Queen City Scholars
Delaware College Scholars Expansion into Charlotte
What is the program?
Queen City Scholars (QCS) is the Charlotte Expansion of the Delaware College Scholars Program. We academically and socially prepare high-achieving, under-resourced public high school students for successfully applying to, succeeding in, and graduating from four-year colleges and universities. Preference is given to first-generation college students. Our special sauce and core distinguishing feature is that we provide a residential summer experience for three consecutive summers - we enable scholars to gain the lived experience of being away from home while layering the academic, social, and college access support and knowledge.
Why Charlotte?
Since starting DCS in 2014, we have provided our unique residential experience to nearly 600 students in Delaware. We began serving students in West Charlotte High School in 2020. We are committed to Charlotte because of the legacy and family of our founding Board Chair, Paul H. Harrell, Jr. and because Dr. Tony Alleyne began his career in education with Teach for America, Charlotte at Martin Luther King Middle School in the Hidden Valley neighborhood. Thus, the program expansion to Charlotte aligns perfectly for DCS.
Funding for QCS EXCLUSIVELY SUPPORTS CHARLOTTE STUDENTS
All donations raised for QCS will be 100% towards Charlotte students. Through the Paul Harrell Jr. Charlotte Expansion Fund, we have restricted all monies raised to be exclusive for our Queen City Scholars!
Watch the video below to learn more:
What do we do?
Residential Summer Program for 3-consecutive summers (starts summer after 10th grade through summer post-HS Graduation). The program continues to track and support scholars in college, as well.
Summer session is free of charge to participants. The session includes room and board, transportation, nearly a dozen college trips, academic remediation/enrichment, SAT/ACT Test Prep, 1-on-1 college counseling support, college application/essay curriculum, and more!
During the school year, QCS staff conducts bi-weekly site visits to participants at their home school (regular check-ins and meetings are also conducted virtually).
Program Outcomes
We know our residential summer programming impacts scholar success! We are excited to reach more scholars!
Growth
We conducted our pilot program exclusively with West Charlotte High School from Summer 2020 through Summer 2023. Within this pilot, we supported 2-dozen scholars! In 2024, we officially expanded through additional partners and will be scaling our growth - We are excited to serve more scholars!
In 2024, we had approximately 25 scholars across several high schools. We aim to have 70 scholars for Summer 2025 and 110 scholars for Summer 2026!
Partners in Charlotte
We are scaling our growth in Charlotte, introducing partnerships with community-based organizations and Title I high schools.
We are able to partner with community-based organizations and Title 1 high schools to provide our summer residential programming - significantly enhancing the support of students across Charlotte. Our partnerships enable us to find, recruit and support more students across the city.
CMS Title I High School Partners for 2025
Community-Based Organization Partners for 2025
New 2025 Site Announcement
The QCS residential program for 2025 will be hosted at Johnson C. Smith University! Through our partnerships and continuing to accept more students, we intend to enroll 70+ scholars for QCS by Summer 2026!
