ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. — They give young men the tools they need to become successful leaders. The group behind the tools for success is the Alpha Academy, a high school mentoring program.
A group of young men at Arundel High are learning how to take control of their finances.
"You had 20 beans and you had two sheets of paper like financing and if you didn't have most stuff then you had to take some beans away like insurance,” said Jaylen McDaniel who is a sophomore at Arundel High.
The focus is to equip the group of students with the tools they need to be successful after high school. It's part of the Alpha Academy Mentoring Program.
"A lot of young men, especially African American young men, they're not taught about credits, they're not taught how to handle their school loans when they go to college. They’re not taught about finances like their bank accounts, savings accounts,” said Stephen Williams who is the Alpha Academy Program Chair. “I feel like it's really important to catch them now and give them these tools."
The program is for boys grades three all the way to 12 throughout Anne Arundel County. Arundel being the only high school at the moment.
"We applied for grant funding and were awarded about $27,000 to work with the focus group of about 25, 26 young men,” said Williams.
The mentoring goes beyond just the classroom. "Some of the other things that we do is community service projects that we create. Not just being successful but being active members of their community,” said Williams.
While the students meet in the classroom once a month, the foundation it builds will last a life time.
"I feel like it's going to help me like save money and put money aside so investing, going into retirement and like after I’m out of a job and old enough I’ll have money put aside so that I can not have a job and live freely,” said Malik Thomas who is a senior at Arundel High.
"It's really cool just having a group of people that look just like me learning about stuff that I think we don't really learn about in school,” said Shadrach Ojaomo who is a senior at Arundel High. “I wasn't really sure what I was going to do when I get out of high school and this kind of gives an idea of what I want to do.”
The young men have the option of signing up for the program at the beginning of every school year.
