Many children in this country dream about graduating from high school and going to college. Such a simple dream that too often gets derailed by pressing distractions: poverty, teenage pregnancy, the temptation of drugs, the lure of the street. Absent caring and supportive adults, their lives so easily veer off track. “Only 50% of students in low-income communities are expected to finish high school and only one out of seven will graduate from college.”  That’s where the “I Have A Dream” Foundation comes in.

Here is the inspiring story (from their website) of how the foundation began:

“In 1981, businessman Eugene M. Lang returned to P.S. 121, the elementary school he had attended in East Harlem 50 years earlier, to address a class of graduating sixth graders. He intended to tell the students, “Work hard and you’ll succeed.” But on the way to the podium, the school principal told Lang that three-quarters of the school’s students would probably never finish high school, prompting Lang to make an impromptu change to his speech: he promised college tuition to every sixth grader who stayed in high school and graduated. Lang told the class about witnessing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington. He urged the students to dream their own dreams, and promised to do all that he could to help them achieve their goals.”

Since 1986, the foundation started by Lang launched over 200 “I Have A Dream” programs in 27 states, Washington, D.C., and New Zealand, and has served over 15,000 Dreamers. The foundation’s approach is unique: it selects and sponsors entire grade levels of 50-100 students in public schools (or whole age groups in housing developments). Once a cohort is selected, every child in that cohort has the opportunity to participate. These Dreamers are worked with and supported from elementary school all the way through high school. Upon graduation, they receive guaranteed tuition assistance for college.

I chose to devote today’s post to the “I Have A Dream Foundation” in honor of George F. Kettle who passed away on April 15th at the age of 80. In 1987, Mr. Kettle made a special promise to a sixth-grade class of 60 at the Winston Educational Center in Washington D.C. He said he would grant a college education to anyone who graduated from high school. More than 80 percent of the students in that class kept up their end of the bargain, and Mr. Kettle kept his. Through the “I Have A Dream” Foundation, he also adopted another class at Brent Elementary School.

Most remarkable is that George Kettle did more than just write out a check to help these children. He personally reached out to his Dreamers and gave them personal support and valuable advice. Many of them will gather at a memorial service on Friday to honor this inspiring man whose simple act of generosity changed the course of their lives.

(Photo: brettlohmeyer’s flickr photostream/ Creative Commons)