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Organization Helps Students, Families Reaching For A Smart Future

DENVER (CBS4) - An organization is giving motivated children the support they need to achieve their dreams.

Boys Hope Girls Hope is built on the premise that education is the key that opens the door to a child's potential.

It was in between classes at Regis Jesuit High School and Alexis shared a laugh with pals. The friendships are just one of the experiences Alexis has enjoyed since being selected as a scholar in the Boys Hope Girls Hope program. But getting there wasn't easy for the junior from Virginia.

"It was tears of joy and tears of sadness because I'd be away from my parents. But then because I've been wanting to be here for so long I would think about it in my head and I'd say, 'Wow. I'm really going to be living in Colorado.' This has been my dream for three years," Alexis said.

Boys Hope Girls Hope typically supports between 10 and 16 scholars at a time in the Denver area. All come from families at or below the poverty level -- typically one-parent families.

The students mostly attend parochial schools on scholarship, including Regis Jesuit and Catholic elementaries, but these scholars represent many different faiths. They share a determination to succeed in school and a parent devoted to their future.

Angela's son, Amari, is in sixth grade.

"He is motivated. He has a goal and I just want him to stay focused," Angela said.

Amari dreams of becoming an architect, and like all the scholars, he lives in a residential group home that provides total support and care year around.

"That's all part of what we're trying to do. (We) provide everything they could possibly need. So if they need orthodontia or glasses or they want to play football or play soccer or play the piano, we make it happen," the program's executive director Mary Fran Tharp said.

Being away from her son so much isn't easy for Angela, but she stays focused on all he's learning -- in school and at his new home.

"Now he's learning how to get himself up, how to get dressed, how to groom himself; what to do when he comes home," Angela said.

One-hundred percent of the scholars who stay with Boys Hope Girls Hope through high school go on to college.

"They really learn to become really good people in addition to being really smart," Tharp said.

Visit the Boys Hope Girls Hope website to help the organization.

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