The Sophia Project Inc.

The Sophia Project Inc. envisions a future where young women of color radically disrupt the alarming high school graduation rate despite the socioeconomic, academic and health challenges they may encounter along the way. While engaging and empowering these young women from the St. Louis, Missouri region to make sound decisions we hope to increase the high school graduation rate among this at risk group and also help them to develop a post-secondary education plan.

The Sophia Project Inc. (TSP) began in 2011 with 47 eighth grade female students. The organization partnered with two middle schools, Brittany Woods Middle School and Confluence Academy Old North to provide school based mentoring. We challenged principals, teachers and counselors to create a cohort of students who had been exposed to severe childhood trauma, were struggling academically, had poor attendance records, and/or a history of suspensions. The organization made a pledge to follow this cohort until graduation from high school.

During our pilot year in 2011, we sought to test a simple hypothesis: "Will long term mentoring have an impact on scholastic achievements, retention, graduation rates, and behavioral issues?" We placed our focus on decreasing school suspensions, improving the overall attendance rate and increasing the graduation rates of young girls in this 'vulnerable' peer group . To fulfill our mission, we created a long-term support system for our girls who had difficulty with transitioning from middle to high school.

Over the last 10 years, TSP has developed 3 components: In-school based and after-school programming as well as personalized mentoring to increase our capacity to service these young women. "If we invest in a Mentee's development with human capital, trusting relationships and weekly exposure, we give the Mentee an opportunity to change their life's trajectory". This is the theory of change used to guide our programming.

• In-School based mentoring includes weekly 1 hour sessions for two semesters which focus on motivational interviewing, professional development activities, preparation for attending post-secondary institutions, and life skills.
• After-school programming, entitled Friday Night K.I.S.S. (Keep It Safe & Sacred), is a safe space created for our young women (from all school districts) to collectively meet. The afterschool program meets every Friday night, starting in September for 26 weeks. This program involves group mentoring and activities that fall under the categories of scholastic achievement, social graces and/or self-care.
• Lastly, each participant of TSP is assigned an individual mentor in order to provide further one-on-one guidance and assistance in reinforcing life skills lessons, self-confidence and character building.

Each young woman who successfully participates in our program will be invited to participate in our Annual Pearling Ceremony where she is given a little black dress and is formally presented to the St. Louis community with a pearl necklace signifying her hard work and dedication for completing the academic year.

We are proud to say that we have impacted more than 850 young women. In 2015, 90% of students from our pilot cohort completed high school. More than 50% of those young women pursued post-secondary higher education, whereas, approximately 20% attended a trade or certification program and 10% of our girls directly entered the workforce or the armed services.

At The Sophia Project Inc. we will make sure that we continue to serve, uplift and prepare these young women for their next steps because mentoring makes a difference.