A Child With A Dream Is A Child With A FutureTM
Dream Blog
In 2023, we are proud to have our long-time corporate partner QTS as the sponsor for this prestigious award, The Mentor of the Year Award Sponsored by QTS. After a round of nominations from each of our Learning Centers, a rigorous review by a specially selected group of QTS employees, we are thrilled to announce our mentor of the year from Salt Lake City: Daniel Guerrero.
My great great grandmother, Maria Simms Wallace, born enslaved would have been around 20 years old on June 19, 1865 when General Granger and Union Troops rode into Galveston, Texas to officially declare the state of Texas under Union rule and consequently all enslaved Black people would be immediately free.
Over the course of about eight months during the pandemic, we worked together to co-design a narrative shifting visual podcast to reach other young people facing the hard stuff in life. Our initial big goal of the podcast was to de-stigmatize the experience of having a parent incarcerated so that young people will seek help and understand they are not alone.
While Juneteenth is the day signifying “freedom” for African Americans due to the legal abolition of slavery, true freedom for African Americans has never been fully realized in this country.
As a youth-serving organization, our staff and volunteers have often had to ask the questions “What do we tell our children?” and “How does this violence and disregard for Black lives impact our DreamKids?”
When my son was selected to be a part of Michelle Obama’s “A Year of Firsts”- an internet series to document the first year of college, who could have guessed that our entire world would be going through “a year of firsts”!
During this unprecedented experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had a new term added to our vocabulary – “Social Distancing”. But is this really the goal?
For years, many people have viewed intelligence as something that kids are born with instead of a mindset that can be developed through hard work.
Every child needs reassurance and guidance at some point in their life. Life is a journey of transitions for everyone, and children, just like adults, experience feelings as they anticipate or react to transitions that they experience.
Described as “energetic, bright, positive and intentional” by Houston Dream Academy Learning Center Director Dipen Bhakta and Mentor Coordinator Walter Hull, Lauren Harris is currently a graduate student at the University of Texas School of Public Health and works at Change Happens, a nonprofit that teaches life skills to youth.
Have questions? Interested in learning more?
A Child With A Dream Is A Child With A Future
The U.S. Dream Academy is helping our nation’s children reach for their dreams. Through academic, social, and values enrichment, we empower children impacted by parental incarceration to believe in themselves and to succeed.
U.S. Dream Academy is a 501(c)3 registered nonprofit organization.
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