MAY 2023
Students Gain Financial Literacy
Last month, we kicked off our financial literacy unit for our mentees in partnership with Byline Bank. The unit consists of four weeks of workshops, each focusing on a different topic, from spending and saving to credit and interest. Our goal through this unit is to expose mentees to basic fundamentals of personal finance long before they start to take on financial responsibility in life so they can make informed decisions about money from the start. We want to extend our gratitude to Judette Kurasz at Byline Bank for facilitating the unit.
Summer Empowerment Program for Incoming 9th Graders
We are excited to announce our upcoming Summer Empowerment Program, a great opportunity for students in Oak Park who will be transitioning to 9th grade next school year. Six weeks of workshops, field trips, and mentorship will help prepare students for the next leg in their educational, social, and emotional journey: high school. Executive functioning workshops include sessions on time management, stress management, study skills, and financial literacy. Students develop action plans to help them enter high school with confidence. Students also receive stipends for participation in the program.
YEMBA Named a Finalist for Annual LemonAid Charity
LemonAid is a charity lemonade stand that runs on the premise of “Kids helping Kids” to raise funds each year for charities that serve children. To date, LemonAid has raised and donated a total of over $500,000. This year, YEMBA was honored to be selected as a finalist to receive funds from LemonAid and was invited to present and share more about our mission and vision of youth empowerment. YEMBA graduates and their families shared their testimonials about their experience and how YEMBA empowered and enriched their lives. Byline Bank Market President Susie Goldschmidt shared the importance of their collaboration with YEMBA to reach and equip the community’s most vulnerable youth with financial literacy knowledge and skills.
Students Learn How to Extract DNA from Strawberries
Special thanks to Mr. O’Brien at Julian Middle School for facilitating an exciting exploration workshop that took DNA from an abstract concept to something tangible for our students to be able to better understand what it is and its importance for living things. Through the process, our youth were able to remove the DNA from the strawberries’ cells and create a chemical reaction that connected all of the DNA into one long string.