Mission

Inspired by pioneering educators like Mary McLeod Bethune, Marva Collins, and numerous others who believed in the power of education to uplift the community, Legacy Educators aims to help students get “to and through” college. We provide engaging programs and services for students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and community youth advisors to help them understand and overcome barriers to college enrollment and graduation. We specialize in marginalized populations – students of color, low-income students, and first-generation college students.

Approach

Much of the focus as it relates to marginalized students and education is on all the negative statistics that highlight the deficits of these students in comparison to their peers. Although Legacy Educators seeks to make a positive impact on these statistics, it does so by focusing on individuals and programs that have defied the odds and employing techniques from the research that are tailored to students’ unique circumstances.

We aim to challenge students and those who support them to examine their family’s generational patterns and beliefs about education and how these beliefs impact their current views about education, in the process debunking widely held beliefs and “myths” about what is possible in their lives. Our primary focus is on helping students embrace a mindset for success, identify their strengths, activate their strengths through creative problem-solving, develop resilience when faced with obstacles, and seek support systems that can help them navigate situations that are outside their comfort zones.

We believe that marginalized students have characteristics and coping mechanisms that, if harnessed and framed appropriately, make them poised to break cycles of low educational achievement, get “to and through” college, and live up to their fullest potential.

If you’re like most parents or other members of the “village,” you can relate to wanting your children to have better opportunities than you had growing up, and you see college as the gateway through which your kids can achieve this goal. In fact, there is evidence that individuals earn more with every level of education they attain. Certainly this does not mean that getting a college education ensures a high-paying job or a fulfilling career, nor does it mean that those without a college education cannot get good jobs or have fulfilling careers. It does mean that having a college education increases the chances of earning more, in addition to numerous other life-enhancing benefits.

Percentage distribution of educational attainment of adults
age 25 and older, by race/ethnicity: 2016

These may seem like mere numbers, but they tell an important story. Not enough students are pursuing college, and many of those who do fail to graduate, even after making significant time and financial investments in their education. The result is a gap between the median weekly earnings of those with a high school diploma and those with a bachelor’s degree that amounts to nearly $468 or nearly $25,000 per year. For those without a high-school diploma, the gap is even wider at $645 or nearly $34,000 per year. What a difference!

Legacy Educators can provide you, your children, your staff, or the children you serve with practical tools that can help students get “to and through” college.

Unfortunately, however, your dreams of a college education for your children do not shield your children from the realities of college attainment in this country.

In 2016, 40% of the U.S. population over 25 years of age had not attended college, and a third of that group had not earned a high-school diploma. Of the remaining 60% that went to college, just over half earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. The majority of the rest went to college but did not earn a degree. For students of color and low-income students, the percentage of students who had not attended college and those who had attended college without earning a degree was significantly higher, while the percentage of those who earned a bachelor’s degree or higher was significantly lower.

Unemployment rates and earnings by educational attainment, 2018

I’ve always admired people who know exactly what they want to do and the path to get there. I was not one of those people. Looking back at my college experience, I did college all wrong. Fortunately, I eventually learned to connect the dots between my strengths, interests and potential career paths. After completing graduate work, I enjoyed a fulfilling, twenty-year career in higher education and student affairs, during which I was privileged to help numerous students do what I had not done when I was in college – make meaning of their college experiences! I founded Legacy Educators to extend my work beyond the college campus to students long before they seek higher education, as well as to the members of the village that supports these students along the way. I am convinced that it is my life’s purpose to help students discover their strengths and interests and connect both with strategies that will help them get to and through college so they can achieve the life of their dreams.