This Philly student just got into Harvard, the first from her neighborhood high school to do so

Alyssa Perren knew the day her future would be decided. It was a Thursday, marked in giant red letters on the family calendar: Harvard Day.

Alyssa had lots of college options, but she hung her hopes on the Ivy League, on becoming the first student from Paul Robeson High School to get into Harvard — an audacious dream for a West Philly kid from a neighborhood school.

But Alyssa is grit personified: all hard work, crackling intelligence and a poise that allows her to walk into daunting situations and shine. Harvard said yes.

When she got the news, “I started screaming, then the screams turned into tears,” said Alyssa, 17. Then she called her father.

Because Alyssa’s success story starts with Christopher.

Christopher Perren had been a polo player throughout his days at University City High School, trained in the sport by the acclaimed Work to Ride program in Fairmount Park, and at Valley Forge Military Academy. But Christopher stopped playing at age 20, when Alyssa was born.

“My last season on horseback, I was thinking about being a father and how I would be able to be that and still play the sport,” Christopher said. He was a young, Black male with middling grades in a sport dominated by wealthy players, “a big risk for a lot of donors — they didn’t know if I was going to stay in school. So I took the route of being a father, focusing on Alyssa’s life, doing the best I could in that arena.”

Alyssa never saw her father play, but grew up surrounded by photos and articles depicting his polo days. She first sat on a horse at age 3.

Alyssa has the grades, the character, the leadership skills that Harvard demands. But her polo skills didn’t hurt: That’s why when she got her acceptance letter, it felt sweeter because of her dad’s journey.

“I didn’t ever feel like I was in this by myself — this is for me, but it’s for him,” Alyssa said. “I want to carry our name even further: This is where I come from, and this is what we’re capable of.”

Christopher never pushed polo on his daughter; she didn’t start riding and playing until she was in middle school. You couldn’t really push anything on Alyssa, even if you wanted to, he said.

“Straight from the beginning, you could tell she was smart, just by the look in her eyes,” said Christopher, who eventually got his bachelor’s degree and is now a drone pilot and instructor. “She’s had a brain that’s computing stuff, even before she could talk. Me and her mom didn’t hold back information, we were always teaching her.”

Alyssa attended Community Partnership School, a private school in North Philadelphia, then public schools in Coatesville, where she lived with her mother, for a few years. She loved school and learning came easily to her, but when it came time to apply for high schools, Alyssa struggled. She had been home-schooled for part of seventh grade, and that worked against her when she tried to get into the city magnet schools she felt were her best fit.

Enter Paul Robeson, a citywide admissions school in West Philadelphia. Robeson, which has attracted national attention for the work it does with kids of all backgrounds, had a reputation for enrolling bright students who might have complicated lives. A cousin of Alyssa’s had attended Robeson and recommended her; when she met principal Richard Gordon, he knew right away that she was a Robeson kid.

No doubt, Alyssa said: She wouldn’t be where she is today without the small school at 41st and Ludlow. Every adult in the building knows your name, Alyssa said, and she’s had opportunity after opportunity, from taking classes on university campuses to moderating a mayoral forum. Teachers care, the principal keeps snacks in his office for anyone to grab, and students want to stay after dismissal.

“They treat us like adults, like we’re stepping into the next stage of our lives,” Alyssa said of Robeson staff. “And there’s always something special to do — I never feel bored at school.”

Gordon knows all of his students, but Alyssa is special, he said. He asked her to mentor his own daughter, a Robeson freshman.

And when Alyssa reached for the Ivy League, Gordon’s faith never wavered.

“Hey, Ms. Harvard,” he’d say to her in the hallway, even before the “yes” was formalized.

Alyssa is conscious of the fact that she’s stepping into a world light-years away from her under-resourced Philadelphia public school. But the people at that school taught her she’s ready for a larger stage, and so did the experiences she gained through polo, a sport typically played by people who don’t look like her or come from West Philadelphia.

But she’s grown comfortable with standing out, Alyssa said. At a game last season, two young Black girls ran up to her, stars in their eyes. They asked her to sign their shoes, they said they liked her braids.

“It feels weird, but it also feels empowering,” said Alyssa. “I sometimes forget what I represent to other people.”

When she was invited to a college polo match last year, Alyssa wowed the Harvard coaches who asked her to ride, then looked impressed when she volunteered to administer medication to a horse that needed care. (She plans on majoring in biology and wants to become a veterinarian.)

“Horses are powerful beings. They take care of me on the field, and I want to take care of them,” said Alyssa, who usually rides a gorgeous brown horse named Will Smith. (For real. He’s from West Philly.)

When Harvard’s polo coach encouraged Alyssa to apply, things clicked into place for her. But the price tag was daunting: nearly $80,000 annually for tuition, room and board.

“We don’t have money like that,” said Alyssa. “But my dad said, ‘If you want to do it, I’ll find a way for you.’”

Though Alyssa knows she’ll have to work hard in college, “to me, it feels like I’ve made it — like it’s not a race anymore, now, it’s time for me to learn,” she said.

After the family found out Alyssa got into Harvard, Christopher sat her down to watch TED talks of people who attended the elite university.

“We’re just trying to fill her brain with people who have had that experience,” said Christopher.

He thinks his daughter — who’s scheduled to be honored with a resolution by City Council Thursday — will approach Harvard like she approached polo, with preparation, personality and smarts.

“She brings that Philly mindset, that toughness, that grit, that love,” he said. “We’re not going down without a fight. That’s what always propelled me, and that’s part of what she’s bringing, that fire.”