Enrich the Lives and Enhance Development of Deserving Students from Economically Depressed Communities.

The Granting Rewards and Assistance to Deserving Students Foundation, Inc., (GRADS) is a charitable educational organization seeking to enrich the lives and enhance the development of deserving students from economically depressed communities. The Foundation's program mission is to encourage and prepare young adults to complete their high school education and pursue a post-secondary education at a college, a university or, where appropriate, accredited technical or vocational school of their choice. The Foundation will continually to seek to engage students at the 6th grade level in a productive partnership, in which they are challenged to work diligently on their studies, pursue personal growth goals by encouraging these students to stay in school through post-secondary education. This program will continue assisting the 62 students in the program in tutoring, mentoring, tuition assistance and preparation for New York State and City examinations. The Foundation offers tutoring, mentoring, dropout prevention strategies, career counseling, leadership skills, language art's enhancement, computer literacy and field trips. The ultimate goal is to continue the commitment in providing programs to youth in areas that will help them to develop the skills necessary to achieve life-long success. This will be measured by the number of children who participate in the required activities and successfully complete high school and post-secondary education. GRADS will continue to track the same cohort throughout the process noting where they begin and where they end: 85% of students improve their attitude and motivation; 80% of students improve their basic skills and test scores and 65% of students improve their advanced skills. On average the students maintain an 82 average in key courses such as mathematics, language arts, social studies/history and science.

NCA/NCF