North Texas seniors shout out where they're attending college in celebration event
NORTH TEXAS – Schools are let out for summer in just about a month, so high school seniors are getting ready to graduate.
For seniors from Harmony Public Schools, today was their day. They announced to their classmates where they'll be attending college next year.
The public charter school boasts a 100% college acceptance rate. In fact, college acceptance is a crucial part of its curriculum. Students must be accepted to college to graduate high school and start working with college counselors from a young age.
"We work with them actually from sixth grade onwards," said Pam Paramahamsan, a college counselor with Harmony. "We want them to believe that there is a college match for each one of them."
"Opening up that acceptance letter and reading it for the first time, I broke down in tears," said Danny Huynh, a senior at Harmony Science Academy Euless.
"My family didn't go to college. I'm going to be first generation and they've worked really hard for me to get where I am. They made a lot of sacrifices along the way," said Francisco Servin, a senior at Harmony School of Excellence Dallas.
Francisco's family's story is about as American as it gets.
"My dad is a welder," he said. "In his line of work, he has to drive very far. Right now, he's in Houston. He's been there the whole week, he comes back maybe once, twice a week, and he does that to pay the bills to pay for my education. Mom worked at a convenience store I was there day and night just for our family to put food on the table."
His story isn't unique among his classmates.
"Most of our students are first-generation collegegoers, so we're really trying to set the path for them so they can really understand and also celebrate their success," said Paramahamsan.
Families have put in long nights and hard work. Now, their seniors want to make them proud.
"I want to make it up to them. I wouldn't want their sacrifice to go in vain," said Francisco.