USC Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative

By Jason Lewis

One hundred percent of the 6th through 12th grade students who participate in the USC Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative (USC McMorrow NAI) go on to college after they graduate from high school, with most of them attending USC.  USC McMorrow NAI scholars have also gone on to attend UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, and many more prestigious universities. This rigorous college access and success program is operated by USC Educational Partnerships in the division of University Relations.    

Nearly 1,000 students from various areas of Los Angeles are in this program, with the southern area including Foshay Learning Center, Dorsey High School, Crenshaw High School, Audubon Middle School, and Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy.

There is a special feeling to have a program like this impact Los Angeles’ Black communities.  Historically USC has been the de facto home school of South Los Angeles, in large part because of the success of the football program.  It has always been a big deal when somebody from the neighborhood made it to USC.  Kim Thomas-Barrios, associate senior vice president of USC Educational Partnerships and the director of USC McMorrow NAI, grew up in Leimert Park and she is a USC graduate.

“Growing up we watched USC and UCLA football and basketball along with my dad,” she said.  “Once my sister and I started USC in 1979, it was jubilation.  Not just in our family but also in our neighborhood.”

The USC McMorrow NAI was founded in 1991 and the majority of the program’s graduates become first-generation college students.

The high school students in the program attend early morning weekday classes before their regular school day begins.  All of the students in the program participate in Saturday classes focused on a wide range of subjects (English, math, and science) to provide academic enrichment, SAT prep, and personal development programming.  The Saturday classes give students the rigorous academic immersion they need to compete on a national level.  This program prepares the students for college academics and also makes them better high school students.

“We have seen our students get better at their soft skills, like finishing their homework, turning in their homework and test taking skills,” Thomas-Barrios said.  “They get better at all of that because they’re doing a lot of it.  We test them every Saturday, so they’re used to the cadence of being in an exam mode and way of thinking all of the time.  We see that they get better at that.”

Many college freshmen have a culture shock when their first year begins, but students who go through the USC McMorrow NAI program will have less of an adjustment period, which will allow them to do well their first semester or quarter in college.

“When they start college, they are familiar of the cadence of college,” Thomas-Barrios said.  “There’s no bell ringing, or people telling you where to go.  You have to do this on your own.  This program teaches them how to be an undergrad.”

A program like this works best when there is buy-in from the parents.  Some of the parents did not attend college, and for parents who did attend college, the admission process is different today.  That can make it difficult for them to lead their children to higher education.  The USC McMorrow NAI requires a commitment from the parents to attend workshops so that they have the information that they need to guide their children through this process.

“The parents have a clearer understanding of their role along their child’s path to college,” Thomas-Barrios said.  “They understand where they can support their kids.  They learn how they can ensure that their child has the space and the time to be able to accomplish what they need to accomplish.”

For more information about the USC McMorrow NAI, visit www.communities.usc.edu/educational-partnerships/nai/