Our Communities

K-12/College Prep

For many people, the American dream depends upon a college education. To help our neighborhood students realize that dream, USC is committed to putting them on the path toward higher education beginning with their first day in school.

The university’s partnership with the USC Family of Schools is just one of the ways we expand educational opportunities for local schoolchildren.

USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative

The university is especially proud of the 100 percent high-school graduation rate among participants in the USC Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI), a comprehensive six-year college-preparation program for low-income middle- and high-school students. Even more impressive, among the nearly 500 students who have graduated from NAI since 1997, 95 percent have been accepted at institutions of higher education.

USC TRIO Programs

USC administers seven federally funded TRIO Upward Bound programs serving more than 2,300 local students whose parents did not attend college. USC TRIO Programs provide year-round academic services for students between the ages of 11 and 27, reaching out to middle- and high-school students as well as high-school dropouts and encouraging them to complete their education. More than 70 percent of TRIO students go on to higher education.

Partnership with Crenshaw High School

USC has a multifaceted affiliation with Crenshaw High School, one of the schools the Los Angeles Unified School District has targeted for improvements to enhance student test scores and graduation rates.

• As part of Neighborhoods@Work, a model for sustainable neighborhood revitalization in central L.A., the USC Rossier School of Education has established the Greater Crenshaw Educational Partnership to assume leadership of Crenshaw High.
• In spring 2009, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Integrated Media Systems Center unveiled GameDesk, a program to improve students’ mathematical and analytical skills through the creation of live-action games, at Crenshaw High. (Together with Jordan High School and Pomona Valley High, Crenshaw is part of a three-school pilot of GameDesk.)
• As part of “Intersections: The South Los Angeles Reporting Project,” journalism students from the USC Annenberg School for Communication are mentoring Crenshaw High students by working with several classes to produce audio slideshows, radio commentaries and blogs.

School-Based Outreach

Many individual USC schools and departments also offer enhanced educational opportunities for students in local K-12 schools. Here are just a few highlights:

• USC College’s Joint Educational Project sponsors several programs that send USC students out into the community to serve as tutors or mentors for local schoolchildren. A few of JEP’s most popular programs are ReadersPlus, All Star Tutors and the Literacy Project.
• Through the USC Marshall School of Business’s Youth Outreach, business students volunteer at neighborhood elementary, junior-high and high schools.
• The USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Pre-College Programs encourage, support and prepare local K-12 students to major in science or engineering when they reach college.
• USC College’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies organizes educational programs for everyone from kindergarten students to retirees.
• The USC Roski School of Fine Arts offers two- and four-week studio art courses for local high-school students.
• The USC Thornton School of Music’s school programs include free weekly music classes for local children, music workshops for classroom teachers and the popular JazzReach.