High-Achieving Middle-Schoolers Tour UMaine

A group of about 50 seventh-graders from Amistad Academy Middle School in New Haven, Conn. toured the University of Maine on Thursday, June 6. The students were accompanied by their teacher, Abigail Herrick, a 2010 University of Maine graduate and former Team Maine member.

Highlights included a welcome at the Admissions Office, a Mainely Physics Roadshow performance, lunch with a representative from the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, tours of the Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center and Wyeth Studio Art Gallery and meetings with faculty and students from the School of Performing Arts and with coaches of several athletic teams.

Amistad Academy Middle School opened in 1999. It’s the flagship of Achievement First, a network of 22 nonprofit, college-preparatory K–12 charter schools in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island, according to the school’s website. In 2004, Amistad Academy Middle School was highlighted in the 2004 PBS documentary Closing the Achievement Gap. Approximately 97 percent of students who attend Amistad Academy Middle School are African American or Hispanic and 78 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch, according to its website.

Scholars from the grade 5–8 middle school visit three universities each year.