66 different colleges were represented at Springboard to Success-hosted trunk party, including Texas A&M, Louisiana State, American, Wisconsin and Illinois
Two hundred fifteen Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) college-bound students representing 66 different schools across the country received dorm-room essentials and free laptops at the Springboard to Success (S2S)-hosted Take Flight College Send-Off Wednesday at Bridgeport Art Center.
The giant CHA trunk party was made possible thanks to S2S, CHA’s non-profit partner; the generous sponsorship support of Meijer and the Black McDonald’s Operators Association (BMOA), which provided dorm room merchandise; and Compudopt, which provided 215 laptops with two-year warranties. Additional sponsorship was provided by Molina Healthcare, Enterprise and UPS.
The schools represented Wednesday included Texas A&M, Louisiana State, American University, University of Wisconsin, and Grand Valley State. Schools with the highest number of students included Southern Illinois (26), Northern Illinois (26), Illinois State (23) and University of Illinois (21).
“We were delighted to have 215 incoming freshmen who are celebrating with us today who are getting dorm room essentials and laptops to help their studies in school,” said Amanda DeWitt, S2S Director of Development & Communications. “Often times we have students who are headed off to college for the first time and don’t think about those incidentals, the dorm room supplies they might need, the towels, the sheets, a laptop computer. We are here to fill that gap. We’re here to celebrate their journey and let them know they are not alone. This is a way to say, we’re all in this together.”
Danielle Walker picked up the essentials for her daughter, Tarriana, who left for University of Illinois on Sunday. Tarriana spent much of her time caring for her autistic sister while her mom worked long hours to provide for the family.
“There were many days my mother could not afford to take off work,” Tarriana wrote before she left for Champaign. “That’s when I would step in and stay home and take care of my sister. That challenge helped me to learn how to balance academic life and home life.”
Danielle Walker called her daughter the “backbone.”
“She’d get up in the middle of the night, make bottles, and provide the support I needed,” Danielle Walker said. “If (her sister) was sick, Tarriana just took over.”
Danielle Walker said she missed Tarriana – but she was beyond proud.
“I just want her to live her own life,” Danielle Walker said. “She’s done enough for me. I need to figure it out on my own. I want her to be happy.”
Donyae Whitehorn attended the event Wednesday and will be leaving for Louisiana State University in a few days.
“These events really help students who don’t have as much support as higher income students,” he said. “If you have to purchase supplies or other stuff, it leaves less money for you to have the necessities. So having an event like this where they give you most of the necessities, it makes it easier on the student than having to stress about other things.”
Miley Neely will be attending the University of Michigan, saying it is a big campus that will accommodate her big personality.
“I would have had to buy my own dorm supplies and computers and that would have taken a lot of money that I could have possibly used for my first semester in college.” Neely said. “That first year of college is pretty rough and I don’t have a lot of support that a lot of other people do. CHA has helped me a lot my senior year and now I’m really grateful to have this opportunity to have these supplies.”
Caption: Two hundred-fifteen CHA college-bound students representing 66 different schools across the country received dorm-room essentials and free laptops at the Springboard to Success (S2S)-hosted Take Flight College Send-Off Wednesday at Bridgeport Art Center.
