Program Spotlight
Urban Students Empowered (US Empowered) identifies and trains highly effective teachers to lead underperforming students in low-income high schools to successfully enroll in and graduate from four-year colleges. We envision a day when every student in low-income America has the opportunity to graduate from a four-year college or university, unencumbered by educational inequity. The three-year US Empowered program has two primary goals for students (Fellows): acceptance into and graduation from a four-year college. To fulfill these goals, we implement a five-part model comprised of teacher recruitment, student selection, courses, conferences, and online support. Ultimately, our model equips alumni with a system of best-practices and collaborative networks of support so that they become college graduates, generational leaders, and change-makers in their communities.
Website: www.usempowered.org
Early childhood education expert James Heckman concludes that a compliment of early education and participation in afterschool programs can reduce initiating drug use among youth by nearly 50 percent (45.8) while reducing the likelihood of them skipping school by half. (Investing in Our Young People, University of Chicago, 2006)