Extra curricular activities include the Arts & Philosophy Club, Gardening Club, choir, dancing, track, basketball, arts and crafts, and a reading/tutoring program where students tutor their elementary school counterparts. The popular "oratory presentations" occur annually, an event allowing students to recite pre-written or original poems or speeches of inspiration to an audience of their peers, teachers, and parents. In these presentations, students learn to project their voices as well as themselves. In addition to these features, Laurel Senger aspires to set up a mentoring program to equip each and every girl with their own mentor, while Harlem Family Institutes provides a group of therapy professionals to counsel students in any event that they may simply need someone to talk to.

The admissions process into the school is a selective one, with a radar for potential students equipped with a positive attitude, motivation to work, and sincere desire for their academic success in the school. Before being formally accepted, students attend a summer week program in Massachusetts, observed for their social skills and personal qualities while building on healthy relationships. Taking the aforementioned into consideration, a new issue arises: managing a school with the credentials of Thea Bowman without becoming elite. Laurel Senger sees the program as almost anti-elite, refusing to selectively reject the motivations and aspirations of the same students who may very well be in need of inspiration the most. There is a belief in the "persona care" philosophy, a Latin expression meaning a belief in caring for the entire person -- intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Teachers for the junior high school are also selectively chosen. Energy, a positive attitude, sense of mission, and pleasurable demeanor are all taken into account when accepting staff members into the T.B. community.

Virtually all Thea Bowman graduates advance to private high schools, most of them parochial. Their alumnae have gone on to such boarding schools as Portsmen Abbey and Miss Porters, as well as prestigious day schools like Notre Dame, Ursuline Academy, and Loyola to name but a few. Dr. Senger takes pride in knowing that many of her graduates are the same children referred to in the "statistically un-destined" group of youngsters so commonly labeled in studies of urbanized youth. Motivated by the endless possibilities of each individual child, along with the accolade of knowing that she can aide in the influence of a great personality, the president of St. Aloysius school takes a brief pause from the interview, and tells me "It's about seeing lives unfold." I proceed to ask the intended sentiment for every girl that graduates into society. "I want these girls to be proud of who they are. Learn more about your culture. There should be no sneaky feeling of inferiority, or feeling that you need to be competitive with anyone. There should be an authentic confidence".

With that, the interview concludes. This is where I grew up. Obviously not in Dr. Senger's office, but in this school, where each teacher knew you, and if they didn't know you, they got to know you. This is where you could always knock on the principal's door to sit down for a talk if you needed to, as opposed to some schools, where the principal doesn't even know your name. This is where classes were small and minds expanded. As a high schooler involved in extra-curricular activities while simultaneously keeping college credentials in mind, a visit to the school reminded me of some things, and deepened some already concrete beliefs. I'm already an ambitious person -- but as I left the doors of St. Aloysius late in that afternoon, I smiled as I remembered something. A sense of ambition and mission was refueled somehow.

Before her passing, Thea Bowman used to say, "You've got it girl. Use it". Well I say "HmmŠok. I will."

For More Information on the Thea Bowman Program
Write them at:
223 W. 132nd St. Betwn. 7th & 8th Aves.
New York, NY 10027
or call 212-283-0921

| YWLS | Thea Bowman | Harlem School at Exodus |