Year Up Puget Sound

Year Up is a one-year, intensive training program that provides urban young adults 18-24, with a unique combination of technical and professional skills, college credits, an educational stipend and corporate internships. Our success is our graduates -- enabling them to move on to full-time employment and higher education. Year Up is about providing opportunities for urban young adults to demonstrate their true potential. The idea that would become Year Up was born in 1987 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, on the 18th Floor of 54-64 Rutgers Street, Apartment G. Gerald Chertavian, a recent graduate of Bowdoin College working on Wall Street, had volunteered to serve as a Big Brother to 10-year-old David Heredia, who lived in Apartment G with his mother. David's neighborhood was known for crime and drug use; it was then the most heavily photographed crime scene in New York City. For three years, Gerald spent every Saturday with David. He came to admire his Little Brother as an intelligent and motivated young man, with a passion for drawing. However, Gerald also came to realize that because David lacked certain basic resources, he would have to travel a difficult path to achieve success. Gerald was struck by the injustice of David's situation ? that the opportunities he had access to could be limited by his zip code, the color of his skin, the balance of his mother's bank account, or the school he attended. And as an entrepreneur, Gerald realized our country was allowing enormous talent and potential to go to waste, at a time when we could not afford to waste anyone. In his application to Harvard Business School, Gerald wrote an essay inspired by his experiences with David. He outlined a vision for an urban school that would provide young adults with the skills, experience and support they needed to realize their potential. Such a school would answer two needs ? it would provide young adults the boost they needed to bridge the Opportunity Divide, while at the same time providing companies with a new source of talent. Gerald began his post-Harvard career by co-founding Conduit Communications and fostering its growth to $20 million in annual revenues; following the sale of the company in 1999, Gerald turned his energy and talents back toward the interests closest to his heart. The fruits of his experiences with David and success in the for-profit world took form in 2000 when Gerald founded Year Up: a one-year education and professional job training program for urban young adults. The organization has grown from 22 students in Boston to a nationwide movement; in 2011, we will serve over 1,400 students in nine cities across the country. Our mission: To close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education.

A recent Annie E. Casey Foundation report estimates that 5 million youth in this country have not progressed beyond a high school diploma and are neither employed nor enrolled in postsecondary education (Kids Count Data Center, 2009). Youth experiencing this "disconnection" from the economic mainstream make up nearly 15% of all 18-24 year olds, and illustrate the magnitude of a national "opportunity divide" that is getting worse. Compounding the problem is the fact that most new jobs, and virtually all that offer wages sufficient to support a family, require at least some education and training beyond high school, even at the entry-level (Carnevale and Reich 2000). Even one year of postsecondary education increases lifetime earnings by 5 to 15 percent per year. The result is a dual class economy where the people that stand to benefit the most from higher education and career opportunities find it hardest to do so. Without proper guidance and opportunities, these young adults will continue to face enormous challenges in transitioning from high school to higher education and family-supporting careers. At the same time, the country's fastest growing demographic groups (Latinos and African Americans) are receiving comparatively less education. 29% of Latinos and 15% of African Americans drop out of high school. As a result, a growing number of low-income, minority youth leave high school lacking either the credentials and/or the skills to advance toward a college degree-essentially guaranteeing that they will struggle to earn a family-supporting income in today's economy. Many will enter college only to become discouraged and drop out; others will cycle in and out of job training and adult education programs, never getting beyond low-paying jobs with little prospect of advancement. Without proper guidance and opportunities, these young adults will continue to face enormous challenges in transitioning from high school to achievement in successful careers and higher education. To help address these challenges, Year Up was founded in October 2000 by Gerald Chertavian as a one-year intensive education and internship program for urban young adults aged 18-24. Year Up's program recognizes that both job skills (technical and professional) and higher education are necessary to provide a viable path to economic self-sufficiency. Our mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support that will empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and higher education