A Better Chance

Opening the door to greater educational opportunities since 1968

Learn More

A Better Chance

Opening the door to greater educational opportunities since 1968

Learn More

A Better Chance

Opening the door to greater educational opportunities since 1968

Learn More

Welcome to Amherst A Better Chance, in Amherst, Massachusetts. ABC is a national residential high school program that prepares academically talented and highly motivated African American, Latino, Asian, and Native American students from educationally underserved school districts for college and future leadership roles in the broader community. Since the Amherst program began, over 120 ABC scholars have graduated from ARHS, and they have attended more than 50 colleges and universities. Scholars live family-style with the RDs in a warm supportive environment enriched by daily sessions with Amherst College tutors. ABC board members, community mentors and ARHS faculty and staff also offer guidance and support. ABC scholars forge lasting bonds with local host families through monthly weekend visits and additional enrichment activities. Please help to support our program and make a donation today!

Meet the 2021-2022 Amherst A Better Chance Scholars!

Our current Scholars introduce themselves, talk about their interests and goals, and explain why they chose the Amherst A Better Chance program. Just click and watch!

Find out more about Amherst A Better Chance by watching this short video

(produced by Amherst Media)

Updates

Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce 2021 Community Service Award Goes to Sid and Isabel Ferreira!

December 13, 2021 / Announcements

Sid and Isabel Ferreira with ABC Board President Keith Nesbitt We owe a great deal of our success over the past 5 years to Sid and Isabel Ferreira, resident directors extraordinaire. But the Ferreira’s involvement with and support of Amherst ABC goes back almost 30 years. In that time we could not have asked for […]

Amherst A Better Chance Dedicates Bench in Honor of ABC Alum Keith Hill ‘81

November 22, 2021 / Announcements

On a beautiful day in late September, the Amherst A Better Chance (ABC) community celebrated the life and legacy of Keith Hill, Amherst Regional High School (ARHS) and ABC alumnus, Class of 1981. Members of Keith’s family (his wife Linda, daughter McKenzie, and sister Tyjuana) were in attendance from Virginia and Indiana for the dedication […]

Welcome to our new Resident Directors

September 22, 2021 / News

Please join us in welcoming Temistocles Ferreira and Nancita Alejandro, the Resident Directors of the Amherst ABC House! Together Tem and Nancita have 45 years of combined experience working with youth of color and economically disadvantaged young men. Temistocles has worked as the Residential Director (RD) for the Upward Bound Summer Program at UMass Dartmouth. […]

Quynh’s Funky Flower Fundraiser

February 5, 2021 / Announcements

With so much time at home during lockdown/COVID, Quyhn and her father learned how to create flowers using an assortment of paper headed to the recycling center. She used the proceeds from the hundreds of flowers they’d made to support causes dear to her heart–Amherst A Better Chance and the Amherst Survival Center. Here she […]

Joys…and Sorrows

September 3, 2020 / News

Amherst ABC alumnus Kleaver Cruz ’07 has traveled the world asking the same question: “What does Black joy mean to you?” Amherst A Better Chance alum Keith Hill ’81 died unexpectedly this summer.

A Fully-funded Summer Enrichment Experience Is Now Part of the Amherst A Better Chance Program for Every ABC Scholar!

October 9, 2019 / Announcements

Thanks to the generosity of two local donors, Amherst A Better Chance is now able to provide funding and logistical support for each scholar to participate in one summer enrichment program while attending Amherst Regional High School (either between sophomore and junior year or between junior and senior year).

Amherst College Magazine Features “Dream House” about the College’s Partnership with Amherst A Better Chance

July 14, 2019 / News

Downstairs at the Frost Library archives, you can find all the bound Olio yearbooks lined up just so. Browse through them in sequential order, and you fall into a kind of time-travel fugue state: two centuries of in-jokes, plus an unsettling montage of fashion and hair choices. Crew cuts in one decade give way to […]

Amherst A Better Chance 50th Anniversary Gala a Huge Success!

July 8, 2019 / Announcements

It was a joyful evening of “celebrating the past and building for tomorrow.” The Top of the Campus (Marriott Center) at UMass was standing room only, as founding members of Amherst ABC, Scholar graduates spanning the 50 years of the program, and a vast array of community members and supporters all gathered to recognize this […]

2019–2020 Scholars

May 1, 2019 / Scholars

Amherst A Better Chance welcomes two new scholars for the 2019-2020 school year! Ryan Mbugua is from Brockton, MA, and Joel Blandon is from The Bronx. We are confident they will be strong, contributing members of the Amherst ABC family.

ABC Alum Receives Prestigious Award!

November 6, 2017 / Announcements, Scholars

At a conference celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Amherst ABC alum Michael Weekes (’71). Michael is the President and CEO of the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers. He lives in Longmeadow and is a member of the Board of Directors of Amherst A Better Chance. Congratulations, […]

We Need You!

Interested in learning more about becoming a host parent/host family? There are no “requirements,” i.e., family size, age of children, etc. Successful host families have been parents with an empty nest and parents with young children, as well as parents with children currently in the secondary schools. Click here to learn more.