Opening Doors of Opportunity: A Better Chance Virtually Speaking

What happens when a bright, talented teenager of color from a family without much money has doors of high-quality educational opportunities opened to him?

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Find out on Dec. 17, from 11:30 am to 11:50 am, on the A Better Chance YouTube Channel, with the airing of a conversation between Ellis Rowe (Andover A Better Chance), a former president of Mars Inc., and Kemba J. Dunham (Kent Place School), a former Wall Street Journal reporter who is now with the College Board).

Dunham will ask Rowe about the educational opportunity he was presented with and took advantage of as a youth, and how it introduced him to new worlds, experiences, and opportunities that changed his life and benefited his family and community. Rowe will also talk about how he went from the football field to the C-suite.

A Better Chance, the renowned organization that opens doors of educational opportunity to young people of color, is beginning a new speaking series on its YouTube channel. Featuring prominent A Better Chance Alumni, the Virtually Speaking series will address how we as a nation can ensure that more talented young people of color succeed and participate in making our country great. Opening the four-part series, each of which will feature different speakers, is the conversation between Rowe and Dunham.

For more than 50 years, A Better Chance has transformed the lives of young people of color through education and prepared thousands of students to take on leadership roles in American society. Although A Better Chance wanted to be obsolete by now, it’s still relevant and needed to help fortify the pipeline of diverse leaders of the future. But doing that critical work takes support.

“The A Better Chance ‘Virtually Speaking’ series was conceived in an effort to more successfully engage our alumni and donors,” says Nicole Bouknight-Johnson, director of development at A Better Chance. “The series gives us an opportunity to highlight our prominent alumni in new and creative ways and to speak to the success and goals of the A Better Chance mission.  By highlighting alumni from diverse professions, it is our hope that our scholars and young alumni will be introduced to different career paths as they explore the many opportunities that the organization has afforded them. The talks will also be used as an introduction to the organization and its mission. The hope is that our alumni and donors will reach out to others whom we have lost touch with and share the videos with their peers.”

For more information about the Virtually Speaking series or about A Better Chance, go to ABetterChance.org and the A Better Chance YouTube channel. As they say at A Better Chance, there is no stopping us.