More than 100 middle school students from six Chicago Public Schools, including two in Austin and one in Little Village, were celebrated on Thursday, June 7 for qualifying for and remaining on the honor roll. For many, this achievement required overcoming name-calling and rejection from their peer group. Studies suggest that African-American and Latino honor students often cave to classmates’ taunts that they’re “acting white.” To win their peers’ acceptance, they set aside schoolwork and their grades decline.

Now a new program, “It’s So Cool to be Smart,” has transformed studiousness into coolness at six Chicago Public Schools—Leslie Lewis Elementary and Horatio May Elementary Community Academy in Austin, Little Village Academy, in Little Village, and John W. Cook Elementary, Anna R. Langford Community Academy and Jesse Sherwood Elementary in Englewood.

Little Village Academy swept the “Smart in the Summer” Scholarship awards: Sixth graders Grecia Estrada and Illyana Prado will attend the Girls Plus Math Program at Western Illinois University this summer. Heading for the Sci-Camp Engineering program at Northern Illinois University are sixth graders Judith Evangelio, Nataly Hernandez and Steven Ortiz, and seventh grader Mauricio Moreno. These students will get a taste of college life during the week-long residential academic camp.