A legacy of vision and leadership.
North Lawndale College Prep
Phoenix Pact is the culmination of a rich history of innovation at North Lawndale College Preparatory High School (NLCP)– all aimed to help our alumni earn college degrees and have successful lives. NLCP was the first Chicago public high school to pay for summer college programming for all our students. The first to create alumni counselor positions. The first to nationally train staff and students in Conflict Resolution modeled on Dr. King’s Principles of Non-Violence.
NLCP undertakes this work because they know that, for under-resourced young people, college access and completion rates are in crisis. Only about 10% of high school graduates from low-income families finish college. And this shockingly low number
has not improved since 1970.
Phoenix Pact solves that problem by connecting college-ready NLCP graduates with colleges that have a track record of graduating students of all backgrounds. NLCP and Phoenix Pact will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes in order for thier students to graduate college and have careers that will make all the difference in their lives, families and communities to come.
Pictured: John Horan; President Emeritus, North Lawndale College Prep
Irv and Roberta Lewis
Irv and Roberta Lewis practiced the Hebrew imperative – “Tikkun Olam” – Repair the World. When Roberta passed away in 1999, Irv started the Roberta Bachmann Lewis Scholarship fund (RBL) in her loving memory. The RBL Scholarship ensured that each year 10 students graduating from North Lawndale College Prep (NLCP) had enough money to go to college.
Since then, nearly 500 students from NLCP have become RBL scholars as the RBL Scholarship grew into the Phoenix Pact. The student participants will always be called RBL scholars to honor this legacy and they are awarded a Repair the World medallion to symbolize the gift they have received as well as the gift they have become. Over a hundred RBL Scholars have already started careers that will “repair the world” in their own time and fashion. RBL college graduates will share their talents with their community, making the west side and the world a safer and richer place to carry on this legacy so valued by Irv Lewis, who passed away on November 17, 2019, joining Roberta, his wife of 47 years.
The Steans family
Harrison, Lois, and their three daughters, Heather, Jennifer, and Robin - created the Steans Family Foundation to work holistically within North Lawndale. A primary initiative was creating North Lawndale College Prep (NLCP) with a mission to prepare young people for graduation from high school with the academic skills and personal resilience necessary for successful completion of college. Joining with the Steans family other NLCP’s founders included a wide range of community and foundation leaders among them Harold & Adeline Morrison, Thomas & Maxine Hunter and Burt & Anne Kaplan.
In 2015 Harrison Steans envisioned the Phoenix Pact as a capstone program in the family’s support of NLCP. Before he passed away on February 26, 2019, he took immense pride in its success. The family’s commitment continues through Jennifer’s participation on the Pact board of directors and an abiding commitment to achieve the Pact’s vision of ending generational poverty across the North Lawndale neighborhood.