Kauffman Scholars Males to Men Ceremonial Event Highlights Program to Address Gender Gap in Education
January 22, 2008 -- Kansas City, MO. -- Young males are graduating from high school and college at a significantly lower percentage than young women, and the gender gap is particuarly large among urban minority students from low-income families. Kauffman Scholars, already recognized as the most comprehensive college prep and graduation program in the nation, has implemented a supplemental initiative titled "Males to Men (M2M)" desginend to address the specific needs and concerns of males as they advance from youth to manhood. The pilot program began in September, 2007 with ninth grade males from Kauffman Scholars Class 2 participating in a twelve-unit curriculum envisioned by Dr. Stephen Green, President and CEO of Kauffman Scholars, Inc. (KSI) and facilitated by George R. Williams, Executive Director of the National Center for Fathering, Urban-Child Partnership.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Participating Scholars will be welcomed into official membership in an on-going monthly support group called Mu Epsilon Nu (M.E.N.) Fraternity -- a brotherhood of young men committed to the service of others -- at a formal ceremony on Saturday, January 26, 2008, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., at the Robert J. Mohart Multi-Purpose FOCUS Center, 3200 Wayne Ave., Kansas City, Missouri. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Richard Mora, a faculty member in the Sociology Department at Occidental College, where he teachers courses on social inequality, education, and youth cultures. Dr. Mora is the recipient of several awards, including the Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality & Social Policy Fellowship from Harvard University in 2003.
"The goal of Kauffman Scholars is to significantly increase the number of urban students who become college graduates; to achieve that goal we must address the problems that prevent young males from staying in and being successful in school," Dr. Green said. "We will encourage and expect the young men who complete the M2M program to reach out as mentors for boys in elementary school."
KSI Academic Coach Tyrone Bates, Jr. and other KSI Coaches are the creators of the M2M Fraternity, and all KSI Coaches work with Scholars and parents to advance the M2M initiative. In the future, a pilot program to address societal challenges facing young women will be implemented.
Kauffman Scholars, Inc. began in 2003 with the support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. KSI begins preparing students to achieve the aim of becoming college graduates in middle school, and continues through their high school and college years. KSI is one of the only college prep and graduation programs to recruit students who have potential, yet may not be performing at their potential due to lack of academic rigor, family difficulties, or overwhelming financial need. Each student who completes the program will receive college scholarship assistance and incur no college-related debt.
Scholars receive rigorous academic coaching in math, science, and language arts, and life coaching to support character development and build life skills. Parents are considered important partners in their child's journey toward college graduation, and are expected to become active participants in the program.
Kauffman Scholars Inc., will utlimately serve more than 2,300 students from the Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas USD #500 public school districts and charter schools over a period of 19 years. Each student and family participating in the proram can expect to be involved for a total of ten years.