Members of 100 Black Men of Greater Orlando, Inc. mentor and tutor twenty (20) Jones High School students per year.  Jones High School is the second oldest Historically Black High School in the nation.

Students are provided a College Counselor, who addresses three of these factors – academics, social adjustment and family.  This Counselor builds a relationship with our students and their families from 9^th grade through college graduation. 

• Finances – In excess of 1.5 million dollars in scholarships have been awarded over the past 17 years.  Project Success students are each provided with $5,000 per year in college scholarships.  Students are also awarded scholarships for post graduate degrees.
• Academics – College Counselor monitors each student’s academic progress on a per semester basis.  Counselor intervenes as required to keep each student on track academically to graduate.
• Social Adjustment – Many of the students do not have family members with college experience.  Thus, the College Counselor speaks with them often and visits with students during their college career to ensure that they are adjusting.  Our counselor works to ensure that any problems and/or issues are resolved.
• Family – Most often students are from single parent homes. Some students have had some very challenging situations with their families and their personal situations because of a lack of financial support and resources.  Some examples are highlighted below.

Components of Project Success

 High School – The high school components of Project Success are: academics; financial literacy, including, investments in stocks and bonds; etiquette training; college orientation tours; field trips to businesses and, current events.  Formal mentoring sessions are held once-a-month.  However, mentors are available to students on an on-going basis.

 College – There are four (4) factors in order of impact that prevent at-risk youth from graduating from college: Finances, Academics, Social Adjustment, and Family.  Students are provided a College Counselor who addresses three (3) of these factors – academics, social adjustments and family.  This Counselor builds a relationship with our students and their families from 9^th grade through college graduation.  

Factors that typically prevent at-risk youth from graduating

•  Finances – In excess of 1.5 million dollars in scholarships have been awarded over the past 17 years.  Project Success students are each provided with $5,000 per year in college scholarships.
• Academics – A Team of College Counselors monitor student’s academic progress on a per semester basis.  Counselors intervene as required to keep each student on track academically to graduate.
• Social Adjustment – Many of the students do not have family members with college experience.  Thus, the College Counselor speaks with   them often and visits with students during their college career to ensure that they are adjusting.  Our counselor works to ensure that any problems and/or issues are resolved.
• Family – Most often Mentors are the only father figure in many of our students’ lives.  Some students have very challenging situations with their families and their personal situations because of a lack of financial support and resources.

The need for college preparedness/tutoring

As you may or may not know, colleges and universities have become quite competitive which has led to increasing SAT/ACT test score requirements.  For example, Florida’s universities and colleges are now requiring SAT scores in the 1150 to 1250 range for high school graduates.  We believe that SAT prep classes are necessary to win in this competitive era.  That is why our Project Success Program has solicited the aid of the Academic Doctor to prepare our students for Success.  As a result, the students who participated in the Program received high SAT/ACT scores .

Financial Literature and Budgeting

Financial literature will be added to the Stock investment portfolio.  African Americans in general are not as financially literate as they should be. 100 Black Men of Greater Orlando, Inc. has an arsenal of highly trained and willing entrepreneurs who are currently concentrating on the youth entrepreneurship through our Project Success Program. The goal is to teach and train the students in business principals and on why starting new businesses can lead to communities becoming stakeholders while building up their communities enabling them to give back to its community.

Workshops:

Sessions are held monthly and include topics that are facilitated by several of our prominent African-American males who are recognized in our community as transformational leaders.  Each workshop is centered on the expertise of the Speaker at the time of the session and is always goal-setting and career oriented.

Mentoring:

Each student is appointed two (2) mentors beginning in 9th grade until graduation.  Each mentor is trained and registered at ADDITIONS which is subject to the Florida Sunshine law. Mentors are never in the home of students and typically work with them over the phone or at school. The mentors also work with the family members as 100 Black Men of Greater Orlando believes that success starts with family and ends with family.