Local Organization Honors Recent High School Grads
By Justin Udo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - 'Say Yes to Education' is a non-profit organization that helps inner-city kids graduate high school and college by offering mentoring, tutoring and other services.
The Philadelphia chapter held its annual celebration Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania, where recent high school grads got a chance to reflect on how the program has influenced them.
Khadijah Taylor graduated from One Bright Ray Community High School. At one point she was two grades behind on her studies.
If it wasn't for 'Say Yes to Education', I still would have been in that grade that I shouldn't be in," she said. "I wouldn't be graduating with the rest of them."
Khadijah is attending McDowell College in the fall.
Maisha Sullivan is the director of the organization in Philadelphia:
"This program has been supporting them all those years, with academic support, remediation, social emotional support and extracurricular support, so these students all got accepted into colleges," she said.
Sullivan says, 'Say Yes to Education' graduated 36 students this year, which gives it an 80-percent graduation rate, and those graduates have all earned a scholarship to extend their education at a higher level.
