A Nation of Graduates

This week we will be attending the culmination ceremonies for 3 schools: Charnock Road Elementary, Braddock Drive Elementary, and Palms Elementary. Alongside their friends and families, we will proudly watch 70 of our SCORES student-athletes celebrate the completion of elementary school. Being present is more than just watching the celebration; we are showing our support as these children prepare for the next step in their education.

Speeches will be given, inspiring the graduating class to set goals -- goals that will aim to improve the current high school dropout crisis. In the future, many of the kids graduating from elementary school this week will achieve those goals. And many more will not. If the prevailing research is correct, only 44% of the students in LAUSD will receive high school diplomas. This means that 39 of the graduating SCORES students are projected to drop out of school in the next seven years.

Alarming statistics such as this one are not limited to LAUSD schools. Across the country, more than 12 million students are projected to drop out of school in the next decade. Those young people will be 8 times more likely to be in jail, and the projected financial impact to the nation is $3 trillion. Across the United States, and here in the LAUSD, students are failing their classes, and schools are failing their students.

As an organization that has joined the fight against the dropout crisis, we provide a free and safe after-school program that enriches youth with a literacy and soccer curriculum. Beyond that, it is our hope that the time we have spent with these kids has provided them with role-models, a team to call their own, and a sense of self-worth and belonging. As we watch these 70 student-athletes, we will reflect on the experiences that we have had with each individual kid. We are filled with satisfaction in what they have already accomplished and inspired by the ways that they have already strived to achieve their dreams and create change.

In 7 years, we will be sitting at high school graduations for the class of 2017. It is our goal to see all 70 of the SCORES student-athletes receive their high school diploma -- doing their part to reestablish a nation of graduates.