Urban Arts free college access program offers intensive counseling and financial aid supports, enabling 100% of seniors to go to college with minimal-to-no debt.

New York, NY—Urban Arts teaches video game design to underrepresented students as a pathway to college and career. As part of Urban Arts’ mission to create a diverse talent pipeline, we provide intensive college access services to ensure our students earn their ideal educations paired with the maximum in scholarships to reduce the debt burden.

2024 Acceptance Season

This 2024 Acceptance Season, our seniors earned $7,892,652 in scholarships—and an incredible $25M since 2017. They’re attending a wide range of national schools and most are continuing to study the Computer Sciences (CS), from Game Design to Computational Media to Interactive Arts. Others are electing to study Journalism, Music, Graphic Design—even Philosophy.

Irene Leung won the Nagler Scholarship this year, totaling $60,000. “When asked, ‘What will this scholarship enable you to do?’ It will enable me—a student from a low-income background—to study Philosophy, a  subject that not many people like me choose, because of the pressure to study a subject that leads to a real job.I will have the privilege to continue learning for the sake of learning,” Irene said. “Don’t worry—I am going to have a real job one day, but for the next four years I’m going to study the fundamental questions about the nature of reality, knowledge, and reason. I’m going to figure out who and what I am.”

Further, Urban Arts is celebrating five “full ride” offers—two to #NYU, as well as #Yale and #MIT.

The College Access Program at Urban Arts

We serve students from low-income communities who often attend schools that lack adequate college services. Urban Arts offers 

• classes dedicated to higher-ed access, 
• one-on-one counseling, 
• mentoring, 
• essay-writing workshops, 
• application review, 
• recommendation assistance, 
• offer analysis, as well as
• financial aid and scholarship counseling. 

The process can be intimidating and overwhelming, especially so for first-generation students. We help our students build a robust digital portfolio to support their applications and ensure that fees are never an obstacle to applying to college. “Earning a college degree, going to a four -year institution—it’s not just about getting a job, it’s also a place of self-discovery. A lot of our students come from schools that don’t have resources or the access to advanced coursework, mentors, industry partners to let them know what’s available,” says Joelle Blackstock, Director of Postsecondary Education at Urban Arts. “We want every student to define their own future.”

Even as the cost of college continues to rise, with student debt climbing along with it, the long-term financial benefits of a four-year college degree remain indisputable. Adults who have at least a bachelor’s degree have better economic outcomes, on average, than adults who have not completed college. They tend to earn more and accumulate more wealth. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, careers in computer and information technology are projected to grow 11% from 2019 to 2029, faster than the average for all occupations. Still, women and people of color are grossly underrepresented in the creative tech workforce and beyond across nearly all industries. “At Urban Arts, we imagine a world where historically-disadvantaged young people gain economic mobility through meaningful careers as creators, thinkers and leaders in the creative and technology fields,” says Philip Courtney, CEO.

We’re thrilled to celebrate our 2024 class. Our novel approach boosts persistence in the computer sciences for those that self-select out earliest, produces creatively confident and technically expert youth, and ensures a more equitable future economy.  It’s real-time economic mobility. Because a quality education shouldn’t depend on a child’s zip code.

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Increasing student access to computer science education remains an equity imperative. For more information or to work with Urban Arts, please visit www.urbanarts.org or email jen@urbanarts.org.