Author: Vernon Thompson

Statements of Support

“In a time when colleges compete ever more fiercely for a limited pool of admissible applicants from underrepresented backgrounds, LEDA has significantly added to the pool.”
Anthony W. Marx, President, Amherst College
“Growing up on a Nez Perce Reservation, I had no longing to attend college. But after two days of orientation and immersion in the Aspects of Leadership Summer Institute, I was mesmerized...LEDA opened my eyes to my full potential and gave me a new family to look to for support inside and outside academia.”
Cody Riggers, Lapwai, Idaho
Class of 2011, Dartmouth College
“Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) is a young organization that is already having a major impact in increasing the number of black and low-income students who enroll at our nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities…”
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
“LEDA is an Equalizer! LEDA’s Summer Program catapults students’ consciousness about higher education and the need to diversify the upper-tier university systems. Students who have attended the LEDA program have inspired others at their high schools to take education seriously…”
Idi Gaines, Guidance Counselor
Lincoln High School, Stockton, California
“I am a Mexican-American orphan and never thought I’d even see New York City. The LEDA Program opened my mind.”
Jose de Jesus Pesina, Brownsville, Texas, Class of 2011, Harvard University; 2007 Gates Millennium Scholar; 2007 Coca-Cola Scholar; 2007 Daughters of the American Revolution Scholar
“The need for LEDA is essential: large numbers of students from economically disadvantaged circumstances and under-represented racial and ethnic groups lack the preparation, counseling, and/or confidence to apply to institutions such as Brown.”
Ruth J. Simmons, President, Brown University
“Unlike most college prep organizations, LEDA doesn’t rely solely on test scores in deciding which students to take under its wing.”
Jeff Tamarkin, The New York Daily News,
December 4, 2007

Board of Trustees
Enrique Foster Gittes, President Lawyer, Investor, Former Teacher; Former President & Current Trustee of Prep for Prep
Arun Alagappan, J.D., Vice President Founder & President, Advantage Testing, Inc.
Anders C. H. Brag President, GARB Holdings, LLC, Venture Capital
Robert Coles, M.D. James Agee Professor of Social Ethics, Harvard University, Author of Children of Crisis (awarded Pulitzer Prize) and The Inner Life of Children
Nan A. Rothschild Cooper, Ph.D. Director of Museum Studies, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University; Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, Barnard College
Alfred A. Edmond, Jr. Senior Vice President & Editor-in-Chief, Black Enterprise, Father of a Member of Contingent XXIV of Prep for Prep
Lucy N. Friedman, Ph.D. Founder & 20-Year Executive Director, Victim Services, President, The After-School Corporation (TASC)
Warren H. Haber Chairman / CEO, Founders Equity, Inc.
Chris Harvey Managing Director, JP Morgan Securities, Inc. Capital Structure Advisory and Solutions
Geoffrey H. Howarth Teacher of Latin, The Horace Mann School, 13-Year Veteran Faculty Member of Prep for Prep
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, Ph.D. President, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Jonathan Kozol A Leading Critic of Social Injustice, Award-Winning Author of Savage Inequalities, Rachel and Her Children, Death at an Early Age, Amazing Grace, and Ordinary Resurrections
Keith Meacham Executive Director, Harlem Day Charter School
Christian Neira, Esq., Secretary Special Counsel, Covington & Burling, Alumnus of Prep for Prep, Contingent III
Greg Polle Managing Director and Head of the Global Industrial Group, Citigroup, Inc.
Ralph Rivera
Vice President and General Manager, AOL Games and AOL Latino
Francisco Rivera-Batiz, Ph.D. Professor of Economics and Education Professor of International Public Affairs Director, New York Latino Research Clearinghouse, Teachers College, Columbia University Executive Director, Program in International Migration, Columbia University Law School
Lois Severini, Ph.D. Architectural Historian and Former Teacher
Gary Simons Founder & 25-Year Leader of Prep for Prep, Founder of LEDA
Howard G. (Peter) Sloane, Esq. Partner, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, LLP Chairman of the Board, The Heckscher Foundation for Children
Samona Joe Tait, Ed.D.
Local Instructional Superintendent, Region 4, The New York City Department of Education, Alumna of Prep for Prep, Contingent II
Shirley M. Tilghman, Ph.D.
President, Princeton University, Professor of Molecular Biology
The Honorable Merryl H. Tisch
New York State Board of Regents
Th
President, Princeton University, Professor of Molecular Biology
The Honorable Merryl H. Tisch

39 Hamilton Terrace
New York, NY 10031
Tel: 212-234-1384
FAX: 212-234-1385
www.ledascholars.org

LEDA Mission Statement

Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) is a not-for-profit committed to developing the leadership potential of exceptional public high school juniors from socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds which are underrepresented at the country’s leading colleges. By helping these students gain admission to such colleges, LEDA helps to equalize educational opportunity, thus expanding the nation’s leadership resources to include all segments of the population.

Program Overview
LEDA cultivates talent!
We are a Brain Trust for the United States.
LEDA Scholars are from underserved public high schools, and we represent some of America’s most gifted but undiscovered youth.
Targeted and then recruited by our Talent Search Officers in the fall of their junior year, students become LEDA Scholars by completing a demanding application process that determines if each has the interior motivation and faculties to become a leader.
Once admitted to our program, LEDA Scholars spend their following summer immersed in our transformative leadership development program, an intensive, seven-week curriculum exploring the ethical and intellectual challenges of the 21st Century.
Held at LEDA’s Summer Institute at Princeton University, Aspects of Leadership is a program of growth and individual exploration created by our founder, Gary Simons. Aspects changes the way every young person thinks about society and his or her place in it.
The program is both fun and deeply rewarding. Through scholarly readings, role plays, and group activities, students meet, many for the first time, similarly motivated peers—to share ideas and experiences; debate and consider; challenge themselves and each other.
Program Components
Academic Preparation
The first summer: Aspects of Leadership Summer Institute at Princeton University is an adventure that changes every Scholar.
College Guidance
Fall and Spring of Senior Year: LEDA provides expert assistance with the college selection/admissions process. Each Scholar is advised and counseled, not only in applying to college, but also in applying for scholarships and obtaining financial aid.
Mentoring and Internships
Through important links to the world outside and inside academia, LEDA provides critical relationship and networking opportunities during the summers in high school and beyond.
Applications
LEDA is currently working with guidance counselors in 12 states and New York City; however any student who meets our demographics is encouraged to apply. All LEDA Scholars must be:
Low income. Most LEDA Scholars come from families making $60,000 or less; and/or
From an underrepresented ethnic or racial background (e.g., Black, Hispanic, Native American or Pacific Islander).
For more information or to apply, please visit, www.ledacholars.org.

Community. Integrity. Excellence. Compassion.