August 27, 2007 (Vol. 6, No. 1)

Bronx Students Win 'Stay in School' Contest

Three Bronx Institute middle school teams and one Bronx Institute college alumni team were each awarded a $1,000 grant from Youth Venture's Tu Voz My Venture Contest, which asked participants to submit ideas encouraging teens to stay in school and graduate.

The students are members of the Bronx Institute's GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) and the ENLACE (Engaging Latino Communities for Education) programs. With the exception of the program alumni, all other participants were eighth graders at the time the contest took place.

• One team, "Tech 9," proposed to offer computer and technology courses to Bronx high school students, with the hope that it would lead to career opportunities in the field. The team members are now ninth-grade students at the HS for Math, Science, and Engineering at City College, HS of American Studies at Lehman College, DeWitt Clinton HS, and Bronx Science.


• "Step Up to College" consisting of five students from the Mott Hall III Middle School, suggested creating an after-school step team and a borough-wide step competition for the community. The goal is to keep students off the streets after school and to award scholarship money for step competition winners. These students are now ninth-graders at the Foreign Language Academy of Global Studies HS, Mott Hall Bronx HS, and The Beacon School.


• "Stay in School" is a traveling theatrical troupe that will offer a series of educational plays to Bronx high schools. The plays will allow students to watch scenarios of different paths that one can take in high school. The students in this team are ninth-grade students at the Clinton HS Macy Program and The Bronx Lab School.


• Three Bronx Institute program alumni—two of them students at Boston College students and another studying at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute—teamed up to form "BreechMark," an educational company that plans to provide direct services to schools in the Bronx, including a mentoring program, workshops, and publications.

"We are pleased that Youth Venture has selected our students to develop social enterprises in the Bronx," notes Professor Herminio Martinez, executive director of the Bronx Institute. "Our students will have a chance to create and lead a business, while becoming part of a national and global network of young people using their imaginative and creative ideas and talents to make the world better for the future."

In addition to the seed money, Youth Venture is a social entrepreneurship project of Ashoka, a community of social entrepreneurs across the globe. Youth Venture provides the teams with a Youth Venture Action Kit, online and media resources, and professional development opportunities. Its mission is to invest in the ideas and capacity of youth, ages 12-20, to create, launch, and lead sustainable community-benefiting organizations. For more information on Youth Venture, visit www.youthventure.org.

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