Bronx teens Matthew Carillo, 18, and Lesly Rojas Rodriguez, 16, were presented on Monday with $1,500 college scholarships from their high school’s charter network for choosing its new name: United Charter High Schools.
“I’ve been thinking about how the teachers treat you and how they try to build more than a teacher-student relationship, but try to make you feel like family or friends,” Rojas Rodriguez said about why she used the word “united” for her submission.
The Monday, Jan. 29 celebration at the charter network’s Jane Addams Campus unveiled the new name and honored Carillo, Rojas Rodriguez and a third teen, Queens student DiAndre Chin, for their name nomination. The celebration featured speeches from the three teenagers as they discussed their experiences as students of United Charter High Schools.
The Brooklyn United Marching Band gave a performance and Indiana Colts NFL player Titus Leo — an alumnus of the network — sent in a video message for the students.
“The name United really unites us as an organization and what we strive to do as a community,” Leo said in the video.
In October, more than 300 high school juniors and seniors submitted nominations for the network’s new name, along with essays about what that name meant to their school. The executive director of United Charter High Schools, Curtis Palmore, says that a board of network staff then combed through the submissions for hours to decide on a name that was representative of the network.
Carillo, Rojas Rodriguez and Chin were notified in mid-January that their submission had been selected to win the contest.
“We as an organization believe that our students are leaders,” Palmore said. “We wanted to have an inclusive process where we can hear from everyone within the organization, and we felt that our students could give a very introspective perspective on what our name should be.”
Palmore hopes the $1,500 scholarships will augment the cost of college for the three students who won.
United Charter High Schools is a network of seven schools across the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens serving nearly 3,000 students. Previously operated by New Visions for Public Schools, the charter network has moved into a new phase of its operation, now applying to be an education corporation under the name United Charter High Schools.
A new distinction as an education corporation would allow United Charter High Schools to share resources and utilize its funds across its seven schools.
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