Elizabeth Aguilar was shopping at Ross with her mom when she saw that the moment she’d been waiting for had arrived: USC, her dream school, had just released admissions decisions.

“My mom was showing me clothes she wanted to buy for my dad, and I opened [the admissions letter] and I saw I got in, and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And then I turned the phone to my mom,” Aguilar said. “We both started crying in the middle of Ross.”

Aguilar, who plans to major in health and human sciences at USC, is one of several students from her high school, USC Hybrid High College Prep, who will be attending the University in the fall. The school achieved a 100% four-year college acceptance rate for its graduating seniors this year, a mark it has hit several times in the past.

USC Hybrid High was founded in 2012 by the Rossier School of Education — the first of what would become a network of charter high schools in Los Angeles and Orange County run by the charter management organization Ednovate — is now independent from the University. The schools largely serve students from low-income or underrepresented racial backgrounds. 

Oliver Sicat, CEO of Ednovate, said the overall acceptance rate to four-year colleges across all Ednovate high schools with graduating senior classes was 99.7% this year. Sicat said most students from Ednovate’s high schools attend colleges in the University of California or California State University systems, but added that students often attend private schools all across the country, including USC.

“We help students find their passion and their purpose. We help them learn their own emotional regulation and how to live with others,” Sicat said. “That combination creates an environment that’s fun to work at, that builds a whole child.”

Sicat said USC does not currently have a direct financial relationship with USC Hybrid High School, but that the University supports the school in other ways, such as community outreach programs at the school.

According to Ednovate’s website, USC Hybrid High has 525 enrolled students — who were accepted through a lottery system — and Sicat said the school has an annual waitlist of over 1,000 students. He said he’d expand USC Hybrid High “in a heartbeat” if Ednovate had the budget, but added that parents often tell him that they love the “small-school feel” at Ednovate’s charter schools.

Micah Reed, an incoming USC student who plans to major in economics, said USC Hybrid High’s smaller size enables it to support its students better than a larger traditional school could.

“Public high schools [are] really big, so they can’t really concentrate all their support to[ward] students,” Reed said. “I know [USC Hybrid High is] kind of small, but it’s actually beneficial, because … if we need help, we can get help here.”

Natalie Ochoa, who plans to pursue a six-year program in occupational therapy, said personalized support from counselors at USC Hybrid High helped students manage their time well and kept students on track to submit their college applications. She added that counselors encouraged students whenever they finished an application. 

“[For] every school that you applied to … we would ring the bell and everyone would applaud and cheer us on, so it felt like, ‘OK, I haven’t gotten in, but I’m already celebrating for something,’” Ochoa said. “It was relieving knowing that you were being successful in some way.”

Aguilar, who hopes to be a doctor, said she gained experience with the medical field through a club at her school that partnered with USC medical students. She also said seniors were required to take a college readiness class to help students stay on track with college essays and financial aid applications.

“Since [USC Hybrid High is] a college prep school, they set themselves up to help each student reach that level,” Aguilar said. “It’s their goal each year to make everyone [reach] 100% Cal State acceptance.” 

Brendan Spears, who plans to major in biochemistry at USC, said USC Hybrid High had pushed him as a student and provided him with academic support in a way he didn’t experience in his middle school.

“In middle school, I had very bad problems when it came to just being a student overall,” Spears said. “However, when I came to [USC Hybrid High], I was able to ask for help; I was able to be redirected; I was able to find ways to solve a problem that I may not understand. Constantly being able to have someone to lean on … [is] like a breath of fresh air.”

Reed said he was an “unmotivated” student in middle school, but that the support from his teachers and advisor at USC Hybrid High helped him work toward his goal of corporate law.

“They encourage the students to be themselves, [to] go out there,” Reed said. “With that in my mind, I applied to the district attorney’s office as an intern, and I got in. And the person came to me, said, ‘Dude, you’re a high school student and you’re here. That’s rare. We only accept two high school students per year into this program.’ … I never knew I could do this before.”

Sicat said students from Ednovate’s schools sometimes struggled in math or science classes in college because of the lower funding available for charter schools compared to traditional public schools, which he said prevented Ednovate’s schools from being able to build full science labs in their classrooms.

“We hear that … and we’re trying to improve on that, but we’re a young organization,” Sicat said. “Overall, I think people are happy … the proof is in the pudding: We have multiple siblings that come to our schools.”

Critics of charter schools claim they siphon students away from traditional public schools, which then lose enrollment-based taxpayer funding while often having similar fixed costs, such as for utilities. Sicat said the discussion was “nuanced” but that he believed in parents’ ability to choose where their kids went to school.

“My primary concern in our public education system is the parents and the students, and if the parents and students choose to go to where they want to go, the dollar should follow them,” Sicat said. “That’s the best way to build a system that centers parents’ and students’ needs.”