Society / The Seen

Young Immigrant’s Amazing Houston Story Tugs at the Heartstrings, Inspires Record Giving: $1.55 Million Night’s a Lifesaver

BY // 05.11.17

What: KIPP Houston Public School‘s 16th annual dinner celebrating 200 schools nationwide

Where: Bayou City Event Center

PC Moment: Guest speaker KIPP alumna and children’s services manager at Star of Hope, Atalia Castro shared her story of coming to the United States with her family when she was 8 years old. Attending a KIPP school, she developed the tools to live her dream of becoming a childhood education specialist. However, her quest to attend college would have been nearly impossible without the Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

With close to 11,000 students on the wait list for the 26 KIPP schools in Houston, the record-breaking $1.55 million raised on this evening is critical to the mission. Today, 13,500 students attend KIPP schools in the Houston area. A handful of those students, members of the Voyage Voices and Krew Dance team, provided entertainment for the evening. Fifty percent of KIPP students, tracked from 8th grade, go on to graduate from college compared to 10 percent of low-income students attending Harris County schools. 

Applause, applause for chairs Kelley and Donnie Young; for the honorees, members of the original KIPP board of directors; and for the heavy-hitter group of 850 who turned out in support of the KIPP Houston Public Schools.

Who: KIPP Houston Public Schools Superintendent, Sehba Ali, KIPP co-founder Mike Feinberg, Texas State Board of Education chair Donna Bohorich, Rice University president David Leebron, YES Prep Public Schools CEO Mark DiBella, founding dean of the University of Houston’s Honor College Ted Estess, Laura and John Arnold Foundation’s Laura and John Arnold, Strake Jesuit president the Rev. Jeff Johnson, former Texas governor Mark White, Congressman Gene Green, State Sen. Larry Taylor, YMCA of Greater Houston president and CEO Paul McEntire, and City Council members Karla Cisneros and Mike Laster.

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