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!
(produced by Amherst Media)
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 […]
Read MoreOur beloved Resident Directors, Sid and Isabel Ferreira, will be moving on to their next chapter at the end of this school year. We thank them both for the earnest dedication to Amherst A Better Chance that they have shown for decades, and especially for their strong and loving presence in the ABC House for […]
Read MoreAmherst 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.
Read MoreInformation about the “event” and how you can participate will be published soon. Stay tuned!!!!
Read MoreWe’re looking forward to the return of this wondrous community event in the spring of 2021.
Read MoreThanks 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).
Read MoreDownstairs 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 […]
Read MoreIt 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 […]
Read MoreAmherst 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.
Read MoreAt 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, […]
Read MoreInterested 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.