Gov. Patrick to Honor Pingree Program Wednesday Night

Gov. Deval Patrick will take part in celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Prep@Pingree program at in Hamilton on Wednesday night.

Prep@Pingree is a five-week program for 35 middle school students from urban neighborhoods of Lawrence and Lynn on the Pingree campus on Highland Street each summer.  There, they study English, math, technology and history.

In addition to Patrick’s attendance on Wednesday night, the event will honor the program’s founder, Malcolm Coates.

“Programs like this that give kids an opportunity that they may not have otherwise had is very close to his heart,” said Patrick spokeswoman Heather Johnson.

Patrick grew up in an inner-city neighborhood on the south side of Chicago and through the “A Better Chance” program earned a scholarship to . He went on to graduate from Harvard College and Harvard Law School to become a successful attorney before being elected governor in 2006.

At Pingree on Wednesday night, Patrick first plans to meet with some recent colleges graduates – the first of Prep@Pingree’s students to graduate college. In many cases, they are the first in their family to graduate college.

When Patrick arrives at 6 p.m. he will also meet with Program Director Steve Filosa, administrators and some students and then will address all the event attendees with “brief remarks,” according to Johnson.

Since its creation, similar programs modeled after Prep@Pingree’s have been put in place at Glen Urquhart School, Boston University Academy and Noble & Greenough School.

Annually, about two thirds of Prep@Pingree’s students attend an independent or parochial school for high school, according to the school. Also, about 5 percent of Pingree’s student body attended Prep@Pingree.