Leading Youth Through Empowerment (LYTE) believes academic success is fundamental to lifelong success. LYTE strives to change the academic journey of Delaware’s under-represented youth by preparing middle school students to excel in challenging high school programs, then colleges, through mentoring, demanding teaching and leadership.
At LYTE, we teach our students that “a goal without a plan is just a dream.” Our program helps students create a plan and implement it. We challenge our students, and each is dedicated to investing summers and after school to exacting study to achieve a successful future and change their life circumstances. LYTE recruits students in seventh grade, providing after-school and summer programs through eighth grade, to help students attain admissions and when needed, financial aid to top high school programs. LYTE leads families through the school choice process and our students apply to an average of five top high school programs. LYTE then guides our students through high school with transition support, academic tutoring, professional development, socio-emotional training and advocacy.
Access to quality education is essential to breaking the cycle of poverty and racial injustice for children. In Delaware, children’s access to education is often limited by their zoned public school or overloaded school choice lotteries, resulting in dramatic disparities in high school graduation rates and college attendance based on neighborhood. This is equally true for Delaware’s Latinx community, where language barriers for parents and some students, high rates of poverty, and racial bias have resulted in Latinx students’ under-representation in the state’s best high schools, and lower rates of Latinx students pursuing four-year college degrees.
The tangible results of LYTE’s success are on display in our students’ success. LYTE students are accepted into the state’s most competitive high school programs. Our students have a 100% high school graduation rate. All students who want to go to college have gone to college (99%), and, on average, about 90% of their college expenses are paid. Three-quarters of our students attend advanced high school classes (AP, International Baccalaureate or Dual Enrollment) because LYTE programming prepares and supports them to succeed in these classes. The state average for the achievement gap population is 12%.
LYTE does not limit our program to top students. We accept students willing to work hard to change their lives. Our students live in all three Delaware counties, 79% are low-income and 97% are African American or Latinx. Typically, students join LYTE the summer after seventh grade, and 87% stay with our program through high school. Student ages range from 13 to 18. Most of our students begin LYTE performing below the standards that top high schools require.
LYTE has grown and developed dramatically over the past two years to meet the needs of more students. What began as a solution for 10 middle school students now serves 310. Because of our excellent recruiting relationships, we will easily enroll up to 100 students every year for our youngest group, as we have for this summer.
LYTE’s priority and proudest achievement are opening life-changing opportunities for our students. We excel at instilling in our students a deep understanding and personal ethic of working diligently toward their goals.
Contact: 302-786-LYTE (5983)
Lyteinfo@lytescholars.org
Contact Us – LYTE Scholars
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