Baton Rouge Youth Coalition

How does your organization serve the local community?

The Baton Rouge Youth Coalition prepares high-achieving, under-resourced high school students to enter, excel in, and graduate from college so they can become full participants in society. We promote intellectual and emotional exploration and risk-taking by offering programs that allow students to think and express themselves freely. Our primary aims are cultivating Fellows’ intellectual curiosities, guiding them toward greater self-awareness and self-acceptance, and fostering a space in which we all can develop a critical consciousness. Success in the college application process is crucial, and to that end, Fellows are asked to perform at a high level in a variety of ways — but BRYC’s main goal is to help students become critical and creative thinkers, and thoughtful, resilient, engaged citizens.

Describe your experience working with Serve Louisiana members.

Our current member, Jess, has made huge improvements to our tutoring system by developing a color-coded tutor chart to quickly match students with tutors. We've gone from having barely 10 tutors volunteer two days a week to having over 20 tutors volunteering four days a week. She helped students with their ACT practice tests, implementing checklists that help students prepare with confidence for the most important test of high school. She’s an instinctive problem-solver and sees connections and opportunities where others wouldn’t. She wants to do things right all the time, not just when someone else is watching, and she has great attention to detail. 

As an after school program in a high-need area of Baton Rouge, BRYC staff are often working with students late at night. Jess gives her all to every child, and will “pinch hit” if a volunteer misses his or her time. She has tutored in geometry, U.S. history, French, ACT exam prep, English and all of the core sciences. In fact, some students will refuse to work with any other tutor because they adore her personal warmth and fun attitude so much. Needless to say, we greatly value our Serve Louisiana partnership.

Learn more about the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition.