Description
Despite legislative criminalization of segregation (that is not often comprehensively enforced), the enactment of equal opportunity laws, and other such actions to reduce and eliminate discrimination in college admittance, university admissions statistics amongst ethnic groups continue to show disparities to this day. Additionally, studies prove significant percentages of students who initially felt prepared for college prior to admittance have failed, have switched majors, dropped out, or took more than five years to complete their desired course of study due to elevated levels of work expected when compared to high school courses. This ultimately leads to smaller numbers on a national scale of men and women from underrepresented groups with post-secondary education degrees and management and above jobs as compared to their Caucasian counter parts. In order to assist in providing a support system that sufficiently prepares students for college and the professional world, increase the number of successful college students from underrepresented groups, and eradicate the pattern of public high school curriculum that does not prepare students for college, I am building a non-profit college preparatory program. The EMBRACE (Educating Minds; Bridging Races, Attaining College Experience) Foundation will be a preparation and transitional student resource to enter college and the working world. The Foundation is intended as a supplement to traditional public high school curriculum in California that is inadequate for several reasons, such as limited funding, understaffing, lack of imaginative and engaging learning, and curriculum that have not been adapted to the needs of increasingly diverse classrooms. EMBRACE focuses on the transition from high school to college and the professional workforce with an emphasis on increasing diversity, facilitating life-long learning, and advocates community involvement. The mission of the Foundation, stated in the Business Plan (Appendix A), is not to further fracture society by identifying and amplifying the differences between one another. The mission highlights the importance of difference while working communally in an increasingly global society and consumer market. EMBRACE's local and global vision includes a social movement of change toward excellence in every aspect for everyone, regardless of privileges or disadvantages. EMBRACE's uniqueness hinges upon utilization of interdisciplinary thought within its infrastructure established in the Core Policies (Appendix B), while expressing the significance of interdisciplinary learning and teaching to students, staff, and mentors that become involved with the Foundation. EMBRACE hopes to serve as an encouraging community forum for traditionally underserved students by creating a network of familiar ties once they begin their journeys on a college campus. Eventually, for the continued growth of the Foundation, I hope to establish partnerships, through Memorandum of Agreement Contracts (Appendix C), with local schools and universities in the surrounding area to allow students to join the EMBRACE program to raise the number of students served. EMBRACE hopes to generate a meaningful spark within all students it enrolls that is life changing and will affect the community positively. To realize these goals, I will gather research from current literature and statistics to discuss programs that already exist. Accordingly, I can extrapolate the impact EMBRACE hopes to generate in the surrounding community through juxtaposition and by providing a business plan for this project.
