Paul Bass Photo
Frankie Roman, Casey Gargano, and Patricia Melton at New Haven Promise.
Like the young people it helps develop into successful college students and adults, New Haven Promise has entered its teens full of growth of possibility.
The college scholarship and mentoring program is now in its 14th year. It still offers annual scholarships of up to $20,000 for up to four years to a new class of over 200 city public schoolers who maintain a B average, perform community service, and show up to school. Under the direction of President Patricia Melton these past 12 years, it has grown to connect those students to career-launching internships, and to each other as fellow students and then alumni, 86 percent of whom have returned to live and work in town.
“Our work just keeps expanding,” Melton said Tuesday during a conversation on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. Promise Talent Manager Casey Gargano and new K‑12 Manager Frankie Roman joined her on the show.
Next month, according to Melton, Promise plans to announce a new fellowship along with Yale and Southern Connecticut State University to help students and paraprofessionals obtain teaching certification, tackling one of the school system’s top challenges. (Click here to read about Promise’s expansion to support scholarships at HBCUs, which is now in its second year.)
Meanwhile, next week Promise is hosting its first fall summer internship recruiting fair, building on its annual January sessions to include companies that start recruiting interns earlier. One hundred thirty-seven Promise-supported students earned collectively close to $1 million this summer at internships around town, said Gargano, a Wilbur Cross grad who attended UConn on a Promise scholarship.
Roman, who most recently worked as a counselor development manager at LEAP, spoke of how he is aiming to reach students as early as seventh grade to help steer them toward eventually qualifying for the scholarship and thinking about careers. He’s planning to hold career and college fairs not just at high schools but at middle schools as well. “We want to seed plant very early.”
Click on the video below to watch New Haven Promise’s Patricia Melton, Casey Gargano, and Frankie Roman discuss their latest work on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”