BATON ROUGE YOUTH COALITION INC

BRYC is a community of dedicated students (Fellows) and caring adults working together to advance equity through access to higher education. BRYC exists because lower-income students of color face tremendous barriers to the American Dream: the ability to convert education into opportunity. In 2023-2024, BRYC will serve 360 driven, lower-income high school students, and we have a team dedicated to supporting 675 alumni to ensure they graduate from college and secure jobs.

BRYC’s core programs take place Mon-Wed evenings. Program focuses are grade-specific. Eighth-10th-graders build self-regulated and socioemotional learning skills to become independent, empowered scholars. Juniors apply these skills in the context of ACT preparation. Seniors execute the college application, financial aid, and matriculation processes. One of the most important and successful components of BRYC’s model is our inclusion of volunteer mentors, who work one-on-one or in small groups with Fellows to support them along "The BRYC Way" (thebryc.org/bryc-way).

Now in our 14th year, BRYC has an 80% college completion rate for two- and four-year colleges, six times the national average for lower-income students. This is largely due to our Fellows’ hard work, but it’s also the result of BRYC’s programs, which prepare students to enter college with viable payment plans, maximize the economic value of their degree, and graduate fully-equipped to be an asset in their workplaces and communities.