Article

D.C. Virgo Prep brings the world to the classroom, from poetry slams to public engagement.

Photograph by Lissa McIver, courtesy D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy

Resource Region
The nonprofit Blue Ribbon Commission has designated a 14-block area in North Wilmington as a Youth Enrichment Zone. Blue Ribbon Commission Executive Director Jana Jones Halls says her organization’s aim is to “saturate the area with needed resources and services.” The zone is modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, which was featured in the 2010 documentary Waiting For Superman.

By Stuart Thornton

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

It is a Friday afternoon, and Wilmington, North Carolina’s D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy is a beehive of activity. 
 
In one room, a handful of students learn some tips on using debit cards from a couple of local bankers. In another classroom, students wearing protective gear and holding foils learn fencing techniques. Down the hall, another batch of middle schoolers are taught about natural resources in aquifers and bedrock by members of the Coastal Cadets. At the same time, students do a passionately choreographed hip-hop dance in the school’s theater.
 
It is all part of the school’s unique “Friday enrichments,” where community members come to teach students different skills. Cameron Bolish, the arts coordinator and band leader at D.C. Virgo, says that 29 different community organizations or individuals come into the school on Fridays to enrich the students with their knowledge of everything from ceramics to acting. 
 
“It is allowing the community to come to our building,” Bolish says of the program.
 
Located in an economically challenged neighborhood of Wilmington, D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy has established Friday enrichments to give students experiences that they might not normally have. 
 
“I want to be able to provide anything any middle-income or upper-income child has an opportunity to participate in,” Bolish says.
 
Born of Necessity
 
D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy’s new take on education came out of necessity. Virgo Middle School, which previously occupied the school’s multi-story brick buildings, closed in 2011 following repeated years of low test scores and student exodus.
 
A year later, the grounds again welcomed public-school students as D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy. The school opened due in part to support from the Blue Ribbon Commission, a nonprofit organization seeking to reduce youth violence and decrease the rate of student dropouts in the area. The Blue Ribbon Commission now has its own office in the school.
 
Today, D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy is home to 220 sixth and seventh graders. In the 2014-2015 school year, the school will also welcome eighth-graders. 
 
Principal Eric Irizarry notes that the enrichments are an important aspect of the new school’s philosophy. 
 
“Our goal was to bring in a program that supports the whole child,” he says.
 
The enrichments are just one way that D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy differentiates itself from other local schools. Students use iPads instead of textbooks, and the school day begins at 8 a.m., a half-hour earlier than other schools in the area. Students usually wear uniforms—khaki pants and button down shirts with the school logo embroidered on the chest. Each student receives two sets of uniforms when they enroll, and families that are unable to pay for more uniforms can secure a grant through PPD, a pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Wilmington.  
 
“It is expensive to dress kids these days,” Irizarry says. “This levels the playing field.”
 
Part of the Community
 
One goal of the new school is its attempt to become an integral part of the surrounding community. An example of this is D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy’s parent room, which offers resources for parents, including a washer, dryer, coffee-maker and five computers with printers and Internet access. 
 
“If you are going to be a community school, you have to be a part of the community,” Irizarry says. 
 
The Young Kings program is a group of the school’s students that are at the greatest risk of dropping out. Blue Ribbon Commission’s Daawad El-Amin runs the program and says he is hoping to take the Young Kings on a trip to Harlem next year. 
 
“We are going to make a gang with no colors, a positive gang,” he says of the Young Kings.
 
El-Amin believes he has discovered the key to motivate the Young Kings to stay in school and keep their grades up. 
 
“I found out the biggest thing a child hates is to disappoint someone they care about,” he says.
 
Irizarry notes there has been behavioral growth among the students, but time will tell if academic growth will follow. 
 
According to seventh-grade language arts teacher Lissa McIver, 12 year-old student John Bowen is a great example of this positive development. McIver notes that initially Bowen had behavioral issues in her class. 
 
“John has matured and grown academically,” she says.
 
One of Bowen’s most impressive accomplishments was winning first place in a school-wide poetry slam. Bowen describes his realization that his words were affecting people: “I felt good. I felt like they liked my poetry. I felt like I was something at that moment.”
 
Bowen’s is the kind of experience that the D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy aims for—an incident that will keep their students interested in pursuing an education. 
 
“I really hope we can put them in a position that when they get to high school,” Irizarry says, “they see the importance of staying in school.”

Vocabulary

Term Part of Speech Definition Encyclopedic Entry

academic

 Adjective

person or thing having to do with school, particularly college or university education.

accomplishment

 Noun

unique achievement, or something done well.

aquifer

 Noun

an underground layer of rock or earth which holds groundwater.

 Encyclopedic Entry: aquifer

aspect

 Noun

view or interpretation.

bank

 Noun

organization that loans, protects, and exchanges money to and from individuals and organizations.

bedrock

 Noun

solid rock beneath the Earth's soil and sand.

 Encyclopedic Entry: bedrock

behavior

 Noun

standard of conduct.

choreograph

 Verb

to plan and direct the movements of a dance.

community

 Noun

group of organisms or a social group interacting in a specific region under similar environmental conditions.

debit card

 Noun

plastic card through which payments are made electronically from the cardholder's bank account.

decrease

 Verb

to lower.

differentiate

 Verb

to distinguish or mark as different.

disappoint

 Verb

to fail to fulfill the expectations of someone or something.

economic

 Adjective

having to do with money.

embroider

 Verb

to decorate with elaborate sewing or needlework.

enrichment

 Noun

strengthening or enhancement.

establish

 Verb

to form or officially organize.

expensive

 Adjective

very costly.

fencing

 Noun

individual or team sport where athletes practice attack and defense with bladed weapons (swords) to score points on an opponent's body.

foil

 Noun

light, four-sided sword used in fencing.

grant

 Noun

money given to a person or group of people to carry out a specific project or program.

headquarters

 Noun

place where an organization or project is chiefly located.

incident

 Noun

event or happening.

income

 Noun

wages, salary, or amount of money earned.

integral

 Adjective

very important.

mature

 Verb

to age or grow up.

natural resource

 Noun

a material that humans take from the natural environment to survive, to satisfy their needs, or to trade with others.

necessity

 Noun

something that is needed.

nonprofit organization

 Noun

business that uses surplus funds to pursue its goals, not to make money.

pharmaceutical

 Noun

drug.

philosophy

 Noun

the study of the basic principles of knowledge.

poetry slam

 Noun

competitive, unrestrained series of poetry reading.

previous

 Adjective

earlier, or the one before.

protect

 Verb

to take action to prevent injury or attack.

public

 Adjective

available to an entire community, not limited to paying members.

realization

 Noun

real, tangible result of a process of planning.

reduce

 Verb

to lower or lessen.

technique

 Noun

method of doing something.

uniform

 Noun

identical set of clothes for members of an organization, such as a school or military.

unique

 Adjective

one of a kind.

For Further Exploration

Websites

Credits

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Writer

Stuart Thornton

Editors

Jeannie Evers
Kara West

Producer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service.

If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact natgeocreative@ngs.org for more information and to obtain a license.

If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please visit our FAQ page.

Media

Some media assets (videos, photos, audio recordings and PDFs) can be downloaded and used outside the National Geographic website according to the Terms of Service. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the lower right hand corner (download) of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.