L ifestyle /C ulture
Central Program Helps Students Get Into College
LOCAL JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
IN 2012, BOB COHEN started
an SAT prep program for
students in-need at his alma
mater, Central High School.

Almost a decade later,
the program has grown into
something much bigger and
more important: a full-scale
college prep program.

According to a descrip-
tion of the course from the
Philadelphia school’s PR firm,
it includes help with SAT prep,
college admissions and finan-
cial aid.

Cohen’s class, called the
Dorothy M. Cohen College
Prep Program, began with
about 20 students but grew to
30 after adding more services.

Since Central is both a magnet
and university preparatory
school, it attracts high-per-
forming students from across
Philadelphia. But since many
students are also from low-in-
come/at-risk backgrounds, they
are often unfamiliar with the
college admissions process,
according to Sue Bilsky, the
JEVS Human Services education
consultant who runs the course.

Cohen, who is Jewish, grew
up in the West Oak Lane neigh-
borhood, graduated from Penn
State University and then took
over his father’s business, the
Acme Corrugated Box Co. The
company is in a 250,000-square-
foot complex in Hatboro
and delivers “throughout
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New
York, Delaware and Maryland,”
according to its website.

The businessman funds
Central’s college prep program,
Bilsky said.

Central’s PR firm, Aloysius
Butler & Clark, described
Cohen as someone who wanted
to be a teacher but joined the
family business after his father,
Edward J. Cohen, died early.

Edward Cohen, who only had
an eighth-grade education,
encouraged his son’s interest
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM in school by insisting that he
attend college.

Bilsky said that Cohen
helps students not just with the
program, but by visiting the
school, forming bonds with
students and helping them find
connections in the outside world.

“You cannot find a finer
man,” she added. “People give
money for lots of reasons. He
doesn’t give for glory or to have
his name on something.”
The program has a 100%
success rate, according to
Bilsky. Students who join end
up putting as much effort into
the college admissions process
as they put into their advanced
placement courses.

During the pandemic,
they have come back onto the
computer at 6:30 p.m. to work
on their essays and applications
with Bilsky over Zoom, often on
shared Google docs.

Over the past decade, prep
students have ended up at the
University of Pennsylvania,
Temple University and Penn
State, among other local schools.

They have also attended colleges
outside the state, including
Columbia University, New
York University and Howard
University. For most of the Central
students, clearing the higher
education hurdle is really about
clearing a mental hurdle. As
Bilsky explained it, a student
will say she wants to go to Penn,
but can’t because it’s $80,000
a year.

But the reality is, she can.

“It’s about getting them
to understand how financial
aid policies work, filling out
FAFSA, finding scholarships,”
Bilsky said.

In 2020, one prep student
wanted to go to a top school in
an expensive market. But her
dad thought it would be too
expensive for her to live there.

Bilsky helped him learn that,
with financial aid, it would only
cost her $1,500 a year.

“This is a girl who wouldn’t
have gone,” she said.

According to Bilsky, many of
her pupils are first-generation
immigrants, so their parents are
also unfamiliar with the college
application process. On top of
that, school counselors have too
many students to give them all
detailed individual attention.

That’s where she comes in.

There’s often a moment at
the end of the Zoom where a
student takes a deep breath,
thanks her and says he feels
much better.

“They say, ‘I feel so stressed.

All this college stuff, I can’t
handle it,’” Bilsky said. “I say,
‘My job is to relieve your stress.’”
It wasn’t until the pandemic
broke out last year that Central
developed the program into
college counseling, not just SAT
and college essay prep, which
had been added in recent years.

After the virus forced
students online, Bilsky started
Bob Cohen, center, jacket open, meets with Central students in the
Dorothy M. Cohen College Prep Program. Courtesy of Aloysius Butler & Clark
holding her SAT class over
Zoom. But she realized, in
talking to kids, that they needed
more help. She also recognized
that, all of a sudden, it wasn’t
so hard to meet with people
anymore. Before the Zoom age, Bilsky
would meet with students at
lunch or after school. Since the
Zoom age began, she has been
meeting with them at all hours,
including as late as 10 p.m.

The consultant met with one
girl for 20-30 hours, working
through her college essay.

“These are kids who deserve
to be in the top schools,” Bilsky
said. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
JEWISH EXPONENT
OCTOBER 21, 2021
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