A March 29 gala at the Kennedy Center raised $750,000 for the DC College Access Program, with a Duke Ellington School of the Arts student winning first prize in a scholarship competition.
The annual “DC-CAPital Stars” event supports the various services the nonprofit DC-CAP provides to help local high-schoolers enter and graduate from college. This year’s gala, with a theme devoted to the music of Prince, included an “American Idol-style” performance competition, according to a news release.
Duke Ellington senior Andrew Prince, 17, took first prize — a $10,000 scholarship — for his piano performance. Another Northwest senior, Niara Lara, 17, of Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, won the third-place $4,000 scholarship with her steel pan performance.
The competition began as a citywide talent search with more than 250 auditions last fall, according to the release.
This post has been updated to correct the headline: The gala raised $750,000, not $75,000. The Current regrets the error.
