CHAMPAIGN — Sometime after starting their high school education, three Champaign teenagers so struggled with staying engaged in class or with home life issues that they transferred to an alternative school designed to support students who are falling behind. Now, those three teens — Karrissa Cobble, Dimaia Hill and Makayla Robinson-Taylor — have officially graduated on time from Novak Academy and each been honored with the school’s Resilience Scholarship, which puts funding toward continuing their educations at Parkland College. “I’m just really proud of them because they were very frustrated and not as confident when they came to Novak, but they are leaving with their heads high, with a plan, and that is the least we can ask,” said Christina Mables, Novak’s program supervisor.
Novak Academy was created in 2008 and later named after former Unit 4 board member and teacher’s union President Greg Novak, who helped launch the program that offers smaller class sizes and individualized resources to non-traditional students. Patricia McKinney Lewis, a former interim assistant superintendent who was also involved in the academy’s formation, said she and her fellow congregation members at St. Luke CME Church created the Resilience Scholarship in 2020 through the “One Church, One School” program.
Since then, she and Mr. Novak’s widow, Donna Oakes Novak, have personally funded the scholarships. Lewis added that the opportunity for Novak students to win college .
