When Kyla Jimenez’s older brother Isaaq would travel from their home in Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood to the University of Chicago’s campus to participate in the University’s college readiness and access programming, she often tagged along. Kyla would explore campus buildings or do homework in Hyde Park coffee shops with her mom while Isaaq attended classes and events for the Collegiate Scholars Program for Chicago Public School students.
“I just knew that the community and the environment was somewhere I definitely wanted to be for college. It’s just perfect for me,” Kyla Jimenez said. That belief only grew stronger when she joined the Collegiate Scholars Program (CSP) herself a few years later as a sophomore at CPS charter high school Intrinsic Schools – Belmont Campus. She even wears her favorite UChicago sweatshirt to school “almost every day,” she said...