The Future Starts Here: 2026 CAP Graduation

For the students gathered at Project HOME’s 2026 Teen and College Access Program (CAP) Graduation and Scholarship Ceremony, graduation marked more than the end of a school year. It was a chance to celebrate how far they have come and to look ahead at everything still waiting for them.

Inside the Honickman Learning Center Comcast Technology Labs (HLCCTL), graduating high school seniors joined college and trade school graduates, families, staff, supporters, and fellow scholars for an evening recognizing academic achievement, scholarships, and the community that helped them reach this moment.

For Liz Bryson, Project HOME’s Director of K-12 Education, the annual ceremony is also an opportunity to consider what each graduating class leaves behind. “The goal of this program is to provide you with opportunities and exposure so that you can pick the path that works best for you and build the life that you want,” Liz told students.

That path looks different for every scholar. For 18-year-old Heillen, it leads to Thomas Jefferson University, where she plans to study biology or neuroscience on a pre-med track. After four years at HLCCTL, Heillen was also surprised during the ceremony with scholarship recognition, including the Claire Reichlin Award and a 30th Anniversary Fund the Mission Scholarship. “I actually didn’t know that I was going to receive a scholarship,” Heillen said. “I was really excited and I’m really grateful for this opportunity that I got.”

Her interest in medicine is rooted in something simple: helping people. Inspired by the support she has received from her own family and the way she has watched them care for others, Heillen sees healthcare as an opportunity to do the same. “I feel like the healthcare route really gets me to help others,” she said, “and to fell a sense of actually doing something for somebody.”

For Jalynn, another 18-year-old graduate, the future also centers on helping others. She plans to study psychology with a minor in social work, with the long-term goal of opening a clinic offering affordable care to people in need.  

Her motivation comes from personal experience. “I had a tough time with my mental health,” Jalynn shared. That experience showed her how difficult it can be to access support before a struggle becomes a crisis and helped shape the kind of care she hopes to provide one day. “It made me want to help people, so they can get the help that they need.”

Jalynn first came to the HLCCTL in eighth grade after learning about the program through her cousin. She loved it enough to keep coming back through graduation. Over those years HLCCTL became more than somewhere to spend time after school. It became a place filled with familiar faces, laughter, support, and a little relief from the pressures that come with being a high school senior.

At the ceremony, that feeling was unmistakable. “I felt very seen, heard, and loved,” Jalynn said. “I felt like the community support stood out everywhere. It wasn’t just about me or a certain person; It was about everyone.”

That community has been growing for more than two decades. HLCCTL first opened its doors to students 24 years ago with a vision of strengthening college and career readiness in North Philadelphia and the Project HOME community through access to technology, educational resources, and new opportunities. Today, CAP continues that work by supporting students as they explore college, trade school, internships, careers, and the possibilities ahead.

For Heillen, that support was especially important while navigating a college process that was unfamiliar to her family. “You’re not all alone in your journey,” she said. “For me personally, I got to have a guide into college and all that stuff because I didn’t really know the route of it because my parents weren’t born here.” While her parents were always supportive, she explained; CAP helped provide the guidance they could not. “Me getting the support here was really helpful.”

And not every lesson came from a college application. Heillen remembers culinary activities at HLCCTL helping her conquer a very different fear: cooking with hot oil. What began with nervousness eventually became curiosity, confidence, and a willingness to experiment with recipes. More importantly, the years gave her friendships she expects to carry well beyond graduation. “My friends and the staff,” she said when asked what she would miss most. “I got to have many long-term friendships here.”

Jalynn understands that feeling. She may no longer walk through the doors twice a week as a high school student, but she does not see graduation as goodbye. “A community is definitely built here, no matter what you do,” she said. “Whether you’re quiet, whether you’re loud, you’ll always find someone that you can connect with.”

Then she summed up years at the HLCCTL, and perhaps the spirit of the evening, in one sentence: 

“You’ll never lose the community you built, but there’s always so much more community to gain.” - Jalynn, 2026 CAP Graduate

That is part of the legacy Liz hopes each CAP scholar carries forward. College students return for their annual Winter Workshop and share what they have learned with younger students sitting in the same seats they once occupied. Students become graduates, graduates become mentors, and new faces begin imagining what their own futures could look like. “Take what you’ve been exposed to here, what you’ve nurtured and built here, take it forward, give back, make an impact,” Liz told the graduates.

For the Class of 2026, taking it forward may mean medicine, mental healthcare, college, a new career, or a path they have not discovered yet. Whatever comes next, they are leaving the ceremony with more than awards and scholarships. They are carrying years of lessons, friendships, opportunities, and a community that does not disappear when graduation ends.

Their seats at HLCCTL may soon belong to another group of students. But the future those seats helped them imagine is just the beginning.

The Project HOME College Access Program runs September 8, 2026, through June 9, 2027, Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, fill out the Project HOME Teen Program Interest Form and we will reach out to you!