JCCGCI’S “Horizons Academy” Celebrates Sixteen Years of Delivering Life-Changing Help to the Highest-Risk Teens!

For sixteen years, students in Coney Island and the surrounding neighborhoods have been benefiting from an incredible resource – Horizons Academy. A project of Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island (JCCGCI), the Horizons Academy program is based at Abraham Lincoln High School, and aims to inspire students – some of whom are contending with severe family or mental health challenges – to reach their full potential in both academic and extracurricular areas.

Students admitted into the program are offered an array of services, including S.A.T. preparation, leadership and team building, one-on-one guidance and academic counseling sessions, resume creation and interview preparation, financial literacy training, homework assistance, tutoring, college counseling and college boot camp, and employment placement and guidance.

A crowning accomplishment of the Horizons program is connecting students with enriching internship experiences that offer them the opportunity to earn a meaningful salary during the school year as well as the summer. These internships often turn into long-term jobs, setting these young adults on a path for professional success.

Horizons students also have free computer access in the program’s own state-of-the-art technology lab, during and after school hours, enabling them to complete assignments regardless of their home access. The goal is educational and professional success, and Horizons Academy staff remain connected with students beyond their high school years, to offer additional direction and support.

Horizons students are overwhelmingly from low-income homes, and are broadly representative of diverse ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. They are referred to Horizons by the administration of their school, which has identified them as being the students with the highest risk of dropping out of school. Amazingly, despite the reality of their struggles, since 2013, Horizons students have consistently achieved a 100% high school graduation rate! Post-graduation, more than 85 percent of the students go on to college the fall after graduation; 90 percent of those who start college remain in school the following semester.

These outcomes are remarkable, particularly when considering the enormous hurdles these students face. Among other factors, staff attribute the program’s extraordinary success to the fact that at Horizons, students are paired with professional guidance counselors, who work closely with them to offer academic support and instruction.

In 2022, Congressmember Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives visited JCCGCI and took some time to speak with Horizons students attending a college preparation course. Rep. Jeffries inspired the students with his own life story, an example of historic success and accomplishment.

Rabbi Moshe Wiener, Executive Director of JCCGCI, said, “Horizons students grow to become some of the most resilient, driven, and productive adults. No matter their challenging starting point, they are offered the opportunity and the tools they need to succeed. It is both heartwarming and encouraging to see how, even years after leaving high school, these young adults maintain their close connection to the Horizons team. It is indicative of the long-lasting impact that Horizons has on their future, that students continue to stay in touch, even as they advance into new stages of their lives.”

This phenomenon was illustrated recently when a flood of students from a local high school’s soccer team contacted Horizons Academy to sign up. Staff did some digging and discovered that their soccer coach was a former Horizons student, who benefitted so immensely from her own experiences in the program that she was recruiting her students to join! Indeed, over the years, Horizons has served more than 1500 students. Each receives three years of instruction and engagement – during their junior and senior years of high school, and one year post-graduation. Horizons has also facilitated numerous employment opportunities for students, with nearly 500 placed in full or part-time positions after high school.

For L.Z., a Horizons participant now attending his first year of college, Horizons Academy was life-saving. “I joined Horizons because I was struggling in high school,” he explained. “During the COVID-19 shutdowns and remote learning, I had so much anxiety. Horizons arranged for me to meet with a therapist, who helped me address my concerns. I took advantage of the college and S.A.T. preparation courses, and was also connected with summer employment for the summers of 2021 and 2022. I would not be where I am today without Horizons.”

L.Z. graduated as the valedictorian of his class, and is pursuing an education to realize his dream of becoming a nurse. Via Horizons, he also obtained part-time employment when he completed his summer internship program.

Stories like this, gratifyingly, are the norm for Horizons Academy. Program Director Marissa Sperling summed it up best, saying, “Watching these kids thrive and flourish has been a tremendously rewarding process for me. I see students come in with such hostility and distrust of the system, but with time and guidance, I watch them develop into young leaders in their own right. I feel so blessed to be able to work with our incredible team, under Rabbi Wiener’s unwavering leadership, to truly change lives, one child at a time. “

JCCGCI is grateful to our program funders: NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) “Learn & Earn“ funding stream, NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS)- “Settlement House” funding stream, ConEdison and the Pinkerton Foundation.