Tiny Graduating Class Boasts Big Aspirations
May 23, 2007FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 23, 2007 – Sacramento, CA
Contact:
Mike Curran
University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
3200 Fifth Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95817
916-739-7115
With a class of three students, the Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep high school commencement ceremony will certainly be the shortest of the Sacramento-area graduating season, but its members will be stand tall on Friday, May 25.
>The tiny senior class will be honored as pioneers, the first graduates in the law-themed charter school’s history. And their academic performance and improvement bodes well for the high school, which is the product of a partnership between Natomas Unified School District, the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, and the Sacramento legal community.
>The three seniors combined for a 3.08 grade-point average compared to a 2.25 average they had posted during their junior years. Eighty other students enrolled in Grades 9 through 12 showed similar progress in their first year in the school. The average GPA of the 28 students in Grade 10 jumped from 2.06 to 2.75. Each of the three seniors will go on to college, one on an academic scholarship to UC Berkeley, carrying aspirations to continue on through graduate school and enter the legal and medical professions.
>Pacific McGeorge Dean Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker will be the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony at 6:30 p.m., Friday, May 25 on the law school’s campus. U.S. District Court Judge Morrison England and Downey Brand LLP attorney Stephen Meyer, whose law firm’s $50,000 donation provides for much of the after-school programming at NP3, will also be in attendance.
>In addition to a rigorous college preparatory curriculum, the Pacific Pathways students participated in weekly educational activities with Sacramento legal community leaders and were mentored by Pacific McGeorge law students. Students at Hagginwood Elementary School and Smyth Academy of Arts and Sciences Middle School also were involved in the program’s activities. The Pacific program is part of a larger national P20 Pipeline Project designed to increase the number of minority and disadvantaged students graduating from college and ultimately becoming members of the professions.
>For more information on the Pacific Pathways program, please contact Emily Randon, Director of Outreach and Assistant Director of Admissions at Pacific McGeorge, 739-7242, erandon@pacific.edu.
