The first morning of the conference started off with a grand welcoming from Marguerite Kondracke, President and CEO of America’s Promise Alliance.

First off, I just want to touch base with readers that don’t know what America’s Promise Alliance is. The Alliance is a set of 5 promises that were developed in 1997 by five former presidents. The five promises are developmental resources that young people need for success in life:

• Caring Adults


• Safe Places


• A Healthy Start


• An Effective Education


• Opportunities to Serve

The Alliance is hard at work trying to give all youth these 5 promises. The game plan for this is to strengthen schools, teachers, and the curriculum. Click here for file

"There is no economic solution unless a diploma is in every high school students hand,” said Kondracke.

Kondracke believes that once we lower the number of students that dropout of high school, which is a high 30% of America’s public high school population, the overall lifestyle of young adults will improve. The action plan, that was launched last April, will be a Dropout Summit held in every state and most major cities across the U.S. It is estimated that the movement will affect more than 15 million.

Contribute to our research by answering these questions:

In what ways is the business community engaged in schools in your community?

What are 2-3 things that you can do to address the dropout issue in your own community?

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