Pass With Flying Colors - Camp Manito

“I also found potential in myself. Before, I never saw myself as
a leader. I would just sit in the background. Being part of
PWFC helped me learn that I have to believe in myself and actually do something.”
- Carlos, Pass With Flying Colors student
Pass with Flying Colors article 2015
(This is the first in a series of articles that will feature Manito-wish Leadership program organizational partners)
Pass With Flying Colors (PWFC) is a Chicago based organization founded in 2011. PWFC targets youth in underserved communities and youth in the Chicago area and, (from their mission statement) “prepares Chicago’s under-served high school students to be successful in college.” PWFC founders Kenny and Paula Goldman set out to create a unique program to
provide opportunities and experiences that would assist students in reaching their personal and academic potential. In particular, the PWFC staff focuses on academic enrichment,
leadership and personal development opportunities. Students are also provided on-campus experiences at various colleges and universities as ways to broaden their horizons and
push them to see greater possibilities. PWFC began with the first Freshman cohort at CICS Northtown in 2011. Since then they have added a cohort a year and graduated their first
seniors this past spring.
In May of this year I had an opportunity to sit with 11 students from the Pass With Flying Colors (PWFC) program at CICS Northtown Academy in Chicago. All of these students have
been to Camp Manito-wish at least once (some twice) and spoke eloquently about their experience in the PWFC program and the impact of their experience at camp. As Leo, a PWFC
student described part of his experience:
“It was kind of scary, because I’m usually the kind of kid who just sticks around their mom, so just being somewhere far away and so different, without someone to rely on and just being on my own with just my friends and the camp staff, helped me prove that I can be responsible and learn to be independent.”
The PWFC/Manito-wish partnership began in the fall of 2013 as the organization began to search for additional ways to give students more challenges and experiences outside of their
home environment. They were referred to Manito-wish by long time partner, The Schuler Scholars Program. As with the Schuler program, the student experience at camp involves a
specific sequence of activities that are designed to focus on personal awareness and challenges, skills of working with others, problem solving and stepping out of comfort zones. The
student’s time at camp culminates in a high challenge experience and we use the whole experience as a set of lessons and metaphors that have direct translation into real life for
these students. As PWFC student Justina told me,
“Going to camp, in particular, showed me how to work with other people that I wouldn’t ordinarily work with on a daily basis. They [The Manito-wish facilitators] helped me see other
ways things could be done so I would take those into consideration.”
We feel like partnerships with organizations like PWFC are an important way that we fulfill our mission at camp Manito-wish. In my experience with this group of students in particular,
these are our collective best and brightest. All they need is an opportunity and PWFC is, for many of these students, the opportunity of a lifetime.
As PWFC student Ale described it:
“Being part of PWFC has helped me to take initiative; to take opportunities to be a leader and be able to go around and see colleges and get a grasp of what I want, where I want to
go and what I want to be. I feel like through PWFC I have gone down different routes and am a little bit closer to what I want to be and where I want to go.”
For more information on Pass with Flying Colors, visit their web site at:
http://www.passwithflyingcolors.org/