Young Scholars office

Young Scholars students on campus for the Autism Awareness Walk

Young Scholars was established in 1993, partnering Utica University with the Utica City School District (UCSD), and is designed to motivate students to stay in school, earn a New York State Regents diploma with Advanced Designation and pursue a college education. 

Around 79% of Young Scholars are from minority or refugee backgrounds and at least 90% are first-generation college students.

The Utica Promise is a package Young Scholars (YS) graduates receive if they earn an Advanced Regents Diploma from Proctor High School. Students with an Advanced Regents Diploma receive financial help consisting of scholarships, grants, loans and work-study positions. 

Assistant Director of Young Scholars Dorentina Binaku is a Young Scholars graduate. As a child of refugee parents, she said the program opened up college as an option for her future because it wouldn’t be financially feasible without the help. 

“Once Young Scholars came along, our motto is ‘grow big dreams,’ and it truly allowed me to grow mine,” Binaku said. 

She went on to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree without accruing financial debt. 

“That’s the thing that 12-year-old me would have never seen in the future,” Binaku said.

Binaku’s job at Young Scholars “truly fulfills a purpose” for her. She was inspired by the program’s commitment to helping the students succeed by spending weekends with them helping to do community service events and networking with people in the community. 

“…That’s something that I want to give back to the program…because this community has done so much for me,” Binaku said.

Student Government Association President Kathi Jabe is a Young Scholar alum, as are the president and vice president of the sophomore classes Eh Moo Serr and Genesis Campbell respectively.

Although the additional financial assistance gives some students an incentive to attend Utica University, students are not obligated to attend Utica. Young Scholars takes high school YS students on college visits through their education, and out of the 43 Proctor YS students, 39 are enrolled in college and 13 are attending Utica. 

Students are offered tutoring by Utica University students, summer programming, enrichment activities like college and career exploration, mentorship and SAT exam preparation. Students also have opportunities to be placed in paid internships at businesses throughout the Mohawk Valley to prepare them for a successful college experience.

Binaku said she loves going to the YS sites at the schools every week and talking to students about their college aspirations and the majors they want to pursue. She said the Utica Promise is a big motivational booster for students because of the support system the program becomes for students. Finances play a large role in whether students decide to go to college and which college they’ll choose. The Utica Promise helps them realize that college is possible for them, Binaku said. 

“I think I wouldn’t be where I am without the Young Scholars program,” Jabe said. 

Jabe is a biochemistry major and a first-generation college student. Understanding how to prepare for college and applying for colleges was a difficult process for her to understand when she was in high school, she said.

She took summer classes at Utica in the STEAM program, the STEM program combined with arts, along with other high school students. Utica professors taught the classes, assisted by mostly Utica students as TAs. 

Having someone already in college be there to answer questions and talk about their experience helps prospective college students, Jabe said. She now works in the Young Scholars office as an office assistant, tutors high school and middle school scholars and assists high school students who come into labs on campus to do experiments.

“I’m very grateful to still be a part of it,” Jabe said. “It wasn’t all about academics. Young Scholars was really a place where I met my best friend. We felt like we were making a difference. We got to connect on a deeper level than just classmates.”

Education major Ju Mi La made some of her closest friends and was prepared for leadership roles in Young Scholars. Being a leader and setting an example is a strong message in the program; you have to think about who and what you represent, La said. 

Ju Mi La was the salutatorian of her graduating class. A number of Young Scholars have made it in the top ten graduating students at Proctor, including math major Andrew Nu who graduated ninth in a class of over 600 students.

“Everything that we do makes other people [students in middle school] want to be a Young Scholar,” La said. “Being a Young Scholar, seeing that because of what you’re doing and the image you represent, the younger kids also want to be like you, you’re automatically set as a role model.”