YOUTH SPOTLIGHT: DC youth reaches high and excels

12-year-old, Marche Fauntroy, a receipient of Hope for the Future's many programs knows exactly who she is and where she would like to go in life. She refuses to be another statistic. Through mentorship and learning life skills in Operation Explosion (OPX), she gains the confidence she needs to pursue her dreams. Her future goals, "to become a web designer and teach kids how to work on computers."

In fact, Marche enhanced her web design skills through Hope for the Future's mentoring program. Through the tailor made Youth Leadership Mentoring (YLM) program, she helped design this website by placing text, hyperlinks, pictures, and used software such as Macromedia's Dreamweaver and Firefox. She also advanced her skills in Microsoft's Powerpoint by learning specific animation and custom timing.

Asked why she too would like to mentor her peers, "I think kids need to get more into computers and stay off video games because they don't know what to do with their lives," exclaimed Marche.

Marche created her first website this year and was encouraged to pursue her purpose. She took classes in keyboarding, web design animation, and is currently taking 3D Animation at the Capitol Hill Computer Corner in SE.

While only in the 7th grade, already she has her colleges selected and will soon be applying for scholarships. Her colleges of choice: Howard, Harvard, or Maryland University.

"My message to my peers is to keep it together. Negative choices get you into bad places," said Marche.

With that, she added, "I know I don't have to give up."

**In appreciation for Marche's assistance to the development of this website, Hope for the Future awarded Marche a laptop to help with school projects and to continue learning website design. We would like to publicly thank her for her contributions and stand behind her goals and dreams.