Family of Schools Family of Schools
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Each year more than 1,300 USC students, faculty and staff work with thousands of schoolchildren in a constellation of schools that has become a family.

A Success Story
When a Vermont Avenue Elementary School fourth-grader energetically waved her hand and asked whether she could still live at home once she started college, USC graduate student Veronica Santos knew she had accomplished her mission.

"This nine-year-old girl was actually seeing herself in college," says Santos, a USC School of Social Work intern who worked at the school through a special program supported by USC. "It's a way to get them to set high expectations for themselves."

Santos refers to a college preparation program that is just one of many programs that has since gone on to serve students at the USC Family of Schools.

Program Overview
In 1994, USC partnered with five schools near the University Park Campus to launch the USC Family of Five Schools program. In 2001, three more schools were added to the family now known as the USC Family of Schools program (USC FOS). Then in 2007, two more schools were added to the family bringing the total of schools to ten. The program provides educational, cultural and development opportunities to more than 13,000 pre-kindergarten to 12th grade neighborhood youth. The USC Family of Schools includes:

  • 32nd Street/USC Magnet Center
  • Dr. Theodore T. Alexander Jr. Science Center School
  • James A. Foshay Learning Center
  • John W. Mack Elementary School
  • Lenicia B. Weemes Elementary School
  • Manual Arts High School
  • Norwood Street Elementary School
  • St. Agnes School
  • St. Vincent School
  • Vermont Avenue Elementary School

The goal of the USC FOS partnership is to develop ways in which children can access the community's rich resources, including its institutions of higher learning, its museums, libraries and recreation facilities. The partnership provides numerous services to youth. A sampling includes:

  • Tutoring in reading and math through the USC ReadersPlus program
  • Hands-on science workshops through the after-school USC Mission Science program
  • Sports activities through the After School Sports Connection and Kids In Sports programs
  • Music and arts enrichment through the Musical Outreach Program and Art in the Village program
  • A safety program for school children called Kid Watch, a USC signature project