Local Foundation Celebrates Graduates of African American Youth From Leadership Academy

Pasadena-based Gamma Zeta Boule Foundation, a local non-profit mentoring African-American high school students, is sponsoring an alumni reunion for students who’ve gone through the group’s Leadership, Achievement, Management, and Professionalism (LAMP) special mentoring program, a program that was started in 2004 to help develop the leadership potential among African American high school males in the Greater San Gabriel Valley.

The event will be held on December 18 at the Pasadena home of Dr. Michael and Diane Scott. It will bring alumni and their mentors together, with the current LAMP class of about 35 mentees. It will also feature a Toys for Tots Drive.

“Some of the students who have gone on and entered college are coming back to talk and work with some of the newer students, students that are still in their four years of high school, along with the Toys for Tots drive,” said Nate Reddicks, a mentor with the LAMP program.

Reddicks said the boys in the current LAMP class will be wearing blazers with emblems on them, through the support of JC Penney.

“This will be the first time they’ll be wearing them,” he continued.

Since it started, the LAMP program has been instrumental in preparing adolescent African American males for the professional world of inclusion, while promoting leadership, personal development, community service, political or civic engagement and decision-making expertise.

During the annual LAMP cycle, which begins around August and culminates in May the next year, mentees meet at least once a month, usually on the third Saturday, at locations from the greater Pasadena area to the Inland Empire to Los Angeles. The usual venues are high schools and colleges, museums, sports arenas, theaters, and other places suitable for presenting LAMP topics. Participants are introduced to as many institutions as possible, to expand their knowledge base and open up their minds to career opportunities.

Some of the sessions provide the students and their parents an opportunity to learn more about the college admissions process and financial aid, as well as writing, networking, financial literacy and interviewing skills.

The program is free to students and parents. At the end of the 10-month program, Gamma Zeta Boule Foundation hosts a luncheon ceremony to honor graduating high school seniors and to reward them with scholarship support for college.

The LAMP program is open to high school-aged African-American males, grades 9 to 12, who want to attend and graduate from the college or university of their choice. Applicants must apply and, along with a parent or guardian, participate in an orientation session that introduces them to the program. During this session, the applicants and their guardians are expected to confirm their commitment to the program’s goals and objectives.

To learn about LAMP and the application process for the program, visit https://gzbfoundation.org/lamp.