Message from Chief Executive Officer Lucas Spielfogel
A person’s value is not determined by where or if they go to college. But BRYC exists because there are tens of thousands of Baton Rouge youth who want postsecondary degrees yet face tremendous barriers to attaining them and converting their education into economic opportunity. Equity looks like ensuring BRYC Fellows have the resources all young people need to viably pursue their dreams.
Pictured: Lucas with Class of 2021 Fellow and Louisiana Young Hero Ivory Gipson
65%
Proportion of U.S. jobs that require some higher education
Source: Louisiana Board of Regents Master Plan
17.6%
Proportion of Black adults aged 25+ in EBR who hold bachelor’s degrees
Source: Statistical Atlas
Mission
Help underserved youth excel in high school; enter, persist through, and graduate from college; and secure career-track jobs.
Vision
Provide our students with the best college-preparatory, college persistence, and career placement services money can buy — for free — so they can maximize the economic value of their degrees, build the lives they want, and help future generations do the same.
Core Beliefs
There are no "at-risk" youth, only youth who live in environments that have systemically been made risky.
“At-risk” is a problematic catch-all phrase casually used to describe students who struggle in school. In most cases, the term refers to situational risk factors – e.g. poverty, incarceration, unemployment, etc. – that adversely affect educational attainment. Because Black and Brown youth disproportionately face these risk factors, they are saddled with the racialized stigma of being “at-risk.” The term lays blame on students (as early as pre-K) for conditions that result from policy choices, not personal choices, and assigns a label that fuels the very disparities it allegedly warns of.
The so-called "achievement gap" is a symptom of profound resource and opportunity gaps.
The “achievement gap” is the persistent disparity in standardized test performance between students of color and their white peers. Success on these tests is a function of access, not aptitude. More than 400 years of systemic racism have caused Black and Brown students to disproportionately lack access to protective factors – like high-quality schools; safe neighborhoods; and high parental educational attainment – that support academic progress. Because, generally, these students lack the resources to properly prepare for standardized tests, they are blocked from opportunities that drive economic mobility and open new doors to their children. This is one of the reasons colleges are deprioritizing these tests. Another is that they are an extremely limited measure of the diverse intelligences that diverse environments foster.
College graduation is not the end in itself, but rather a vehicle to personal and professional opportunity.
Graduating from college is a huge achievement, especially for students who persist through tremendous obstacles along the way. However, to advance racial equity, we must think of students’ success in terms of what happens after they enter the workforce. If we don’t, we risk overlooking the financial risk students often incur to attend college and the barriers that still lie ahead. BRYC is focused on helping Fellows maximize the value of their college experience so they can convert their degrees into economic opportunity. Our vision of success manifests in their ability to secure fulfilling career-track jobs; build the lives they want for themselves; and help future generations do the same.
The Three Cs
BRYC’s college-preparatory community is a village of programs, participatory opportunities, and people that we wrap around Fellows at no cost. The layered Cs in our logo represent our core competencies:
College: Programs
Helping Fellows become expert learners and enter and complete college
Consciousness: Participation
Supporting Fellows’ self-advocacy and involvement in meaningful activities
Community: People
Fostering a loving community in which Fellows access valuable resources
Where We Started
2009
Dan Kahn and Sam Joel, then Belaire High School teachers, realized their brightest, hardest working students lacked the resources they needed to enter and graduate from college. They founded BRYC with 15 students, running programs out of the Belfair Teen Center in north Baton Rouge.
2010–2014
BRYC grows to serve 100 Fellows, renting space at 850 North Street, and later, 611 North Street, to accommodate the growing team and cohort.
2015–2022
BRYC comes home to 460 N. 11th Street, purchasing a 25,000-square-foot campus with room to serve 300 students. We provide fully virtual programming during the pandemic and also add an 8th-grade cohort.
2023–Present
East Baton Rouge Parish School System approves a $1.5 million investment for BRYC to open a second campus at 14141 Airline Hwy. In 2024–2025, BRYC partners with EBRPSS again to launch in-school postsecondary advising services. These expansions more than triple the number of youth we reach each year.
Where We Are Today
Alumni Persistence Rate
BRYC 4-year
degree completion rate
(Bachelor’s seeking)
BRYC 2– & 4-year
degree completion rate
(overall Fellowship)
BRYC 4-year
degree completion rate
(overall Fellowship)
U.S. 4-year
degree completion rate
(lower-income students)
Source: Pell Institute
Return on Investment
$115M+
Scholarships awarded to BRYC Fellows (non-TOPS/Pell)
$18.9M
Additional annual wages BRYC's Alumni are on track to earn
$162.2M
Total additional lifetime tax value BRYC's Alumni are on track to yield
