Press Release
For Immediate Release
For More Information: MaryAnn Puglisi, Chief Engagement Officer & Founder, All Out for Change®
For More Information: MaryAnn Puglisi, Chief Engagement Officer & Founder, All Out for Change®
5 Illuminating, Page-Turning Summer Reads Like No Other
In a Broken Educational System
Serendipity & Good Fortune Crush the Cycle of Poverty
In a Broken Educational System
Serendipity & Good Fortune Crush the Cycle of Poverty
Washington, DC, August 6, 2021 - All Out for Change®, an anti-poverty, pro-opportunity organization, has compiled a timely list of illuminating, gripping, real-world stories. Reading any one of the 5 books, both heart-warming and sad, by award-winning journalists and authors will shed light on the dark corner of our educational system’s inequity and the tragic consequences experienced by millions of financially disadvantaged students whose lives won’t feature the same good fortune as Cedric Jennings, Nicholas Kristof, Ryan Speedo Green, Wes Moore, and Arshay Cooper.
The following page-turners reveal that high school and college degrees and upward mobility often come down to the serendipitous appearance of pivotal people at critical moments, and the student scholar’s courage, strength, and persistence that emerges to break through road-blocks and faltering hope and belief on a perilous journey that’s far from mundane.
A Hope in the Unseen, An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League, by Ron Suskind, “Chosen as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Washington Monthly and Booklist.”
Tightrope, Americans Reaching for Hope, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, a National Bestseller.
Sing For Your Life, A Story of Race, Music and Family, a story of Ryan Speedo Green’s obstacle-ridden ascent from poverty in rural Virginia to the Metropolitan Opera, as told by Daniel Bergner, a National Bestseller.
The Other Wes Moore- One Name, Two Fates, by Wes Moore, who remarks in his New York Times Bestseller, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.”
A Most Beautiful Thing, The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team, by Arshay Cooper, a Benjamin Franklin award-winning author and recipient of the 2017 USRowing Golden Oars Award.
In a July 28th, 2021 article, The Washington Post referenced statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor: “Higher education levels tend to correspond with higher earnings… The median weekly pay in 2020 for workers with a bachelor’s degree was $1,305, compared with $938 for those with an associate’s degree and $781 for high school graduates.”
Anthony, a two-time All Out for Change® Supplemental Scholarship award recipient, aspiring opera singer, and scholarship student pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, comments in an interview with another fortunate 2021 full-scholarship student with an IT job offer, “we have overwhelming odds we have to face and get over as a community… I was blessed to be able to.”
To listen instead to his and others’ stories rather than read from the list, the All Out for Change® website features 5 interviews conducted by Anthony, filled with insightful illuminating conversation. Listeners will hear students and degreed young adults, at different stages of achievement in their pursuit of upward mobility and fulfilling careers, tell it like it is. Though with less depth than the books, the conversations also reveal key worries, financial stress, struggles and critical turning points that lead to hard-earned achievements one-step at a time on their families’ unfamiliar unbeaten path.
All Out for Change® helps public high school students overcome disadvantages our educational systems’ inequities present. The organization raises funds to cultivate competitive college and scholarship candidates, and helps 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 more at AllOutForChange.org.
The following page-turners reveal that high school and college degrees and upward mobility often come down to the serendipitous appearance of pivotal people at critical moments, and the student scholar’s courage, strength, and persistence that emerges to break through road-blocks and faltering hope and belief on a perilous journey that’s far from mundane.
A Hope in the Unseen, An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League, by Ron Suskind, “Chosen as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Washington Monthly and Booklist.”
Tightrope, Americans Reaching for Hope, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, a National Bestseller.
Sing For Your Life, A Story of Race, Music and Family, a story of Ryan Speedo Green’s obstacle-ridden ascent from poverty in rural Virginia to the Metropolitan Opera, as told by Daniel Bergner, a National Bestseller.
The Other Wes Moore- One Name, Two Fates, by Wes Moore, who remarks in his New York Times Bestseller, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.”
A Most Beautiful Thing, The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team, by Arshay Cooper, a Benjamin Franklin award-winning author and recipient of the 2017 USRowing Golden Oars Award.
In a July 28th, 2021 article, The Washington Post referenced statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor: “Higher education levels tend to correspond with higher earnings… The median weekly pay in 2020 for workers with a bachelor’s degree was $1,305, compared with $938 for those with an associate’s degree and $781 for high school graduates.”
Anthony, a two-time All Out for Change® Supplemental Scholarship award recipient, aspiring opera singer, and scholarship student pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, comments in an interview with another fortunate 2021 full-scholarship student with an IT job offer, “we have overwhelming odds we have to face and get over as a community… I was blessed to be able to.”
To listen instead to his and others’ stories rather than read from the list, the All Out for Change® website features 5 interviews conducted by Anthony, filled with insightful illuminating conversation. Listeners will hear students and degreed young adults, at different stages of achievement in their pursuit of upward mobility and fulfilling careers, tell it like it is. Though with less depth than the books, the conversations also reveal key worries, financial stress, struggles and critical turning points that lead to hard-earned achievements one-step at a time on their families’ unfamiliar unbeaten path.
All Out for Change® helps public high school students overcome disadvantages our educational systems’ inequities present. The organization raises funds to cultivate competitive college and scholarship candidates, and helps 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 more at AllOutForChange.org.
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Notes:
• Find book cover images at AllOutForChange.org;
• All Out for Change® urges support of small independent businesses, and so, provides website links to purchase books via Kramers, AllOutForChange.org.
• Find book cover images at AllOutForChange.org;
• All Out for Change® urges support of small independent businesses, and so, provides website links to purchase books via Kramers, AllOutForChange.org.
