2021

​All Out for Change® helps public high school students overcome
disadvantages our educational systems’ inequities present

Donations assist full and partial-scholarship recipients with the myriad of essentials their wealthier peers’ families can afford, such as laptops, transportation to and from college, clothes for job interviews, meals, dorm and school supplies, and scholarship tuition gaps that prevent registration if not paid. Learn about lower-income students’ financial struggles as they pursue upward mobility by listening to eye-opening interviews. Read about their achievements in the face of their financial conundrums on our inspiring stories & impact page.

DONATIONS AT WORK-
Student Achievements in Pursuit of Degrees & Professions
Anthony Keeps Soaring Higher - Watch the WUSA9 Interview

As Anthony applies to grad schools in pursuit of a career in opera, he’s incurring expenses: application fees, travel to schools for auditions and interviews, clothing for these visits; and then, grad school living expenses.  To cover application and travel expenses we provided a Supplemental Scholarship award, his 3rd from AOFC. Hopefully he receives scholarship offers as he did for undergraduate studies. 

What a Difference $931 Made Thanks to Donations Toward a Supplemental Scholarship Award, an iPad 

Anthony writes, “The iPad has been a great vital component of my work the last year and a half. It has served to assist in shooting high quality video recordings that I can use for graduate audition prescribes as well as a place I can store much larger files. The iMovie feature is incredible in allowing me to cut and edit videos that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to on my regular laptop because it simply is a bit dated and lacks the storage needed to be able to process these videos. It has also served as a place where I can store my eTextbooks for language classes and other academic courses like Philosophy.”

Many Scholarship Recipients Benefited From Supplemental Scholarship Awards, Invaluable Computers,
​and College Access Funds  
for their college prep workshops that included: tutoring, college and scholarship research assistance and counseling

Kevin - in 11th grade, March 2020, without computers when school closed we gave him a computer to continue the school year online and the college prep program through 12th grade. In 2021 Kevin received a scholarship to Ohio University, studying management information systems.
Jewel - who received a laptop to complete her senior year at North Carolina A&T, graduated summa cum laude; she plans to teach in a DC public school.
Skylar, with her gift card for transportation & other college related expenses, her MacBook Air and Supplemental Scholarship award letter, is completing her first year en route to her goal of becoming a veterinarian.
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The lives of students we support are vastly different from their wealthier peers. All Out for Change®, through donations, helps financially disadvantaged, ambitious, students with great potential like Skylar, Anthony, Guadalupe, Juana, and many more. Through donations, together with others’, we ease their journey toward degrees, professions, and upward mobility for themselves and their families.

Via Their Words We Better Grasp The Reality of Their Journey 
Higher Education Leads to Higher Earnings,
A Journey Fraught with Hurdles & Debt That Takes Immense Courage to Embark On

Both of our featured students are fortunate to have attended the public schools they did. Damaris, via lottery, got into one of the best public charter schools in DC; and Anthony, with the urging of a middle school teacher, auditioned for and graduated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts.
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Damaris Medina, DC International Charter School, class of 2021, first year scholarship student at Lewis & Clark University:

 When I asked in August, “As a student who we go to bat for, are you comfortable with the words “financially disadvantaged” as in “ambitious financially disadvantaged student scholars”?

Damaris thoughtfully replied, “The word financially disadvantaged doesn’t offend me because it is true and I know it is not my fault. I think the words surrounding the adjectives are important like “ambitious” and should be emphasized because in all you are helping students make a way when originally there would be no way. They have goals, dreams, and aspirations just like anyone else except their financial situation puts them a little farther away from the finish line than other students whose families are affluent....I went off on a little tangent, but in all I think the adjectives are ok with me and shouldn’t offend anyone.”

Anthony Anderson, graduate of Duke Ellington School, and Oberlin Conservatory, Class of 2022:
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“I wish to express my deepest gratitude to you and AllOutForChange. From the very beginning of my journey [2017] to and through college, you’ve helped bring my dream of becoming a renowned opera singer into focus by supporting me both financially and emotionally. With your support, I’ve had opportunities to travel and find the right school for me, play in my first two full length operas this past year, and even sing at Carnegie Hall this past winter. Know that you make a difference. Despite the many misfortunes this world has, which have grown even more present this past year, y’all provide a helping hand to those in need. Please, continue the good work!”  September 24, 2020.

When I asked if he received his latest Supplemental
Scholarship award for grad school application fees and travel expenses, he replied,“Yes, I have! I meant to give you a big thank you!!! It really came right on time so I could send out my applications and pay the fees on time. Thank you again! I’m just waiting on results to hopefully schedule live auditions.”  December 7, 2021.

For AOFC Anthony interviewed 5 students and young professionals who tell it like it is. When discussing student debt with Rebecca in her interview: “I’m graduating with $40,000 in federal loans,” remarks Rebecca a GWU engineering school full & merit scholarship recipient, Anthony replies, “That’s not that bad!”

“Nearly forty years later, I can reflect on what a blessing it has been to encounter so many people who chose to help someone in need — not because they had to but because they simply could…. In whatever form, such acts create their own legacy of hope and inspiration. They pass something on,”  remarks Deval Patrick, former Massachusetts Governor and author whose journey begins in a Chicago tenement.

For a clearer picture read any one of the illuminating biographies, and autobiographies, including Deval Patrick’s, from our eye-opening stories page. In  Ron Suskind’s,  A Hope in the Unseen, An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League, you’ll learn how the journey is far from mundane. I can’t imagine how Cedric Jennings would have made it without a benefactor who read Suskind’s Pulitzer Prize WSJ feature story. A caring fellow provided Jennings with $200 a month for food and expenses to add to his campus employment income, and paid for a tutor to bring Jenning’s academic skills up to speed.
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When I read stories and meet young adults and teens with aspirations, talent and initiative like Anthony, and when I learn of the many strangers’ desire to pitch in, I trust we can make a life-time difference for others. 
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​Sincerely,
MaryAnn, Chief Engagement Officer and Founder
AllOutForChange®

​Learn How Our Supporters Have Made a Difference

2021 Highlights: College Access & Supplemental Scholarship Funds Made a Difference for 2021 High School Grads
Yes, it does “take a village”, going All Out for Change® for our youth seeking achievement, degrees, professions, and upward mobility.

Many students are now fortunate scholarship recipients and starting their studies at colleges and universities throughout the country. They benefited from College Access Funds that went toward college prep workshops; tutoring, college and scholarship research assistance and counseling.
How College Access Funds  & Computers Made a Difference

• Jewel - who received a laptop to complete her studies online, graduated summa cum laude from North Carolina A&T; she plans to teach in a DC public school.
• Kevin & Daivon - in 11th grade, March 2020, without computers when school closed we gave them iMacs to continue the school year online and the college prep program through 12th grade.   Kevin received a scholarship to Ohio University to study management information systems; Daivon received a scholarship to Radford University where he will major in aeronautical engineering.
• Dimya - received a scholarship to  Radford University to study mechanical engineering.
• Maurice - received a scholarship to University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
• James - a 2020 laptop recipient, made honor-roll throughout high school and received a scholarship to George Mason University for film & video studies.
• Christian, Christopher, David and more… many, at-risk, growing up in dangerous neighborhoods ended up, by fate, serendipity, and good fortune, to connect in high school with an amazing group of tutors and counselors who are educators in math, physics, reading & writing, and college prep guidance. 
• London - a pre-med student at Emory University was faced with a tuition gap that we helped cover. To avoid debt every semester, he applies for small scholarships to fill the gap.

How Supplemental Scholarship Funds Made a Difference
16 high school graduates received All Out for Change® Supplemental Scholarship awards: 4 for transportation expenses, and 14 received Mac laptops.  Though many students’ families are on the poorer side of the wealth spectrum, the students are rich with potential, and have the good fortune, via a lottery, to receive a top-notch public charter school education where they can cultivate their potential and become competitive college and scholarship candidates with help of a full-time college counselor who we collaborate with. Many of their neighborhood public schools in less affluent zip codes aren’t able to provide for students in this way.  

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Helping them move along on their journey toward a degree, a fulfilling profession and upward mobility with a little more ease and less debt is important to us. Donations make their uphill climb less burdensome. 

Luz, who’s going to Northeastern University in Boston wrote: "I just wanted to say thanks again for the laptop! It will be a great help to me in college and I appreciate the well wishes.”

​Skylar, a college scholarship recipient, pictured to the left, with her Supplemental Scholarship awards: gift card for transportation, her MacAir and award letter; she’ll double-major in equine studies and biology en route to her goal of becoming a veterinarian. ​​