Administrators at both the FDA and Ithaca College say their partnership will only enhance educational opportunity at both institutions. A private, comprehensive college of some 5,900 students, Ithaca offers a wide variety of programs in each of five schools-Business, Communications, Health Sciences and Human Performance, Humanities and Sciences, and Music. Situated at the southern tip of Cayuga Lake, the College offers more than 100 degree programs at its modern, South Hill campus. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, the Frederick Douglass Academy bases its success on a singular mission-that all of its students get through high school and into college, regardless of the hardships they may face. At FDA, excellence is expected of and delivered by a student body that draws the majority of its members from single-parent homes.
Many students live in poverty and in areas where drugs and crime are a way of life.
We have found a significant number of areas where we can work together to produce something we were individually unable to do. For Ithaca, the academy offers a new field placement setting for its teaching option students-a placement that will prepare them for teaching in a multicultural world. Ithaca's students and faculty have already participated in site visits and workshops to observe and work with the academy's students and staff, and those interactions will continue. In turn, The FDA will continue to rely on the College for assistance in the development of its television studio, student newspaper, and computer laboratory. Three FDA students participated in the College's Summer Sophomore Program last year, and scholarships have been established to allow others to make that trip in years to come.