BUILD Launch Party at Boston University

BUILD, a successful national organization which uses entrepreneurship to propel disengaged, low-income youth through high school to college success, was launched in Boston on Thursday, November 10, with a sold out benefit dinner in Metcalf Trustee Ballroom at Boston University School of Management. Daymond John, star of the hit ABC-TV show "Shark Tank" and successful founder and CEO of FUBU, a globally recognized clothing company, was on hand to accept BUILD Boston's first "Earl G. Graves Sr. Innovation Award." BUILD is a 4-year college access program that helps at-risk youth launch their own businesses. Students develop their own concepts, write business plans, pitch to funders, and launch real business ventures. Entrepreneurship is the hook—but college is the goal. Over the past eleven years, 100 percent of BUILD seniors have been accepted to college, with 91% accepted to four year colleges and universities. The Boston program operates at Jeremiah E. Burke High and Community Academy of Science and Health in Dorchester, Charlestown High in Charlestown, and Another Course to College in Brighton.

Photos by Roger Farrington