure skater.

Schmidt found that same impulse—the desire to pursue a strong interest in a serious way—to be present among the low-income high school students she taught in Los Angeles. In a class where homework assignments often went undone, Schmidt found that, when she asked students to write an essay about a summer program in which they'd like to participate, if they had the chance, an overwhelming majority of students turned in the assignment. Indeed, many had strong interests: in stem cell research, criminal justice, film, and music. Schmidt took it upon herself, through sponsorships of her run in the Los Angeles Marathon, to raise funding for seven of her students to enroll in the summer programs about which they wrote. Suddenly, indifferent students became engaged.

Recalls Schmidt: “My students were struggling to find relevance in their school days, yet they had distinct passions they wished to pursue. I realized that by giving students the opportunity to pursue their passions, it immediately shifted the way they thought about what was possible for their lives. The school day started to become incredibly relevant. School became an important step in service of achieving a larger dream they now felt was achievable.”

That experience became the model for Wishbone, which has—through a state-of-the-art web platform designed with the guidance of Parker Media web visionary (and Wishbone board member) Michael Polansky—become a vehicle for students to attend one of dozens of acclaimed summer programs across the country: Stanford's digital media lab, Georgetown's sports management institute, West Point's summer military academy, and NYU's visual arts academy, among others.

There's Sandra from San Mateo, attending a summer criminal justice program at Saint Rose College in Albany; Pharoah from Oakland, taking photography classes at San Francisco's Academy of Art University; Edmund from the KIPP Collegiate school in San Lorenzo (CA ), attending a pre-med program at Georgetown; Janssen from New York, attending the summer sports management program at Ithaca College. For many, it's their first trip away from home by themselves.

Beth Schmidt's goal is, however, far bigger than helping a relative handful of students—as important and fulfilling as she finds that to be. She's built an organization designed to provide a “common app” (as in the common application for four-year colleges) to help make it routine for low-income students to have access to the sort of summer enrichment programs that more affluent families provide for their children. While the goal of helping kids fulfill their potential may be traditional, even timeless, the means employed by Wishbone.Org are anything but. The website features profiles of students who compete to be included on it, both on the basis of their own essays and teacher, or other adult, nominations. (It's typical, says Schmidt, for teachers, mentor, and coaches to nominate a student by saying, “Let me tell you about this amazing kid I know.”) Perhaps most impressively, no Wishbone student, to date, has failed to complete one of the summer programs in which they've enrolled

Schmidt has put all sorts of pieces together. She fundraises not just via foundation grants but through crowdsourcing; she not only raises funds for students but also provides students a platform with which to raise funds themselves (even convincing summer programs to provide scholarships to many Wishbone students). All this, Schmidt hopes, will ultimately lead to the creation of a national data base and matching system linking students with the nation's best summer enrichment programs. She knows well that for too many students, especially those from disadvantaged programs, summers are a time when they forfeit educational achievement gains made during the preceding school year. It's a problem for which Wishbone is providing an antidote.

As for Omar, he describes the summer moment he first stepped into an airplane cockpit:

“Finally, everything was checked! I communicated with air traffic control to get permission to move. We were waiting for takeoff clearance and after that, my dream was a reality.”

About this series

Since 2001, I've helped direct an annual awards program at the Manhattan Institute recognizing top social entrepreneurs: those who develop effective, original approaches to dealing with social problems and who rely mainly on private funding and volunteers to see their ideas to fruition. They are leaders of America's civil society, doing the things that government can't do—or can't do as well.

We grant up to five $25,000 awards, named for libertarian thinker Richard Cornuelle (who coined the term “independent sector”), to promising, growing programs. A $100,000 lifetime achievement prize, the largest such award for an American nonprofit leader, is named for William E. Simon, the investment finance pioneer and U.S. Treasury secretary, whose book “A Time for Truth” sounded the alarm about the growing dependence of nonprofit organizations on government funding. Simon Prize winners have included Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children's Zone; and Brian Lamb, founder of C-SPAN. All award winners direct organizations that they founded themselves—and that rely minimally, if at all, on government funding. Winners are, however, more than just “points of light”: many seek to extend their reach, whether by growing larger and branching to other cities, or helping others start similar organizations elsewhere.

Award winners, nominated by donors who have seen the nominee's work firsthand, are selected by a panel that has included: Les Lenkowsky, professor of philanthropic studies, Indiana University; Adam Meyerson, president, the Philanthropy Roundtable; William Schambra, director, Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal; Cheryl Keller, independent foundation consultant; and James Piereson, president, William E. Simon Foundation. This year's awards presentation will take place in New York City on November 12. This column marks the fourth of six weekly profiles of 2014 award winners.

This piece originally appeared in Forbes

This piece originally appeared in Forbes