Baton Rouge Youth Coalition

In summer 2012, 24-year-old Teach for America corps member Lucas Spielfogel was tapped as Executive Director of then-three-year-old Baton Rouge Youth Coalition (BRYC) to continue its budding legacy. Charged with growing the program in participants, supporters, and results, Spielfogel immediately got to work advancing BRYC’s mission of preparing high-achieving, under-resourced high school students to enter, excel in, and graduate from college.  

Now, nine years in, BRYC has served hundreds of students; purchased its own 24,000 square foot campus; inspired a non-profit in North Carolina, the Carolina Youth Coalition, co-founded by former staffer Aaron Randolph and supporter Kathryn Schanen Kissam; and offered even more support to Fellows through its core competencies of college, consciousness, and community. More growth is imminent as BRYC Fellows mature into alumni, volunteers, and mentors, not forgetting to reach back and assist young people who stand where they once stood—among all of its successes and milestone achievements, this is the most noteworthy of them all, said Spielfogel. 

“What’s amazing is seeing our alumni pursuing work that’s related to BRYC’s work and social impact work,” said Spielfogel. “I’m just so heartened and inspired that our college students and alumni are coming back to engage with our high school students. The high school students are so empowered and inspired by their example and the path they’ve paved for the rest of us, that the value is so great; we are now making sure that it’s a part of our programming.” 

A day in the life of a BRYC Fellow includes not only mentoring from staff, volunteers, and alumni but also access to a personalized series of resources, including tutoring, dedicated study rooms and equipment, stress-relieving activities like yoga, social justice workshops and initiatives, a journalism club, mental health counseling, and college preparation programming. 

"The high school students are so empowered and inspired by their example and the path they’ve paved for the rest of us, that the value is so great; we are now making sure that it’s a part of our programming.” 

BRYC Fellows are selected through an application process that closes at the top of May each year. Interested students may begin as early as ninth grade and must possess a 3.0 grade point average and come from a household with an annual income of no more than $60,000. As part of BRYC’s ongoing outreach, its director of operations and recruitment, Laura Hawkes, is responsible for building relationships with schools, educators, and administrators in BRYC’s seven-school-district region that includes the parishes of East Baton Rouge including (Baker and Zachary), West Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, and Livingston. (BRYC serves many students from charter schools as well.)  There is also a thirty-Fellow team of ambassadors who represent BRYC and help with recruitment by encouraging students to submit applications. A new fellowship kicks off with a BRYC-wide retreat that takes place at a neighboring university.   

While BRYC is known for assisting students with college placement, a primary goal of the organization is to bridge the gap between students and the resources they lack. “When you go to your average East Baton Rouge public school, if you are an under-resourced student, you don’t typically enjoy the kinds of resources and supports and attention that a student with resources gets to both rebound from and to navigate the challenges of high school,” said Spielfogel.

BRYC works against the perpetuation of the common narrative about “at-risk” students that suggests these students are on the low end of the achievement gap because there’s something inherently wrong with them. “We fully reject the notion of ‘at-risk youth,’” said Spielfogel. “The term is over-used and racialized—it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for low-income students of color, so we completely reject it. We recognize that students in poverty are in situations that poverty has made risky. So, they’re navigating those environments, but they are not inherently at-risk. When students are provided with the necessary supports and resources, they are able to perform equally well or out-perform their more resourced peers.”

"When students are provided with the necessary supports and resources, they are able to perform equally well or out-perform their more resourced peers.”

In understanding the environments many of their students are navigating, BRYC now includes a greater deal of emotional support, including an on-staff licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), who is available to provide therapy sessions to BRYC Fellows at no cost. With an LCSW on staff, BRYC can also employ master’s of social work and counseling candidates in need of therapy hours and an LCSW to supervise them. “Having an LCSW means we can greatly increase our mental health counseling capacity at no extra financial cost,” said Spielfogel. Soon-to-be College Fellow eighteen-year-old Garrinecia Singleton said this service has been vital to her matriculation through a trauma-filled portion of her life. 

Singleton is the Scotlandville Magnet High School Class of 2018 Salutatorian and will be attending Rhodes College in Memphis on a full scholarship this fall. While she contends that she was never a bad student, Singleton admits that personal hardship and trauma caused her self-esteem to suffer, threatening her ability to academically perform at her best. “I hid my emotions very well and I channeled them to education,” said Singleton. “I had really low self-esteem when I started BRYC, but BRYC helped me really become comfortable with who I am.”

Singleton said she applied to BRYC following her father’s conviction for sexually abusing her from the ages of eight to sixteen. After his arrest, she was diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety, and severe clinical depression. Through her time at BRYC, Singleton said she has become stronger and surer of herself and has found her path in life. She intends to study psychology, so that she may help other girls like her.    

“I want to use what I’ve been through to help other people going through traumatic events in their life,” said Singleton. “I want to go into social work because I want to help those who were raped or sexually abused, because I have a connection to them—I’ve been through it before. I know how it feels, I know the outcomes. I have a passion for helping people get through traumatic events.” 

Through the help of BRYC, Singleton has not only been able to begin the process of overcoming her past trauma but also share her story, landing her a spot among eight recipients of the 2018 Louisiana Young Heroes award. Presented by LPB and the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, this award honors students in grades 7-12 who excel in the classroom, serve their local communities, and sometimes demonstrate great personal courage in overcoming adversity.

Through the help of BRYC, Singleton has not only been able to begin the process of overcoming her past trauma but also share her story, landing her a spot among eight recipients of the 2018 Louisiana Young Heroes award. 

Singleton is directly mentored by Spielfogel, per her request, because she wanted a mentor who already knew what she had experienced in her life. Through this mentorship, Singleton said she has been encouraged to push herself towards academic, personal, and professional gains. It’s the culture of BRYC, she said. 

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Each year, 95 percent of BRYC’s senior class goes to a four-year college with a viable payment plan. The other five percent attends some post-secondary schooling, such as a two-year institution with the intent to transfer to four-year universities. Long-term statistics show that 80 percent of BRYC students persist through college. The most current numbers show that among the 214 College Fellows (BRYC students in college) and Alumni (BRYC students who have completed post-secondary education), 80 percent have either completed four-year college degrees or are on track to complete such programs. When students who are enrolled in or have completed two-year or technical education programs are included, the percentage rises to 88 percent.

Another direct mentee of Spielfogel’s is Brown University Class of 2018 graduate Antone LeBlanc. Spielfogel said that LeBlanc came to BRYC in his first year as Executive Director. “Lucas was not only my mentor, but one of my best friends and big brothers,” said LeBlanc. “He taught me so many things about myself and how I could be the best version of me. Every chance he got to show me something, he took the time to make sure he did. One of the most memorable moments would be those last months of my senior year when we would stay up till 2 and 3 am multiple nights in a row working on applications and essays.

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“I wouldn’t have been able to get into this school without BRYC, let alone be prepared for it. BRYC not only provided me with the academic and structural support to advance my schooling, but they also provided me with an avenue to express myself and build confidence in myself through poetry and writing. Through BRYC I was exposed to many things that I feel helped me survive college. I always knew that I could call on them if I needed.” 

LeBlanc’s story, while unique in its own ways, is that of many of BRYC’s College Fellows and Alumni. It is not that these students don’t have the drive, desire, or ability, it is that they just require additional assistance, a nudge, community, and adequate resources.  This is the work that BRYC staffers love, and it is at the heart of why Spielfogel remains at the helm of the organization, always seeking ways to grow the program. 

“The process of understanding who I am as it relates to this work is never ending, and at the same time I am owning who I am in this work and I am unwaveringly dedicated to serving and working with the students at BRYC,” said Spielfogel. “It’s a commitment to fairness and equity and just seeing the incredible potential in my students and understanding that all that stands between them and the futures that they want for themselves are resources, not desire, not ambition, not achievements. They come in with the desire to go to college.”  

This year, members of BRYC’s Class of 2014 are graduating from Emory, Howard, Brown, Tulane, Spelman, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LSU, Southeastern, Southern, Louisiana Tech, and many other places across the country. And as the Class of 2018 is just beginning their college and professional paths, the classes of 2019–2022 are preparing to begin their BRYC Fellowships. Learn more at thebryc.org.

This article originally appeared in our June 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.