Learning to Play the Game to Get Into College

Michael Winerip, via a kind Doug Newman email:

There is rarely a minute when Nathaly Lopera, a high school senior, isn't working to improve herself.

Since second grade, she has taken advantage of a voluntary integration program here, leaving her home in one of the city's poorer sections before 6:30 a.m. and riding a bus over an hour to Newton, a well-to-do suburb with top-quality schools. Some nights, she has so many activities that she does not get home until 10 p.m.; often she's up past midnight studying.

"Nathaly gets so mad if she doesn't make the honor roll," says Stephanie Serrata, a classmate.

Last Wednesday, Nathaly did it again, with 5 A's and 2 B's for the first marking period.

She has excelled at Newton North High, a school with enormous resources, in part by figuring out whom to ask for help.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 22, 2011 5:51 AM
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