The ABC Program

By Jordan Engel

A group of ABC students and their houseparents and cook. Photo was likely taken in 1973. From left to right: Nancy Spooner (house parent), Gary Spooner (house parent), Jason Takala, Merwin Kooyahoema, Dennis Jose, Larry Lestenkof, Jim Moss, Pat Tewawina, Pat Selanoff, Nicky Zaukar, and Arlene Nourse (cook).

In 1963, in response to the growing Civil Rights movement, President John F. Kennedy wrote to university presidents across the United States asking them to help in the fight for equality. By coincidence or because of the letter’s contents finding its way out of higher education, in 1963 21 headmasters of private schools in New England met to discuss how to identify and support promising black and Native American students. This meeting led to the creation of the Independent Schools Talent Search Program (ISTSP) to identify disadvantaged but high-achieving students.

In the summer of 1964, Dartmouth College started a summer program for ISTSP students to help prepare them for matriculation in various New England private prep schools. Fifty-five students attended that first summer, a combination of promising African American, Native American, Asian and Puerto Rican students, as well as students from each of the involved prep schools. Students attended academic classes and were exposed to the manners and rituals of well-to-do New England culture. The “A Better Chance” (ABC) program expanded by 1969 to 1400 students creating the need for more classroom capacity. The ABC program moved into the public schools, and Hanover, Hartford, and Lebanon high schools became the first public sites. The successes there led to expansion to Woodstock.

In 1969, 10 Native American and 11 Woodstock High School boys attended the summer ABC program at Dartmouth and that fall entered WHS. The visitors lived in a house in West Woodstock (which is still there on Rt. 4) staffed by two Dartmouth student tutors and resident house parents Nancy and Gary Spooner. In an article in the Vermont Standard dated May 22, 1969, the community was asked to donate household articles and furnishings to prepare the ABC House for the incoming class, “A wide variety of articles all the way from frying pans and roasters, snow shovels, bedding and clocks… Another way to help is by sharing Top Value Stamps. Completed or partially filled books as well as lose stamps are being collected.” (Valley News 5/22/1969)

Five nights a week, five Woodstock students joined those in the ABC program for evening study sessions. Nelson Hutt, a local minister was head of the board of directors of the nonprofit group that owned the ABC House where the students lived. Other board members included Frank Teagle, Faye Dudley and Hugh Hermann.

In 1971, the first ABC students graduated from Woodstock High School, with one going on to UVM and one to Dartmouth.

An evaluation of the Hanover and Woodstock High School ABC programs by the Federal Office of Indian Education Programs in 1976 found that “Every student that is now participating in the two ABC Programs is very satisfied this far.  Each student indicated they would like to see more participation from other students of their own tribe.  Some students indicated the academic school year was a long, long time to be away from their home, family, and friends, with only one break for Christmas vacation… All students have difficulty with English composition… Nearly 100 percent of the students expressed their concerns about the lack of correspondence from home.  Some of the Navajo students had received a supply of pinon nuts and were enjoying their limited supply.  Other students were curious about any type of news from their homes.” 

1087 West Woodstock Rd. The former ABC house today.