This humanitarian effort has been organized to assist students with developing their skills to earn opportunities, educators with adding tools to their classroom bulletin boards and organizations with information that they can add to their existing initiatives.
As National, State and City offices continue to develop programs to improve literacy, high school graduation and employment rates, one question raised is what good are these tools if students and communities do not know that they are available.
You are invited to share available resources with your community, organize your own initiative and assist the humanitarian effort with building a research fund.
My first goal is to put tools in the hands of students to not only help them with building their own foundations but to share tools and build their communities.
My second goal is to add information to classroom bulletin boards that educators can use each year as incoming classes will begin their own journeys and will be asking for help to get started.
My third goal is is to use this effort to earn my credentials, my Juris Doctor and Master of Public Policy, in order to assist municipalities with developing their classroom and small business infrastructure.
My journey began in the spring of 2008, my junior year of High School.
I was in line to pay for my Advanced Placement exam fees when I learned that some of classmates would not be taking their tests because they could not afford the fee. The opportunity to earn college credits, improve their academic profile and save thousands in tuition dollars, gone, because of a few $100 fees.
That summer I started researching the AP Curriculum and learned how students could use it to earn opportunities to pursue their career paths of interest.
When I returned to campus for my senior year, I started a club called Dollars For Students whose purpose was to fundraise for exam fees. While we were unable to get our efforts off the ground, this initiative was the first step of the path that I am on today.
Following my high school graduation, I developed a thesis that demonstrated how funding AP exams could help students with earning credits, saving tuition dollars and completing their core curriculums before enrolling, which would allow them to begin their major courses.
From 2009 to 2017 I wrote thousands of letters asking for help, sharing how organizations could earn tax write offs by donating directly to schools to cover exam fees.
No, no, no.
Feeling defeated, I reached out to University professors to ask for guidance.
One professorencouraged me to turn my focus to assisting all students.
From 2017 to 2025, I researched not only primary and secondary eduction curriculums, but higher education and pathways for students to earn professional credentials.
I have learned that students are missing opportunities to build their futures because they are not aware of their existence.
This has a direct impact on communities as organizations face staff shortages, especially in the education, healthcare and trade fields, and students are put on completely different life paths simply because they did not know that a program was available to help them build the foundation for a brighter future.
For 2026, this humanitarian effort has been organized to put tools in the hands of students to let them know that opportunities exist.