The GRADS Foundation, Inc. (the "Foundation") is a charitable organization created to enrich the lives and enhance the development of deserving students from economically depressed communities.

The Foundation encourages and prepares students to complete their high school education and pursue post-secondary education at the university or accredited technical or vocational school of their choice.

Study after study expresses a difficult truth -- children faced with poverty, hunger, drugs, and parental indifference often lose their interest in education. The GRADS Foundation believes that we need to make an early start and comprehensive long-term commitment to our young people to ignite and sustain that interest.

The Foundation takes a uniquely long-term approach in helping children in high-risk environments capture their potential for achievement. The Foundation:

• follows our students from sixth grade through college;
• engages them in a positive collaboration requiring them to study hard, volunteer towards their community, and avoid risky behavior;
• empowers them with responsibility for and pride in their own success, and provides the students with the opportunity for financial assistance in college.