05:54 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 17, 2006

By Chau Nguyen / 11 News

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It’s no secret that low-income minority students are at a disadvantage when it comes to going to college.

But a charter school that brags its Houston’s best kept secret is getting national attention for defying those odds.

Recently, the Yes College Preparatory School made Newsweek’s top 100 high schools list.

And they have a secret to their success.

As far as public high schools go, it’s got an unusual name.

The Yes College Preparatory School has more than 700 students, and it’s a campus where the privileged go. 

It was the only Houston school to receive the Newsweek honor.

“It says on an absolute scale our kids are one of the best in the country,” founder Chris Barbic said.

They might be the best, but ironically, among Houston’s poorest kids: minorities and from low-income families.

Barbic started the school after teaching at-risk students and watching his students fail once they reached high school.

“I knew if they were given the right opportunity and the right access to a quality education, they could go off to college and do great things,” Barbic said.

That access required strict requirements such as longer school days, Saturday classes and a requirement that they be accepted to a four-year college – or they don’t graduate.

“Getting in Gangs and dropping out and getting pregnant,” is not what she wanted in her life, Hannah Davis said. She was among four students we sat and spoke with, about their plans for the future.

“I want to be an engineer,” Davis said.

“I want to study biomedical engineering,” student Ishmael Nieto said.

“I always wanted to be a surgeon,” Anh Nguyen said.

And Gregory Almaguer said, “I actually want to be an engineer.”

They are all ambitious.

The motivational message speaks for itself. It comes down to giving disadvantaged students a chance for real educational success.

It’s working. Ishmael is heading to Columbia and Anh to George Washington University.

As for the juniors, Helen is hoping to get into Duke University and Gregory plans to study in Monterrey, Mexico, and will be the first to graduate high school and attend college among his brothers and sisters.

“Get a career and get money and show my parents I’m the different one from them,” Almaguer said.

In the pursuit of higher education: Yes College Prep School is proving the answer is Yes.

Yes Prep School is opening its fourth charter school campus in the fall. Prospective students are accepted by lottery and the ones accepted are on a waiting list.