Kenwood Academy
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Kenwood Academy is a public high school in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is a six-year high school that accepts students from 7th grade through 12th grade. It is operated by Chicago Public Schools.
The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) began the planning process to build Kenwood Academy, then called Kenwood High School, in November 1965. With Northern big cities undergoing the final years of the baby boom, the CPS felt the need for a modernized new high school on Chicago's South Side. The high school was sited on 51st Street and Lake Park, near the Illinois Central Railroad, and was built in 1967-1969. The address is 5100 S. Blackstone Avenue, Chicago, IL 60615. The school's campus is shared with Canter Middle School (formerly Louis Wirth Elementary School). The school is bounded by East Hyde Park Boulevard on the south, South Lake Park Avenue on the east, South Blackstone Avenue on the west, and East 50th Street on the north. The school's football field, however, extends the campus north to East 49th Street along South Lake Park Avenue.
Kenwood varsity athletic teams are named the "Broncos." The school's football field is not regulation size, and no home games are played there. There are no stands for spectators.
Kenwood has long suffered from strained relations with the surrounding Hyde Park community. Many students commute into the neighborhood from other parts of the South Side, and few members of Hyde Park's middle- and upper-middle class families actually attend the school. Kenwood students have long been blamed for violence along Hyde Park's commerical corridors, especially East 53rd Street and East Hyde Park Boulevard. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Hyde Parkers avoid those strips during the lunch hours, because they don't want to encounter rowdy Kenwood students on their lunch breaks. In recent years, Kenwood students have been arrested for violently attacking area residents, often for no reason at all.
Although Hyde Park itself is a racially and ethnically diverse neighborhood, few white families send their children to Kenwood, preferring other magnet schools in the Chicago Public Schools system, or private schools, like the nearby Lab School, operated by the University of Chicago. Many of the middle class and upper-middle class black families in Hyde Park also prefer to send their children elsewhere.
Like all Chicago Public Schools, all students who enter Kenwood must pass through metal detectors. ID cards must be worn by students at all times.
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[edit] Kenwood Academy Concert Choir
The Kenwood Academy Concert Choir is an eighty plus member choir under the direction of Mr. Kenneth M. Lenon. They have performed all over the city of Chicago as well as at churches, colleges and universities, and vocal competitions nationwide.
Stars such as Denzel Washington and The Winans have shared billings, at their own requests, with the Kenwood Concert Choir. Members of the Concert Choir have also sung for Senator Barack Obama.
[edit] Academic Center Program
The Academic Center Program started as a way to introduce a select few 7th and 8th grade students to the high school environment before actually entering high school. Students in this program are referred to as "preppies," as they are preparing for high school by taking high school courses before they graduate from the 8th grade.
Students are offered the choice of staying at Kenwood Academy or attending any other high school with their credits and GPA. Students that choose to stay at Kenwood are granted the right, in their senior year, to take tuition-free courses at the University of Chicago.
[edit] Kenwood Academy and the University of Chicago
Because of their mutual history of academic excellence and their close proximity to each other, Kenwood Academy and the University of Chicago have enjoyed a great relationship over the years. Kenwood Academy students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses can access student resources on the University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus. University of Chicago students and professors have traditionally worked closely with Kenwood students in classes and on special projects.
A recent example of a Kenwood Academy/University of Chicago relationship is evidenced in the Program of Academic Excellence for High School Juniors at Kenwood Academy (The Kenwood Project). This program pairs Kenwood Academy Juniors with professors at the University of Chicago, as mentors.
The Kenwood Project's 2007 topic is Race and Health. This year's final presentation will take place on May 25, 2007 on University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Robert R. Kelly, '85, controversial Rhythm & Blues (R & B) star
- Nazr Mohammed, '95, a professional basketball center in the National Basketball Association
- Mandy Patinkin, musician and actor
- William Upski Wimsatt, author and activist
- Kim English, dance musician
- Da Brat, rapper
[edit] External links
- Kenwood Academy Website
- To view more images of Concert Choir as well as other Kenwood Students: See this Page from the Annual New Trier Exchange
