Bridgehampton Child Care Center Looks To Fund College Prep Program

Tylik Furman, who graduated from Bridgehampton High School this spring, is ready to be independent.He admits, though, that it took him a little longer than most of his classmates to decide that college was the way to find the independence he seeks.

But don’t blame Tammy Coffey. She tried.

The teen director and outreach advocate at the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center would call Mr. Furman twice a week, beginning at the start of the school year, bugging him about college application deadlines. She first met the student when he attended an SAT prep class at the center, and she was determined to keep him in line for the college admission process.

Then one day, Mr. Furman flipped the script and beat Ms. Coffey to the phone.

“He called me up and said he was ready,” she recalls.

It was three months before graduation—and he was just beginning his application for admission to the University of New Haven in Connecticut.

His mind was made up, but the 19-year-old Mr. Furman—the first person in his family to attend college—needed some guidance in navigating the waters of college applications.

That’s where Ms. Coffey stepped in. She helped Mr. Furman and his mother, Kiesha, a life skills specialist, through the application process, and guided the soon-to-be high school graduate toward what he would like to do in the future.

“The reality is that Kiesha just needed my support,” Ms. Coffey said. “And that’s the whole thing—if you’ve never been through it, it’s a scary process. It’s a fear of the unknown.”

Mr. Furman will start at the University of New Haven next week as a sports management major, after pinning down his career goal: He wants to become a college athletics scout. He played basketball in high school and wanted to stick with it in some way.

“I feel like the easiest or the best thing I can do is get involved in sports, since I’m interested,” he said.

Given the timing, Mr. Furman, who previously lived in Bridgehampton and now lives in Riverhead, could not help but notice that most of his classmates were more prepared than himself.

“It was kind of scary, because other kids in my grade were on top of things, and their parents knew what to do because they had older siblings who went to college,” Mr. Furman said. “It was me and a few other people who didn’t really know what was going on, because we didn’t have the same situation. Our families never went to college, but they still were successful even though they didn’t go to college.”

The Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center is currently raising money to fund a holistic college preparation program. Beginning in the freshman year of high school, it would help students like Tylik Furman find out exactly what to expect when applying to schools, help them choose a school that is right for them, and get them ready for standardized tests.

The center is a nonprofit organization that provides educational and recreational services. Many, though not all, of the families it serves come from Bridgehampton’s African-American and immigrant populations, including low-income households.

Fundraising for the holistic college preparation program is under way: The center has about $30,000 to go out of a total goal of $57,950 that will cover personnel, computers and equipment, travel and accommodations, and supplies.

In freshman and sophomore years of high school, the program will introduce students to college testing and hold group sessions covering topics such as the importance of being well-rounded students. The program intends for high school juniors to have one-on-one sessions with counselors and attend local college fairs, and an overnight college tour. Then, in senior year, students will be prepped for essay writing, financial aid applications and scholarship searches.

“You fill things out as you go from the ninth grade to the 12th grade, so when you get to the 12th grade, you’re pretty much there,” Ms. Coffey explained.

Mr. Furman said he wished he knew just how much going to college could cost—and the grades that were necessary for getting into schools.

“And the grades that would’ve helped you with scholarships,” his mom added. “I wish I knew he really, really wanted to go to college. I think he made up his mind the last minute, to be honest. I think he was just trying to figure out what he really wanted to do in life.”

But Mr. Furman showed commitment. He was prompt in meeting application deadlines and submitting necessary materials, such as his college essay, once he kicked off the application process with this mother and Ms. Coffey. “He’s really quick, so whenever we asked him to do something, he could just go in and do it,” Ms. Coffey said.

Ms. Coffey has worked with youth since the 1980s, and participated in Upward Bound, a federally funded program set to develop students’ career and educational plans, when she was in high school. “Much like Tylik wants to go into sports management, my goal was to go into a field that I enjoy so that it won’t be so much work, it would be fun. That’s what this is—this is fun for me. I get the gratification of Tylik succeeding and raising that bar.”

Tylik’s mom said she is excited to see her son, whom she describes as funny and outgoing, continue his education. “I never had the opportunity to go. For my child to go is awesome.”

Mr. Furman said he’s looking forward to becoming successful and meeting new people on a diverse campus, where he hopes to play basketball as he did in high school, perhaps on a club team. And while the summer break has gone by quickly for him, he said he’s ready to go and be independent.

“He’s ready to go—and I’m crying every day,” his mom said, laughing.

Mr. Furman said he will miss her while he is away.

“It means a lot, because I’m the first one in my family to go to college,” he said. “I just want to prove to everybody that I can do it, and show anybody who didn’t have faith in me that I accomplished something that a lot of people can’t do.”