South Bronx After-School Program Successfully Prepares Girls for High School Graduation

When it comes graduation rates the Bronx has been underperforming.  According to County Health Rankings, the borough falls behind every other county in the state. But, one after-school program in the South Bronx has right to be boastful. 

The Rosedale Center is located in a small attached house in a residential neighborhood.  In fact, you would never even know it existed from the outside.  There’s not even a sign. Rosedale offers tutoring services and test prep to school aged girls, like, 16-year-old Brittney.  She says Rosedale is about more than just schoolwork.

"It’s kind of like a family environment, it’s a home away from home, so rather than telling you like school would tell you, they tell you like your family would tell you."

Rosedale focuses a lot of attention on character building.  Director Alice Trimmer says they devote blocks of time to helping the girls learn about themselves.

"Character development, which is a talk about particular human qualities they might want to develop and then how to become better students, better family members."

That in turn leads to higher self-esteem and better grades. Trimmer says a 100% of the girls who attend Rosedale graduate from high school, and most go onto college.  That gives Rosedale something to trumpet in a borough that has a high graduation rate of 58 %.