NBC4 Washington recently celebrated the Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. PeerForward Team the grand opening of their new College and Career Center.
In her good news segment, NBC4 Washington’s Molette Green joined Peer Leaders to highlight a huge achievement. In February, the Wise PeerForward team unveiled their new PeerForward College and Career Center after fundraising throughout the fall semester. In that time, Peer Leaders inspired their peers to submit a “record-breaking number” of college applications and scholarship awards at Dr. Henry A. Wise High School, one of PeerForward’s 26 partners in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
The team’s Co-Captian, Yarni Thornton, shared how Peer Leaders worked to raise money for the new center by painting the classroom doors of their teachers with collegiate flourishes. The team also garnered support from their community using DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that provides a platform for public schools to seek donations for academic resources.
The Dr. Henry A. Wise High School community showed up to support their PeerForward Team. The Wise High School Band and the St. Augustine University Marching Band provided opening music and fanfare, while the Wise High School culinary program provided breakfast to everyone who arrived at 5 AM to shoot the live news segment.
Present at the center’s ribbon-cutting ceremony were team advisors Elizabeth Dennis and Suntay Harris, alongside PeerForward CEO Gary Z. Linnen. “This year we’ve been able to reach our goal,” Dennis shared, referring to the key PeerForward campaigns to increase college and financial aid applications. “More than 50 percent of our seniors have applied to three or more schools; we’ve got 30 percent that has completed FAFSA and 2 million dollars in scholarships already.”
Linnen added that the Wise Peer Leaders “represent the over 200 Peer Leaders that we have across Prince George’s County,” and thanked everyone across the PeerForward community for their hard work.
Watch the video report to see how the school celebrated this new milestone:
