[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're now joined by Rhonda Auguste, who is the founding executive director of an organization called The White Organization.

Excuse me, The White Foundation.

Rhonda, good to have you with us.

- Thank you so much.

- Now the White Foundation is named after Russell White.

- Yes.

Russell B.

White Jr. - And what inspired Russell to create the Foundation?

- There was a news documentary in 1986 that was highlighting the challenges of Newark.

At the time he was residing in North Jersey.

That's where his office, his office is still in North Jersey.

But he was residing here at that time and he grew up at the Hill School in Pennsylvania.

And he just said, maybe what if we give these young people a chance to be in an environment where they are away from all of the distractions?

So the statistics were frightening back in '86, and he just wanted to make a difference for the city of Newark.

- And I wanna be clear, I think believe that was a public television documentary that he saw.

- It was, yes it was.

- Not that I wanna always plug public broadcasting, but that's where we saw it.

So exactly what does the foundation do?

Who are the young people that are part of it?

And what does the Foundation do for them that often has a great impact on their future?

- So we recruit students in the 7th grade.

Anyone within an hour of Newark is eligible.

They have to be New Jersey residents.

And we are recruiting them for our enrichment program, which starts at the end of their 7th grade year and goes through the entire 8th grade year.

So that is a STEP.

And actually the name of the program is called STEP, is an acronym for Scholars Training Enrichment Preparation.

So we recruit students for our program STEP, and then from that group, from that cohort, we will select our future scholars.

What we do is we place students in boarding schools.

We only work with boarding schools, and they're all within five hours by car radius, from Newark.

And that's on purpose.

We wanna be able to have access to our students, and we want our families to have access and we want our students to have access to home.

So that's what we do, we provide opportunities to give students access to incredible private schools that are all boarding schools.

- So, Rhonda, for those who say, hey wait, isn't the Foundation taking some of the most talented young people at a very young age out of the Newark Public School System and giving them these opportunities, it's a wonderful thing.

But aren't they, some would argue, aren't they hurting the public schools?

Because some of the best and brightest are leaving?

- I've heard that argument over the years.

- How do you respond?

What do you say to those folks?

- Well, first I'll just talk about the numbers.

Our numbers are very small.

I like to say we are a boutique operation.

We average anywhere from 30 to 35 students each year.

So that is a very minuscule number percentage when you look at the numbers of students in the Newark Public School System, for instance, right?

- I think it's between 40 and 50,000 in public schools.

But go ahead, including charter schools.

- Exactly.

So we are talking 30 to 35 students.

What I think, I mean, what I know rather, is that it creates an incentive.

It creates an incentive for the students to work towards something.

And we are very transparent.

We understand that not everyone is made for boarding school.

And boarding school is not for everyone.

But when my colleagues go out into the field, they're educating, they're enlightening students about what are the possibilities in the world.

And so we look at it as a positive, not a negative, but I also like to say that it's important for me as a director to make sure that my young people are grounded.

So we have a community service component in our program.

All of our students are required to complete at least 30 hours of community service each year in their local area.

I have many students who would do a hundred, 200 hours plus.

And in fact, one of those young women who did that, and she was, I mean as a scholar, she worked so hard, extremely conscientious, always about community service.

She was just elected in the last few years as the youngest school board member here in Newark.

So the fact that-- - Wait, hold on.

- A'Dorian Murray Thomas is a White Foundation alum.

I'm very proud to say.

- One second.

Did you know that, did you know Brenda, that we are part of the A'Dorian Fan Club?

- Oh, I didn't know.

I'm not surprised, everyone should be.

- Wow.

She also ran for another office recently as well, right?

- As a county commissioner.

And she won for District 12.

- That's right, formally Freeholder now Commissioner.

So wait a minute, she comes?

- Yes.

Yes.

- What a superstar.

- She came to a charter school here in Newark, that right to go to Northfield, Mount Herman School with our program.

She went on to Swarthmore College.

And while she was at Swarthmore, she earned, there's a special scholarship program they offer where they give their students $10,000 to invest into their local community.

She earned that opportunity and that's the money she used to start She Wins.

So she's just an example of, I have so many alumni who have done incredible things here.

- And by the way, check out our interview with a A'Dorian, because She Wins, a great organization, was also recognized and honored, and we're very much tied to the Russell Berrie Foundation Making A Difference Awards.

I've been honored to host for over 25 years.

She won that award.

She won.

She was a winner of that award for Making A Difference.

I'm sorry, but it's funny.

- No, that's important because she represents, she represents who we are as an organization, is giving a young person an access where, because of one decision, her mother said, you know what, I will have her go actually, take a step back.

My colleagues went to the school, recruited students.

She was one of the students in the audience, followed through.

And now look at the ripple effect.

Like how many lives has she impacted from one decision?

That's why what we do is huge.

- And A'Dorian's a great example because it's not like she did that, had that opportunity and said, let me go to the suburbs.

Not there's anything wrong with the suburbs, but her work is in the city of Newark.

Her work is with young women in the city of Newark whose lives have been horrifically affected by violence.

And she knows personally, personally that she lost her father to violence.

So before I let you go, success rate real quick.

I got a minute left.

What's the success rate of the program?

- I would say 100%, our students who enter our school-- - Hold on.

Nobody's 100%.

- Okay.

Okay.

95, I mean, here's the reality.

The way we measure success is how many of our students actually one, get accepted to the boarding school, which that is 100%.

'Cause I place my students.

So every student I have touched, I have worked with who I have like A'Dorian, they've all received opportunities to go away to boarding school.

We're very proud of that, very proud of that.

But on the other side of it, we have an incredible track record with graduations.

I mean, our students graduate from these very elite boarding schools and go on to college.

Not everyone goes on to college, but by far the majority go on to four year colleges for sure.

- Rhonda, work well done.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you so much.

My pleasure.

- Wish you and everyone at the Foundation the best in helping young people like A'Dorian, who I'm just a huge fan of Making a Difference.

Thank you so much, Rhonda.

- My pleasure.

Thank you.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato, that's Rhonda.

She's making a difference, we'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The Fidelco Group.

The New Jersey Education Association.

PSEG Foundation.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Holy Name.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by BestofNJ.com.

- Hi, I'm Abbie.

You might see me as an ordinary person, but I've been living with a brain injury since 2018.

Opportunity Project gave me hope and I've gained confidence through job skill training and helping my family.

Despite my challenges with memory, I see a possibility to keep improving.

- [Narrator] If you have a brain injury, you don't have to face your road to recovery alone.

Learn more about Opportunity Project and its partnership with Children's Specialized Hospital.