Who Are We
Project Forward Leap (PFL) is committed to closing the gaps of academic achievement and developmental opportunities between students with academic promise put at-risk by serious socio-economic disadvantages and their advantaged peers and by serving as a catalyst for raising achievement standards in their schools.
Project Forward Leap (PFL) is a seven-year education and enrichment intervention program for students enrolled in inner city and school districts with significant levels of student underachievement and high dropout rates.
PFL’s services consist of academically rigorous annual five week summer residential institutes on college campuses, supplemented by local school year Saturday enrichment programs. In addition to these core components, what differentiates PFL from other education intervention programs is that PFL (1) reaches out to children in the fifth grade before they begin a downward spiral; (2) provides services to them throughout each year of participation until they graduate from high school; (3) prioritizes the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) presented earlier and at more advanced academic levels than inner city public schools; (4) incorporates character building strategies into programming to address the emotional and behavioral needs of students; (5) encourages students to remain in their home schools and works with participating school districts to help them raise educational standards; and (6) requires the active involvement and support of parents.
PFL has a twenty-three year documented history of success in identifying children with the potential to succeed and helping them acquire the tools they need to complete high school, succeed in colleges and universities, and ultimately hold positions of meaningful employment that enrich their lives and those of their families. Over 95% of PFL students graduate from high school and 80% of these continue to further their educations at institutions of higher learning, far exceeding the graduation rates of students in their home districts.
