Restoration Sends Seniors Off to College with a Night to Remember

Last month, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation celebrated its third annual graduation for the In School Youth (ISY) program, an initiative dedicated to the development of our young people. Each year, we take a moment to acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of some 70 program participants. The event was held in the Skylight Art Gallery at Restoration where parents, friends, program staff, internship hosts and other key stakeholders were all in attendance. Of the 35 juniors who participated in the program, all have been promoted to their senior year. We are extremely excited about having 94% of our seniors, the highest percentage ever, graduate high school and enroll into colleges - University of Pennsylvania, Mount. Holyoke, New York University and CUNY, to name a few. Six of our participants received scholarships, four of which were full scholarships.

During the ceremony, seniors either received certificates of graduation or completion for their efforts. Special plaques were given to eleven of the graduating seniors to commemorate exceptional individual accomplishments. Graduating high school seniors were also awarded brand new HP laptops.

Sherlanda Paul, a program participant and an aspiring writer/poet, presented a heartfelt poem about the transition from high school into college to adulthood. Modupe Kuti, our Outstanding Achievement award recipient, also spoke and shared her experiences at Restoration and her maturation process. In her speech she was quoted as saying, "I joined Restoration's In-School Youth program my junior year and since then I've gained and learned so much… We've learned skills that we are going to need to master to be successful in the workplace such as determination, respect, punctuality and good ethics… Most of all we've talked about crucial life skills such as making the right decisions in everyday life situations that would keep us on track toward a path of success… I want to say a big thank you to the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration family for caring about our well being and our futures, for taking the initiative to create and sustain such a wonderful program for us and for providing us with opportunities that most of us would have never found anywhere else." Our keynote speaker for the evening was Al Wiltshire, a long time community leader, Restoration board member and Chief of Staff to Congressman Ed Towns. He inspired our young people by sharing his story and the role a solid education played in his success.

In a time where young people are struggling to graduate and pursue post education, we are extremely proud that our young people are beating all odds and achieving high standards. Congratulations to the ISY program graduates of 2009!


For more information on the Upwardly Mobile Youth on the Rise contact Daks Armstrong at 718-636-6980. Restoration is currently recruiting 12 seniors for the 2009-2010 program year which will begin in September 15, 2009.

Funding for this program is made possible by: The Department of Youth and Community Development, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase