Steen Foundation

If selected as the recipient of the Elevate Prize the Steen Foundation would be able to triple the impact amongst school aged youth in various communities within Detroit, Louisiana and Atlanta. Our expansion plan would also be supported, which covers Chicago, Mississippi and New York.

The Steen Foundation's current work is targeted at ensuring students who currently attend public schools that have been underfunded and are still closed due to COVID-19 do not slip through the cracks. Also, we are aligning student's current interests with careers that meet their interest by creating a pipeline that provides opportunities and resources to ensure their success.

Our goal would be to provide the necessary resources, programs and opportunities(fellowships, internships, stewardship, mentorship and scholarship opportunities) that will increase student growth & progress in school, align students with interest based career opportunities and provide resources for underserved public school students to enhance their skills, while taking advantage of their potential.

I am a 19 year old Sophomore at the University of Detroit Mercy, Director and Founder of the Steen Foundation, Development Associate, Institutional Giving at the National Audubon Society, youngest Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots Fund II Fellow, Grant Advisor at the Pollination Project, Youth Program Facilitator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and a year-round Head Soccer Coach for Soar Eagle Sports Program with a passion for equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in education, environmental stewardship and adolescent career development.

The Steen Foundation serves as a vessel to support underserved youth and provide equitable opportunities that allow youth to remain at the front-lines of determining the solutions for issues that impact their futures. In many cases adults plan activities, programs and opportunities for youth without any input or advisory from youth.

 My organization is committed to dispelling this way of operating by providing the necessary opportunities and resources to empower underserved youth to take control of their narrative, receive a well rounded education and gain invaluable leadership development. My personal goal is to simply give thousands of students what I was not given and ensure that students are not just surviving, but they are thriving.     

The Steen Foundation's initial issue that we are working to solve for underserved youth in public schools across the country first started in Detroit. 

Detroit Public School Community District lost approximately $6.5 million under Public Act 8. In conjunction, the budget for art classes, musical theater and stem programs have been underfunded or diminished in the attempt to save the schools. The removal of these programs unconsciously strips the creative and innovative output of students, while deterring them from inquisitive thinking, and their ability to socialize in a effective manner. 

After providing multiple opportunities and programs including our Youth 4 Hour Mural Challenge, which allows youth the opportunity to paint a Mural addressing an issue that is impacting them. The winning piece is put in a public space - most recently the winning piece was put in the Detroit Zoo. The winning youth artist received a full-ride scholarship to the College for Creative Studies and a grant to solve the issue they addressed in the mural.

The Steen Foundation realized that education inequality was impacting various youth across the country and there has been an increase due to COVID-19. This prompted our expansion plan and youth career development initiatives.

The Steen Foundation's approach to community and youth engagement is using backwards design to identify the crucial need(s) of our community and provide resources to solve them.

Many organizations come to communities with their own perspective, requirements and plans, while disregarding the needs of the community. We are actively working to dispel this way of operating by identifying communities that need our support,working with them to identify the cause of their issue(s), provide resources to solve the issue(s) and evaluate our impact, while leveraging our current impact to broaden our work across the board.

The Steen Foundation will continue to ensure our program's youth and community participants remain at the front-lines of solving issues that directly impact them and their futures. The Elevate Prize, if awarded will help us continue this positively disruptive way of community engagement in underserved communities, while deepening our long-standing partnerships across the country. 

The Steen Foundation has an impact on humanity, because a society that is not ensuring equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in all aspects of human existence is failing.

Our goal is to ensure underserved youth and communities are centralized in all aspects, but they need the resources and opportunities to change their circumstances and solve their issue(s). We are primarily focused on the issues of our served youth and community, while remaining adaptable to their changing needs.

The Elevate Prize, if awarded to the Steen Foundation will allow us to provide adequate resources and opportunities to drastically decrease the education inequality that is impacting thousand of underserved youth.