{"id":2361,"date":"2025-10-15T19:47:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/2361\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:47:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:47:19","slug":"lower-merion-nonprofit-celebrates-50-years-of-helping-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/2361\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower Merion nonprofit celebrates 50+ years of helping students"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Lamont Robinson recalled being 14 and the struggle of growing up in a drug-infested, dangerous public housing project on the west side of Chicago. He wanted out of the neighborhood and the city.\n<\/p>\n

When Robinson didn\u2019t get into the high school of his choice in his hometown, he said his vice principal told him about A Better Chance<\/a>, a New York City\u2013based program designed to help students from underserved communities access better education opportunities in private or suburban school systems.\n<\/p>\n

So Robinson applied through the Urban League<\/a>, took some aptitude tests and got accepted. He had a choice between Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Robinson chose ABC Lower Merion<\/a>, because he was a fan of Philadelphia 76ers basketball legend Julius \u201cDr. J\u201d Erving.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThe program saved my life, being in Chicago and living in the situation that I did,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cWe used to get shot at and chased all the time. It was transformational for me \u2014 if not for the program, I wouldn\u2019t be here today.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Today, Robinson, 53, is an executive at Netflix who oversees its small business program. He graduated from Lake Forest College, earned a master of business administration degree, and is now a board member with ABC Lower Merion.\n<\/p>\n

For more than 50 years, ABC Lower Merion has helped young people of color like Robinson earn scholarships to get into college with a strict regimen that includes mentors, academic advisers and student housing \u2014 the ABC House \u2014 in the Ardmore section of Lower Merion Township, said John Emery, the nonprofit\u2019s vice president and a board member.\n<\/p>\n

In May, the organization celebrated its more than five decades of service with a gala event attended by about 150 people, including alumni, staff and volunteers, at the Merion Tribute House in Merion Station, Pennsylvania.\n<\/p>\n

The gala featured food, drinks, a DJ and live music by the Wynnefield Jazz Collective. About $25,000 was raised through donations, a raffle and a silent auction. The proceeds will be used to renovate the ABC House, which is about a century old.\n<\/p>\n

The Ardmore home, which can house eight program participants, allows the students to enroll in Lower Merion High School, one of the state\u2019s top-rated schools, according to U.S. News & World Report<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

The suburban Philadelphia home comes with prepared meals, a paid, live-in resident director and paid, live-in tutors who conduct mandatory study halls from 7 to 9 p.m. during school nights.\n<\/p>\n

Emery said the volunteer academic advisers keep an eye on the students\u2019 grades, attend parent-teacher conferences and attend school open-house nights.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very structured environment to make sure they are achieving their full potential and academic success,\u201d said Emery, who has been part of the program for 15 years.\n<\/p>\n

During that time, Emery has served as an academic adviser to two young men. One graduated from New York University and the other graduated from Howard University. They are among the 100 young men who have completed the program in the Philadelphia area.\n<\/p>\n

One of the local program\u2019s well-known alums is Robert \u201cBobbito\u201d Garcia, who hosted a hip-hip radio show in the \u201890s, as well as the NPR podcast \u201cWhat\u2019s Good with Stretch and Bobbito.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

About 95% of the participants graduated from college having earned full or nearly full scholarships and other financial aid, according to the program.\n<\/p>\n

A well-known alumnus of the national program is prominent civil rights lawyer Deval Patrick, who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015.\n<\/p>\n

One participant\u2019s experience<\/p>\n

Robinson, who grew up in Chicago before coming to Philly, said he struggled in the program because of cultural shock, being away from his family and, sometimes, not playing by the rules.\n<\/p>\n

But the structured environment, including supervised tutoring and a family atmosphere, helped\u00a0 him push through.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTutoring was needed. If it wasn\u2019t for the tutoring I would have been kicked out of the program,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cI was just not where I needed to be academically. Even though it was a struggle to have a study hall every night, a great benefit came from that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the food and having a cook. It was another way to remain grounded. You are still a part of a family by having home-cooked meals,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cSitting at a table [with others] forced us to have conversations to get to know each other.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[183,185,184,186,223,2135],"class_list":["post-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-pennsylvania-education","tag-scholarships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}