News and Events

Simunovic is the President and Cunningham-Elder is the CEO of Chicago charter school North Lawndale College Prep (NLCP).

North Lawndale is an impoverished neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side and is the fourth most violent in the city. As a charter school, NLCP has the autonomy to design everything about the school and curriculum. Two campuses serve over 800 students in North Lawndale.

"Education changes lives and creates generational habits, generational wealth, and generational opportunities. That's what we hope the achieve with these two schools in the neighborhood," Cunningham-Elder, CEO of NLCP, explained.
What sets NLCP apart is the Phoenix Pact, a program designed to support students financially as they chart their course through high education. NLCP partners with various higher education institutions, including Lake Forest College, to help guide graduates through college.

The Phoenix Pact is available to qualifying students, and it provides them with a scholarship and support from a high school counselor. "Our counselors have really great relationships with each student," Simunovic explained. "That advising support makes for a smoother transition to college in combination with the financial support provided by scholarships." 

For students from North Lawndale, higher education as a system and the bureaucracy surrounding it is a barrier against attending and completing college. Questions about how to sign up for classes, who to go to for schedules, and how to handle registering for classes and tapping into campus resources may seem to be small problems for students already generationally entrenched in higher education, but support with navigating and learning these life skills is vital to the success for many first-generation students and Phoenix Pact graduates.

North Lawndale is home to a predominantly Black community, and for Cunningham-Elder, it is a place where education can make a great difference in quality of life for residents. “With the right support, this neighborhood can thrive as it did when it was originally built,” Cunningham-Elder said.

North Lawndale College Prep was one of the first charter schools in Chicago. “We offer a great option for students in Chicago, and we help support them,” Simunovic said. “We offer so much to students through college exposure, enrichment, and early college credits. We help build really strong relationships with students that carry on past graduation. We provide a true continued support throughout the student’s journey.

Sumovic and Cunningham-Elder hope to help NLCP graduates build wealth after college so they can return to reinvest in their community.

"One of the biggest barriers to school for our students is a financial one, even if they know about or get into college," Cunningham-Elder explained. "Getting students to identify what school they want to go to but also what it would cost is an important step in learning financial literacy. We aim to get our students to think not just about the end goal, but past the end goal and into their futures."

To support that end goal, Simunovic and Cunningham-Elder hope to employ more North Lawndale College Prep alumni. "We have a commitment to our alumni," Simunovic said. "We want to help them grow and thrive. We hope they come back and become teachers here."

For some students at NLCP, Cunningham-Elder explained, education is a matter of life and death. "One student went home for break and never returned because he was killed," she said. "Our students very much lead their lives, and they can't always leave that behind. They still have so much death and violence to deal with. College is a pathway out of that for them, but we have to help them stay on that path."

Simunovic and Cunningham-Elder both hope to expand NLCP's Phoenix Pact partnership with Lake Forest College. "As Lake Forest alumnae, we both know that Lake Forest can be a great fit for our students," Simunovic said. "We would like to increase the number of students who go to Lake Forest. It's away from home, but it's close to home, and it's a small school environment that can really help support students who would thrive there."

Cunningham-Elder credits Associate Professor of English, Emerita Judy Dozier with teaching her valuable lessons about education and access. "What I learned in Professor Dozier's class at Lake Forest was that education was something I took for granted," Cunningham-Elder said. "It was something I was doing because I was told I was supposed to. Through the readings in her class, I saw how education is such a movement for Black people and people of color."

Siumnovic and Cunningham-Elder attended Lake Forest College together, but did not formally meet until Simunovic hired Cunningham-Elder. "That Forester connection really had us do great things together," Cunningham-Elder said.

Simunovic encourages other Lake Forest College alumni to reach out and get involved with NLCP. "We hope we inspire our fellow Lake Forest alumni to help and get involved," Simunovic said. "Whether they are in the education program or communication or something similar, we would love for them to look at us when they graduate."

Cunningham-Elder looks forward to embracing the endless possibilities for carving paths for student success at NLCP: "I am proud of the work we're doing because we get to be the next generation of visionaries. We get to work with alumni and students and I am looking forward to supporting alumni in their own careers and lives. The sky is the limit over here."

Related links

• Visit North Lawndale Prep 
• Explore the Department of Education at Lake Forest College