Ten years after Delaware Futures was founded to help disadvantaged youth grow into productive members of society, the project celebrated its success at its first alumni luncheon, honoring three graduates – a teacher, a university coordinator and a future physician’s assistant.
Delaware Futures (DF) provides academic, social and guidance support and cultural enrichment designed to help economically-disadvantaged high school students recognize and fulfill their potential and go on to attend college. Once they graduate from college, it is expected that they will become self-reliant, contributing members of society; breaking the chain of poverty and helping to revitalize and reinvigorate their neighborhoods.
About 100 people attended the Oct. 16 luncheon, at which Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden delivered the keynote speech. Biden, who teaches English classes at a Washington, D.C. community college, has been an educator for 28 years. Her speech stressed the importance of education as a gateway to opportunity.
“I am here because I see in my classroom the power of education to open doors,” Biden said. “Regardless of personal wealth, gender, race, religion or ethnicity, each and every one of us is entitled to the opportunity that education provides...With the commitment to education in this room, we can help more and more students find their strength and confidence.”
In her speech, Biden also congratulated the three honorees - Bruce Taylor, Ronika Money and Amir Garcia.
Bruce Taylor is a teacher in Japan. He graduated from Sewanee, The University of the South, Delaware Futures’ partner college in Tennessee. He graduated with a major in ecology and biodiversity and a minor in French studies. Prior to graduating from high school, through DF, he traveled to Australia via the People to People: Student Ambassador Program.
“Delaware Futures did much more in my life than simply help me excel in high school,” Taylor wrote in a testimonial on the Delaware Futures website. “The program broadened my horizons through community service and attending weekly meetings with guest speakers, including City Council members and even the mayor of Wilmington.”
Ronika Money is the coordinator for student services and involvement at Pennsylvania State University-Brandywine. Graduating cum laude, she earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Delaware State University, a Delaware Futures partner university, and a master of arts in higher education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Amir Garcia will graduate from Delaware Technical and Community College with a degree in radiologic technology, courtesy of the partnership he entered into when he enrolled in the Delaware Futures program. He will use his degree as a “stepping stone” to becoming a physician assistant, via a 3-year program at Arcadia College near Philadelphia.
