Chicago Sun-Times: North Lawndale student makes most of free ride at college

North Lawndale student makes most of free ride at college

Here's a peek at a profile I wrote for the Chicago Sun-Time's Oct.16 Sunday Edition, page 8A to page 9A. Click the above link to see the whole thing.

Maintain a 3.0 GPA, score a 20 on the ACT college entrance exam — and get a free ride to college.

That was the challenge Roosevelt University issued to Social Justice High School students a year after the school opened in 2005 in North Lawndale.

“Our goal is to provide these students with an opportunity they might not otherwise have to earn a college degree and at the same time continue to be involved in social justice issues,” Roosevelt University President Chuck Middleton later said about the scholarship promise.

Five years later, officials with both SJHS and Roosevelt believe the program has been a success: 15 students from the classes of 2009 and 2010 accepted the scholarships and enrolled at Roosevelt.

Recipients include newly elected Roosevelt student government president Channing Redditt, who officials say is perhaps the best example of the program’s impact.

Redditt, 20, was a standout student, according to SJHS officials. Yet, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to go to college — and he was sure he couldn’t afford it. His father, Cecil, had lost his job at Home Depot in February 2009, shortly before Redditt got his diploma.

“What am I going to do?” Redditt remembers asking himself upon hearing the news. Redditt was also tired of going to school.

But the free ride — worth more than $90,000 — convinced him that he should go.“If I’m being given this opportunity, then it’s something I’m not going to let go to waste,” Redditt recalled thinking at the time.