Vol.24, No. 04	Sept. 25, 1998

Double Discovery Program Is Recognized by White House

The President's Initiative on Race has identified Columbia's Double Discovery Center as part of its Promising Practices program. This program highlights community efforts across the United States designed to reduce racial disparities by expanding opportunities in critical areas, such as education.

Olger C. Twyner III, executive director of the Double Discovery Center, attended the recognition ceremony in Washington, D.C., last Friday, Sept. 18.

The Double Discovery Center, founded in 1965, is an after-school and summer academic not-for-profit organization which each year serves over 1,000 low-income and first-generation college-bound youths attending New York City schools. The average student is admitted to Double Discovery with an academic average of 76 and attends a New York City school with a dropout rate of more than 20 percent, a college enrollment rate of 29 percent and a student/counselor ratio of 423 to 1.

The diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds shared by Double Discovery students, volunteers and staff provide a rich forum for the educational activities that take place on the campus and around the city.

Double Discovery espouses the belief that its volunteers and staff have something to offer New York City students and that they, in return, can teach and enrich us as well. This philosophy fosters a "double discovery" experience between New York City's low-income youth and Columbia's students, faculty and staff.

Through year-round tutoring, standardized test preparation, academic reinforcement classes, college and financial aid counseling and mentoring programs, the Center's students achieved a 93 percent graduation rate and a 93 percent college entrance rate in 1997. To learn more about the Double Discovery Center as a Promising Practice Program, visit the White House homepage at www.white-house.gov/Initiatives/OneAmerica/Practices.