Our Students

Horizons Hampton Roads serves more than 400 K-12 public and charter school students annually. The majority of students' families reside in under-resourced communities, and attend for free, after a $25 application fee.  

Since its inception, Horizons has been committed to serving children from a broad range of academic abilities. Typically, we seek to enroll a class in which one-third of the students are above grade level and two-thirds are at or below grade level. Read more about the rationale for this central component of the Horizons philosophy.

To be eligible for the scholarship, students must qualify for the free or reduced school lunch program, or their family qualifies for other government supplemental programs. Preference is given to students with siblings currently enrolled in the program. Any unfilled slots are open to families not meeting the low-income threshold, and tuition is based on a sliding scale for the 5–6-week summer session. Visit our Enrollment pages for more information.

Students are recommended by their teachers, as early as the summer after kindergarten and are invited to re-enrolled for consecutive summers, continuing through middle school. As students move away, we seek to fill all open slots each summer. Class sizes are kept at 15 and are staffed by highly qualified teachers and a teaching assistant.

When students complete their 8th grade summer, they “graduate” to our high school program, “LaunchPad,” which runs year-round, providing semi-monthly workshops, college tours, homework and test-prep support, resource linkage, volunteer opportunities, social-emotional support, and more. HS students may apply to serve as volunteer or paid interns during our summer sessions, where they also participate in hands-on job shadowing opportunities, and explore a variety of careers to better inform their decisions about college or other post-secondary training.