Saving Our Youth Virginia, Inc.

"Putting meaning to No Child Left Behind." The Higher Education program is geared toward helping promising high school students from under-resourced backgrounds to reach their goals of achieving degrees in law, medicine and politics. We offer the academic enhancements, life skills and social support needed to succeed in 4-8 years of college. We chose those three fields because there is a disproportionate number of minorities in those fields. Approximately 44% of the population of the United States is made up of minorities, with 11% of those being African American. Yet, only 10% of all attorneys in the U.S. are minorities. Very disproportionately low numbers hold true in the medical and political fields as well. Minority students are far more likely to become nurses, but not doctors; paralegals but not attorneys; governor's aids but not governors or senators. These students are left behind because they have economic and mental disadvantages. By mental disadvantage, I don’t mean that they are illiterate.  I mean that due to disadvantaged environments, they don’t aim for the higher education because they simply don’t believe they can do it. But we’ll show them that they can. The SOY program will supply these students with community engagement, test preparation and academic enrichment so that students not only get to college, but they graduate from college. Community engagement includes mentorship with professionals in the field the student is entering. What better mental stimulus could there be for a student interested in law than for her/him to be mentored by a lawyer?

The Mission of Saving Our Youth is to provide services to at-risk youth through programs designed to: stop juvenile delinquents from re-offending and going to jail; assist college bound students in low college entrance areas to attend good colleges; offer neighborhood assistance through a neighborhood watch program.  The single, most important key to success is self love…appreciation for yourself….liking who you are….enjoying you. Our mission is to help youth realize and appreciate who they are so they can realize their goals in life. Who you think you are determines your reality. If you have self-worth, self-love and self-appreciation, your reality will be a success. We aim to help youth understand their worth and create their successful reality through two different programs: our juvenile re-entry program and our higher education program.