City University School of Liberal Arts (City University), a division of The Influence1 Foundation, meets the need of public education as well as the demand for an alternative institution committed to post-secondary preparation. Created as a college preparatory high school with a liberal arts core and operated as a Center of Excellence for Student Development, City University serves to benefit Memphis and its community of scholars. This effort is enhanced by the school's work with The College Board to build a curricular foundation to better prepare its scholars for transition into post secondary education.

City University School of Liberal Arts has an academically rigorous learning environment that is supportive of all scholars and their pursuits of post-secondary education. Through this approach, scholars are provided opportunities to access learning resources and academic benefits that they may have been previously denied. City University's college preparatory program provides scholars full access to a diverse offering of Advanced Placement courses, coupled with a curriculum that enables and empowers them with the abilities to achieve success in an academically rigorous environment. 

City University School of Liberal Arts began by welcoming 140 ninth graders for the 2004-2005 academic year, and has grown by one grade level each year since—until it reaches its maximum capacity at all grade levels. The scholar population will be capped at 320 scholars in grades 9 through 12. This incremental growth in the scholar population is key to the implementation of a curriculum that works to improve scholars' intellectual and social development—individually and collectively.