Darin McKeever

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1997

Darin McKeever

Heads Up: A University Neighborhood Initiative

http://www.headsup-dc.org

Washington D.C., United States

Education & Youth Leadership

The Bold Idea:

Many children in the poorest neighborhoods of Washington DC aspire to be doctors, engineers, and scientists. Unfortunately often times dreams can fade away unless the dreamers are nutured and encouraged. In the late 1990s, President Clinton challenged colleges and communities to dedicate millions of dollars in newly funded work-study positions to community service. While these trends were playing out nationally, Heads Up was establishing its base at the local level.

Since 1996, Heads Up: A University Neighborhood Initiative has enlisted college students to provide after-school and summertime academic enrichment and mentoring to children in several of the city's poorest neighborhoods - providing children with individual academic attention, positive role models, and structured academic activities during non-school hours. Heads Up's mission is to provide youth from low-income neighborhoods with the academic skills and learning opportunities they need to succeed, and to provide college students with the opportunity to understand and help meet those needs in order to promote their development as leaders motivated to effect social change. In doing so Heads Up became one of the first organizations to respond to the goals set by the President's Summit for America's Future and America's Promise.

Heads Up currently works with six D.C. neighborhoods and public schools in which 400 elementary students and teenagers participate and 200 undergraduates act as tutors, teachers, and mentors. The organization's success and impact has been demonstrated by improved student achievement. In 1998 reading inventories, 76 percent of participants increased their reading level at least one full grade; 45 percent increased two or more grade levels. In addition, surveys showed that 97 percent of Heads Up parents rated the improvement of their children's attitude about learning as "very good" or "excellent", while 94 percent said that their children's grades had gone up.

On another level, the program has also impacted its college participants. More than 60 percent of undergraduate tutors say they are considering a career in teaching or public service as a result of their participation in Heads Up. The organization has set ambitious and exciting goals for growth and development to serve more children and college students, to improve the value provided, and to ensure Heads Up's continued operation and growth is sustainable.

Biography:

McKeever is largely responsible for creating and implementing Heads Up’s original program design for tutoring and mentoring elementary school students. During the organization’s start-up phase, he managed all finance and administrative functions, including office administration, information technology, and human resources. He managed the organization’s annual budget, which grew from $150,000 to $2 million between 1996 and 2002. McKeever also led an effort to increase Heads Up’s visibility and gain greater public support through targeted outreach and improved print and online marketing materials.

In 1996, McKeever received his bachelor of arts in social studies from Harvard College and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. As an undergraduate, he served as the director of a student-run after-school program for at-risk youth in Boston. He was a recipient of the Stride Rite Community Service Fellowship in 1997 and is a former Echoing Green Foundation fellow. He is also a member of the Leadership Washington class of 2002.  He is currently a studying at the Harvard Business School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.