Year Up Closes the College Education Gap

    More in From the Field:
  1. The Zimbabwean Dollar Is Dead
  2. World's Oldest Woman Celebrates 115th Birthday
  3. Meet the World's Ugliest Cat
  4. Cutting 1 Gram of Salt from American Diet Can Save 200,000 Lives in 10 Years
  5. Obama Family Breaks Rescue Dog Promise
    6. See All 101 From the Field...

Not everyone has the money or opportunity to attend college. But when it comes to getting a job, high school graduates or GED holders without any college experience are at an extreme disadvantage, even for the most menial roles. Almost 15 percent of 18 to 24 year olds without college degrees are unemployed; for those who manage to find jobs, their pay averages 5 to 15 percent less than those with even a single year of post-secondary education. For a large segment of society, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, opportunities are scarce, and they fall farther and farther behind their college-educated friends every year.

But in 2000, Gerald Chertavian launched an innovative program designed to help disconnected youths like these: Year Up , an educational and job-training nonprofit organization. Year Up provides GED holders and high school graduates who are unemployed or stuck in dead-end jobs with the skills they need to succeed, providing them with free courses in their field of interest, followed by a six-month internship for a large company, all for college credit. Raise money for this nonprofit and other nonprofits.

"I was really in a funk, and Year Up transformed me," Greg Walton, a Year Up graduate, told the Boston Globe . "Before, I didn't feel like I had options. . . . Breaking into the corporate world as an African-American, and especially an urban African-American at a young age, is pretty difficult."

Before entering the program, Walton was working for close to minimum wage at a grocery store. Following his internship, however, he’s landed a $40,000-a-year job managing information services at MIT.

Pleased participants aren’t the organization’s only fans—recently, Year Up received a visit from none other than President Barack Obama, who congratulated the group on its successes. It even looks as if the White House may be open to hosting a Year Up intern in the future.

"We have a bunch of interns running around there now, I don't see why we can't have someone from Year Up participate,” he said. “You can probably fix a few things."

How you can help : Year Up relies on participation from mentors and business leaders in the urban communities where it operates—if you live in one of the organization’s service areas, find out how you can become involved. To help the group finance its students’ educations and opportunities, make a donation to Year Up through Razoo.