Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 are inviting all parents, especially parents of color, to their annual National African American Parent Involvement Dinner at the end of this month.
The dinner will be held at OPRF’s south cafeteria Feb. 27 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Parents can register online at the school’s website.
Tyrone Garland, community outreach coordinator and football and track & field coach at OPRF, said the dinner is a way for the high school to reach parents of color to promote and educate on the importance of their child’s first year of high school.
“I am really big on students understanding their options and understanding why their freshman year in high school is so important academically,” Garland said. “Just to build their GPA. I touch on that a lot.”
Garland, who came to OPRF with more than 10 years of experience working in college admissions through Northwestern University and Northern Illinois University, said he is open with students about the struggles he endured as a teenager trying to navigate his way to college.
And a big part of that is a parent’s involvement in their student’s academic career.
“I let a lot of kids know that my journey was extremely rough,” Garland said. “Both of my parents did not go to college. So, I didn’t always have all the advice. They did the best they could. But I didn’t have all the birds-eye advice that I wish I did have.”
Garland said he used a sport as a vehicle to get a better education at Michigan State with a full scholarship.
This year’s event will feature keynote speaker Pamela Ellis, CEO and founder of Compass College Advisory, a firm that offers “individualized college preparation experiences” for students.
According to Compass College Advisory, the ideal time for students to begin thinking about college admissions is during their freshman and sophomore years of high school. The firm has in-person centers in Chicago as well as Columbus, Ohio but they also work with students nationwide.
Ellis holds a doctorate degree from Stanford University School of Education.
“I couldn’t have found a better speaker with Dr. Pamela Ellis,” Garland said. “Why not bring this woman in and see if we can hit home with parents about the importance of grades, of setting your kids up for success, the importance of having options academically to help pay for schools. A lot of these things is what the keynote speaking will be talking about.”
While last year’s event was well attended, Garland hopes to keep increasing attendance for the dinner each year.
To help aid in that goal, he said he will be reaching out to the feeder schools in hopes of bringing in middle school parents who want to learn more about how to help their incoming freshman succeed at OPRF.
“Everyone is welcome, all we ask is that you sign up ahead of time,” Garland said. “I would love a decent amount of middle school parents, especially middle school parents of color, so they can understand the expectations for once their kid gets here.”