A free ticket to an exclusive Kanye West concert was enticing enough for students at six city schools to raise their grades and maintain good attendance.
A free ticket to an exclusive Kanye West concert was enticing enough for students at six city schools to raise their grades and maintain good attendance.
Last Thursday, those students were at The Chicago Theatre as the hip hop/rap superstar performed just for them. The concert was the brainchild of David Abrams, a junior at Highland Park High School. He came up with the concept after hearing a listener on National Public Radio describe how she used a concert as an incentive to get her child to do well in school.
Abrams started an organization, Students Helping Our World, at his high school to help encourage his peers to increase their performance in school. The students worked over six months to bring the idea to life, contacting West’s lawyer, Chicago city employees and students at the schools chosen to attend concert. The six schools – Robeson, Harlan, Mather, Senn, Manley and Von Steuben high schools – were selected because of their diverse locations and demographics. The students who were rewarded with the concert improved their attendance and grade point averages, and had no failing grades.
“I am overwhelmed. My mother would be proud,” the Grammy Award-winning rapper said at a press conference held at Hotel Sax just before he performed for the students. His mother, Dr. Donda West, helped oversee The Kanye West Foundation before she passed away in 2007.
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