Minorities: Rise Up to the Challenge

By Katie Blodgett, Winter 2009

When it comes to offering opportunities to K-12 students from minority and low socioeconomic backgrounds, Providence St. Mel in Chicago is one of the most successful in the country. The school’s mission statement, which students recite each day, ends, “With God's help, we will either find a way or make one.” But more inspiring than this sentiment, are the stories that alumni tell of their experience at Providence St. Mel, tales of life after Providence, and their enduring belief in the school’s mission.

Providence St. Mel, was recently the subject of documentary titled, The Providence Effect, which has been playing in both San Francisco and Berkeley. The documentary helps remind audiences about the power of high expectations, and purports the notion that minority students can rise to many of life’s challenges when held to a higher level of expectation.

Many students in the Hufstedler School of Education at Alliant teach in very similar communities as that of Providence St. Mel, and, at least for me, this film served as a wonderful reminder that our students can achieve their goals if their teachers expect them to. While the documentary and the school do not attempt to provide overarching solutions to the educational inequities to which many children are exposed, it succeeds in providing a shining example of a school that is helping to close the achievement gap.