On June 26, 2021 the Kappa Foundation of Petersburg  will present an inaugural Virtual Leadership Academy. The purpose of the Virtual Leadership Academy is to assist students in the Petersburg Tri-City Area retain information from the previous school year while enhancing skills to prepare for the upcoming school year.

     The eight week program will occur virtually from 10a-2p Monday-Thursday, with golf and tennis instruction offered as the social distancing activity.  The curriculum will be a continuation of the an eight month mentoring program presented by the Kappa League to include; Coding, STEM, financial literacy and Mindfulness exercises. A budget has been created to include forty (40) young men to be divided into groups of ten (10) to attend each session for fifty (50) minutes each. Delivering the instructions will be experienced facilitators in their specific fields. The Kappa Foundation of Petersburg Incorporated is partnered with the National Society of Black Engineers in identifying a facilitator for the STEM session. FinLitVa will deliver the financial literacy lesson and Dr. Candace Benn, a trauma informed educator, school counselor, and certified yoga instructor will coordinate the mindfulness program. The First Tee of Chesterfield will provide golf instruction and venue for participants to play and improve their skill throughout the summer.  Coach(s) E. Lee Coble (Virginia Union University, Head Golf Coach) will offer additional golf instruction and Gene Thompson (Virginia State University, Head Tennis Coach) will facilitate tennis instructions.  We have created a $56,000.00 budget to facilitate the inaugural Virtual Leadership Academy. On behalf of the Kappa Foundation of Petersburg Incorporated (501c3) we appreciate your support towards the success of this program.

     Kappa League is the oldest and most successful African American male mentoring program in United States history. Kappa League ( https://kappaalphapsi1911.com/page/kappaleague ) is a program for the educational, occupational and social guidance of male students in grades 6th-12th. It was designed to help young men grow, receive, and develop their leadership talents in every phase of human endeavor. Kappa League is a subset of the Guide Right, a National Service Initiative for Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated (501c3).

      Approximately 98% of the 4,200 students of Petersburg City Schools receive a Free and Reduced Lunch. The majority of students within the City of Petersburg are categorized as Title I.  Moreover, parents of these families are classified as essential workers – they’re in grocery stores, they’re the people who stock the shelves – so they’re not able to be home as much as parents in other communities.  Faced with the challenges of distance learning, students who live in poverty are falling even further behind academically; educators, whose personal investment in their students was enormous to begin with, is now off the charts; and schools are facing even larger budget cuts than before. The effects of poverty on education are numerous. Lack of access to technology is just one reason students are struggling with distance learning.  A majority of the homes within the Petersburg community do not have a parent or guardian who could oversee their education during Distance Learning. This disproportionately affects students in low-income households.   These inequities threaten to exacerbate wide and persistent disparities in public education that shortchange students of color and those from low-income families, resulting in potentially lasting harm to a generation of children.