History of Hartford Youth Scholars


Launched in 2005 by the Mayor of Hartford, Eddie Perez, and several key leaders in The Hartford community: founding Chairman Karl Krapek, and founding board members Don Wilson, Tom Francoline, and Kelvin Roldán, HYS was originally created as a Scholarship Program, a directive from the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Commission Report that recommended more students from Hartford attend private high schools, given these schools' impressive records of success with  college placement.

It soon became clear that scholarship aid was not the true obstacle to enrolling more students from Hartford in area private schools. If students could be prepared for the rigor of private school, aid would subsequently be available for them.

HYS sought a partner in the Steppingstone Foundation in Boston, a leader in preparing young students for college for over 20 years. In 2006, the two organizations formed a partnership and Hartford Youth Scholars launched "The Steppingstone Academy - Hartford," its first program. This academic program focused on providing middle school students with services helping them to develop strong study, personal, social and other skills making them prepared for academic excellence in high school and college.

Recognizing the differences between Boston and Hartford, and the programmatic adjustments that were made to accommodate these differences, HYS and Steppingstone ended their formal partnership in 2017, while remaining collaborative colleagues to this day. We have re-named “The Steppingstone Academy - Hartford,” now referring to this academic program as “The Collegiate Academy,” and in 2010 we added our High School & College programming. These programs were designed to further the organization’s three core goals:
  1. To implement a rigorous academic enrichment program for Hartford middle school students that increases high school performance, including helping them to gain access to the finest private and other high schools;
  2. To provide high school and college Scholars with comprehensive supports and other programming to help ensure high school graduation, college enrollment, and college graduation; and 
  3. To cultivate a generation of college graduate Scholars that will one day return to work and live in Hartford, thereby strengthening the Hartford community. 
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