First Person

Update from the Director

We can't wait to expand the College Ambassador Project, making it possible to have numerous neighborhood-based teams of youth doing local advocacy in conjunction with the film's release. Its going to take a major effort -- let me know your fundraising and partnership ideas!

Benjamin Herold
Director
First Person

Video Clip of the Week

In this week's clip, Shalisa reflects on turning 18 and what it means to be "grown."

Video Gallery

Student Voices

"I've just got up the nerve to express the things that have been weighing heavy on my heart..."

In her most recent blog post, Malikka opens up about the loss of a loved one...and its impact on her second semester at Community College of Philadelphia. Check out all of our student blogs to gain more insight into how personal struggles shape students' roads through (and to, and away from) college.

First Person Student Blogs

Get Involved

"As a group, we gave North Philadelphia a D- for Neighborhood Leadership, and that's exactly what it deserves."

As a city, we have come up woefully short in not only delivering the supports that African-American and Latino males from North Philly need to make it to college, but also in understanding what those supports should be in the first place.

This is the message from First Person's initial team of College Ambassadors, hired in Summer 2007 to pilot First Person's new outreach effort. The North Philadelphia College Ambassadors, a group of nine African-American and Latino men ages 16-19, have put forth a new youth-centered framework for helping us to understand what they need to make it to college - and they have graded us as a city on our ability to deliver it for them.

We are thrilled with the success of this pilot, and we are excited to expand the College Ambassador Project into other communities in 2008! Check out their work:

Download the full report
Download the summary report card
Watch the video
Enter the interactive web application