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The Joshua and Mary Foundation provides mentoring, financial support and individualized career and college counseling to high school and college students to increase the number of students who graduate from high school and college, increasing their prospects for a financially secure and personally fulfilling future.

VISION
The vision of the Joshua & Mary Foundation is to expand to serve all Chicago Public Schools high school students. We hope to open the eyes of the business community and community-at-large to the hearts of the public school students that need their mentoring and help to survive in the real world. This includes asking community members to volunteer their time to mentor these students. We want to significantly increase the percentage of students that graduate from high school, go on to college and/or vocational training, graduate and enter the workforce prepared to meet the challenges of the future. We expect the work we do with Leaders of Tomorrow program participants will lead them to inspire other students as well.
WHO ARE JOSHUA AND MARY?
The names Joshua and Mary represent the young men and women that the Foundation was founded to serve. These names remind the Foundation’s volunteers, staff, board members and constituents of their mission and purpose. We believe that with these names, our hearts and minds will forever stay on the students' success.

 

  

 

HISTORY
The Joshua & Mary Foundation was founded in 2003 by James Muhammad. James became involved in school reform efforts as a sophomore at Hirsch Metropolitan High School in 1997. While still in high school, he became a member of his local school council and was appointed a member of the Illinois State Board of Education. After graduation, James began his studies in Public Policy at DePaul University.

Based on his experiences in high school and college, James decided he wanted to do more to support students in Chicago’s public schools to not only graduate from high school, but continue their studies in college. That was the primary motivation behind the founding of the Joshua & Mary Foundation.

Initially, the Foundation concentrated on raising funds to help low-income college students pay for the cost of books and other basic expenses. Currently, the Joshua & Mary Foundation is continuing to raise money for its scholarship program and a new program called Leaders of Tomorrow. The Leaders of Tomorrow program is an after-school mentoring program for junior and senior Chicago Public School students designed to prepare them for college and employment. In addition to mentoring, the program will provide general computer software training, college search support, financial aid awareness and group counseling.
VERIFICATION
You may verify the 501(c)(3) status of the Joshua & Mary Foundation at www.guidestar.org.

 

 

 
 

 
info@joshuamary.org