Real Life 101 — a non-profit organization out of Detroit, Michigan that provides college scholarships for selected inner city, African American males who are graduating from high school – recently honored and announced their 10 scholarship recipients from the Seattle area.
As a result of the 100 Black men gathering that took place in February at Southshore Pre-K – 8 School in Seattle, all 10 scholarship recipients are African Americans males who previously attended Southshore.
Bryant George, executive director of Real Life 101, says he was looking for schools to partner with in Washington State when he came across an article about the 100 Black men’s gathering at Southshore.
“I came across an article that stated that the 100 Black men came to a middle school and greeted every student that came into the school that day and that is something that our Black male task force committee here in Detroit, Michigan has done at several elementary and middle schools,” said George in an interview with The Seattle Medium in February.
“I was completely impressed with how the community has united around the young people and how the community has given them a vision and how they are serving as role models for the kids who might be considered to be at risk by society’s standards,” added George.
This year’s scholarship recipients are: JoNathan Alderson, Marquise Bennett, Jeremiah Conyers, Devin Doss, Keiron Goodwin, Shedrick Johnson, Aristotle Marr, Airik Myers, Mehki Rogers and Jessie Williams.
Each student will receive a $10,000 scholarship (payable at $2,000 per year for up to five years), a new laptop computer fully loaded with software, and a computer backpack. In addition, each student will be paired with a Certified Real Life Mentor while in the program.
According to Sid Taylor, founder and chairman of Real Life 101, the mission of the organization is to invest in education and not incarceration. Taylor says that it cost $22,600 per year, per inmate to house people in prison and that his organization and the taxpayers are the ones who pay the bill, but Real Life invests in the kids’ future and hopes that the community will reap the benefits of this investment.
“They [Black males] have a one in three chance of going to prison,” Taylor said. “We are investing in them on the front end, which is a positive investment instead of investing in them on the back end, which is a negative investment.”
Founded in 2000, the organization has awarded more than 500 scholarships and over 1,500 laptops to inner city African American males across the country.
