Youth Voices: Project REAL

A true voice of youth leadership:

"My name is Stephanie Mayo, and I am a senior at Roosevelt High School in Chicago, IL. This year, I worked with youth leaders from Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) to develop Project REAL Goals, a personalized graduation planning (PGP) system to help freshmen get on track to graduate ready for college ...

This year, our pilot project took place at eight Chicago high schools with 320 freshmen, 109 mentors (10th, 11th, 12th grade) and 39 school staff. As mentors, we meet with our freshmen mentees (the freshmen students) and focus on building a strong relationship with them to build a support system, so freshmen can have someone to go to when they need assistance with their educational and even social issues. Like Nicole Garcia, one of our VOYCE Mentees from Roosevelt High School said, 'Having a VOYCE Mentor is a great opportunity to meet people that actually listen to my problems.'

Read more of Stephanie's story--and the awesome program she and her peers created--in the video and link below.