Mission and History

The Boston Scholar Athlete Program (BSA) is a registered 501c(3) whose mission is to improve academic achievement through athletics in the Boston Public High Schools.  This focus is based on the proven link between athletic participation and positive academic performance. On the field, we strive to improve the scholar-athlete experience through equipment and uniform upgrades, and skills training, and conditioning.  We provide regular instruction to the coaching staff to ensure they are properly trained both in their sport and more importantly in the philosophy that a coach is a mentor.  In the classroom, we strive to improve academic performance and personal growth through mentoring, tutoring, summer job placement assistance, and our College Readiness Initiative.  These collaborative efforts build skills, confidence, shape character, and enhance opportunities for success.

The center of the academic program is the Zone, a school-based learning center for scholar-athletes to receive academic support.  In 2009, BSA staffed, operated, and funded a pilot Zone in Dorchester High School.  It was painted in the school colors and decorated with school trophies and photos of the scholar-athletes in action – all highlighting their accomplishments. The impact on the students was immediate: a sense of pride was restored, grades increased, and confidence grew.

Impact
Since the establishment of the Zones, the BSA has demonstrated noted improvement in our scholar-athlete's academic performance and eligibility rates.  We measure our success on a daily basis by tracking eligibility, grade point averages, progress reports, and evaluating student satisfaction surveys. Due to our relationship with the Boston Public Schools, we are able to monitor the grades of the 3,000+ scholar-athletes currently enrolled in our Zones. This enables Zone Facilitators to asses scholar-athletes’ grades, test scores and teacher’s comments. This is vital to our success because it allows for day-to-day monitoring of academic performance so that scholar-athletes, tutors, teachers and Facilitators can work to prevent ineligibility, and increase participation in athletics.