The Del Mar / Solana Beach Rotary proudly presented Chris Yanov and Lauren Tullis from Reality Changers with a donation of $8,858 to support the great work they do with area youth. From 1996 to 2001, Chris worked as a youth director near downtown San Diego. The majority of teens with which he first worked with were involved with drugs and gangs, often leading to violence, vandalism, teen pregnancy, and even death. To respond to this challenge, Chris started Reality Changers in 2001 with just four students and $300 to its name. It is based on the principle that it is just not right that most inner-city students today know more people who have been shot or killed in the street than people who are on the road to college.
Nearly a decade and a half later, Reality Changers now serves nearly 1,000 youth from disadvantaged backgrounds every year (its College Apps Academy course is available to 12th graders from all backgrounds). The program’s 1,300 graduates – including 29 Gates Millennium Scholars – have now earned over $100,000,000 in scholarships from all sources. Reality Changers has begun to scale its programs so that this feat can be accomplished on an annual basis beginning in 2018. The work they are doing has also caught the attention of Mexico President Vicente Fox who has joined their Board of Directors. Here is a story about it in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
We are proud to support the tremendous impact they are making. Learn more about the great work they are doing at www.realitychangers.org.