02-05-2025
Nonprofit AT LAST! expands Oak Cliff "boarding experience" for more students
AT LAST! may have been a long time coming, but the Oak Cliff-based nonprofit is going places.
The nation's first "boarding experience" for under-resourced students is expanding. They've announced plans to build a second house to accommodate more scholars.
"I am tremendously excited about that," said Randy Bowman, AT LAST! founder and CEO. "When you innovate, you always have a higher risk of something not working. So when it does work, it is tremendously gratifying."
CBS News Texas
Before turning his time and talents toward philanthropy, Bowman built a successful career as an attorney and businessman. He's also a product of a "resource-challenged" childhood in Pleasant Grove.
"I've never been one of those persons who say 'oh, my God! I didn't even know I was poor.' I was well aware," he said with a laugh. But poverty, Bowman knows, is serious business. "My mother loved us as much as anyone could humanly love anything... so hers was not a love deficit. It was not a care deficit. It was a resource deficit."
Bowman tapped those "under-resourced" roots to plant AT LAST! The premise and the promise of AT LAST! is that students will perform better in school by leveling the playing field during the hours they aren't.
"And for the 17 hours between the moment that they get out of school, until the next morning when they go back to school, we give them what well-resourced families give their kids," said Bowman. "They get coaching on how to learn. We reinforce the curriculum that's being taught to them at the school they attend. We don't have a curriculum. We're not a school."
That's why it's called a "boarding experience." Students—called "Scholars in Residence"—attend the schools their parents choose and live on the AT LAST! campus during the week. While there, they get structure: good meals, academic support, exposure to extracurricular interests, and routine bedtimes—resources considered normal for America's middle class.
"It's only normal," cautioned Bowman, "if you have it."
CBS News Texas has followed the AT LAST! story from vision to groundbreaking, to seeing the doors open. And so has Sheniqua Hicks.
"I came here, and it wasn't even here yet!" said the mother of three boys. "But Mr. Bowman told me about the vision that he had."
That three-hour conversation convinced Hicks that AT LAST! would be life-changing for her son, Derrick. And although he said he initially had to be bribed with a new video game console...
"It was an amazing decision," said the now 12-year-old. "I used to struggle in school, but now, ever since I was in AT LAST! I just grew."
Until the second residence is built, AT LAST! is open for scholars in third to fifth grades, at no cost to the families. The plan is to eventually expand from first to sixth grades. So, although Derrick has graduated from the program, he's held on to the memories and so much more.
"He was kind of in a little shell, but now he's friendly, he opens up, he talks," shared his mother. "His grades are tremendous! The things they taught him here, doing the tutoring, even though he's not here now, he's still utilizing those things in the seventh grade now."
Bowman declined our request to visit with the current cohort of scholars. He's adamant about not disrupting their evening routines for photo ops. And that's fair. Because the real question is whether it's working.
"Yes. God, yes," said Bowman. "In fact, we opened in March of 2021. So, we're now sitting in April of 2025. We have eight semesters of seeing that. And remember, we're not a school. We don't give the children their grades. Their teachers do. That's a third party. We are seeing and have seen since we opened our doors an improvement in the grades the kids receive in their core classes. Some of that improvement has been remarkable. All of it has been good."
According to information provided on the AT LAST! website, the average improvement in core subject matter grades has been 21%.
There is so much excitement surrounding the success of AT LAST! that the Communities Foundation of Texas recently awarded them a $1.5 million grant to help build the second residence and expand services to more students.
"Now, this second house that we're building will accommodate 82 more scholars in residence," explained Bowman. "We need 9% of them to be bound for the middle class, in order to pay for the 82 going through that experience. That's a little over seven kids out of 82. Seven. The success of seven would pay for the fullness of the 82. I can assure you that the success rates that we get around here are better than 9%."
The cost of not providing students with a pathway out of poverty, argued Bowman, is huge. He references university researchers who have calculated the impact.
"It means that the American economy gains a little over $1 million for every child that we can put on a pathway to a middle-class life, rather than on a pathway to a life that would be categorized by some researchers as a 'lost opportunity youth': $1 million per child over the course of their child's lifetime."
After all, Bowman is a businessman. He knows that the numbers matter, especially when they add up to making a difference.
"If you want your son or daughter to blossom, I say, this is a good place to get them those baby steps," explained Derrick, "especially if they're in third grade or fourth grade. That's the best time to come, because they'll make you a superstar."
With hard work, of course, on both sides of the equation.
"This is hard work," said Bowman. "But this is our work." And then after a thoughtful pause: "It's ridiculous. It's irrational to think that the pathways that will lead us out of this deficit will somehow be easier and shorter than the pathways that lead us into it. This is our work. I'm okay with that. In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way."
