ST. PHILIP’S COLLEGE MIDDLE COLLEGE DIRECTOR RECOGNIZED BY NORTHSIDE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

James Wright shows teens exciting and realistic paths to colleges and successful careers

SAN ANTONIO (May 13, 2009) --- The director of Middle College programs at Alamo Colleges --- St. Philip’s College received the Business Partner Outstanding Program-of-the-Year (small schools category) from colleagues at the Northside Independent School District in a ceremony May 12.

The director is James Wright (standing third from top right in the NISD image). Photo 1 Wright’s award was presented during the 2009 Outstanding School Partnership Awards ceremony at the Paul Taylor Field House in San Antonio.

Wright’s partnership is with the Northside Alternative Middle School-South for at-risk students who want to learn how to function at a bigger school, but Wright is taking these students farther than their immediate next step. He’s showing them the bigger academic picture, one that leads to obtaining a college degree, a high school diploma and a secure job in San Antonio at the same time, explained Bonnie Ellison, director of school-business-community partnerships for Northside Independent School District.

“James Wright is an advocate for people who could give up before they knew they had opportunities to succeed in this world,” Ellison said. “James Wright has been taking our kids to tour the Alamo Colleges, and giving them information and options for some of their future opportunities,” Ellison said.

The awards event was streamed live from the Northside Independent School District homepage (www.nisd.net). The district has 100 campuses, and each campus selected their business partners of the year for recognition at the district-level awards program. This is the first recognition of its kind from the district for Wright and the Alamo Colleges program he represents.

When a Northside Education Foundation grant funded four trips to the college for students at Northside Alternative Middle School-South, the students and employees met Wright and were impressed. Wright visits middle school and high school campuses citywide with similar recruiting motives.

“Because the mandate for us is student success, we bring opportunities to those who don’t think they have an ability to succeed when they do,” said Wright. “We don't wait for students to come to us; we come to them,” Wright said. “It’s gratifying to help both the high academic achievers and those we may have prematurely concluded do not fit in education or the workplace, because all students are under a lot of stress to finish first every day,” said Wright. “These are the students we help, and that’s our partnership,” Wright said. “Recognition from one of the school districts our college serves is a pleasant surprise to me,” said Wright. Photo 2 (SPC image by Valerie Grivas)

Websites/Resources related to this story include:

1)Alamo Colleges-St. Philip’s College; 2)Alamo Colleges --- St. Philip’s College Middle College; and 3)Northside ISD School-Business-Community Partnerships Department.

About St. Philip’s: Bishop James Steptoe Johnston of the St. Philip’s Episcopal Church of the West Texas Diocese founded Alamo Colleges—St. Philip’s College in 1898. Today, Alamo Colleges—St. Philip’s College is a multi-campus institution of the Alamo Colleges and serves a semester enrollment of nearly 10,000 credit and more than 6,000 continuing education students. Alamo Colleges—St. Philip’s is a Historically Black College and Hispanic Serving Institution and is the only college in the nation that carries this dual designation. As “A Point of Pride in the Community,” Alamo Colleges—St. Philip’s College is among the oldest and most diverse community colleges in the United States.