Greater Educational Milestones: GEMs, one of Andern Educational Research Inc.’s four initiatives, is a new high school placement program. GEMs looks for bright students in underserved areas from financially disadvantaged homes in southern CA, who will accept the challenge to attend academically rigorous private high schools and who have the desire to grow and become strong smart leaders. We have identified several local feeder high schools in our service area (So. LA, Watts & Inglewood, Compton) where our students would have to attend. Each of these schools is on CA’s 1000 worst list (www.1000schools.org). We believe enough is enough! It’s time for the community to wake up and take on the responsibility of ensuring that our students do not have to attend failing high schools! Through GEMs we will be advocates and support these students as they seek to attend better quality high schools in an effort to make sure that they will have the required skills to compete on a global level. We are the liaison between the student and the private schools. We’ve promised the private schools that we would look for the best and the brightest in these underserved neighborhoods. They’ve agreed to consider our applicants for admission and support them in any way they can. Our application process is 13 months long. We help the students and their parents navigate the admissions process by offering test prep sessions, interview workshops, help with ‘discovering the right school for you’ and information regarding financial aid and cultural diversity. We also offer financial assistance. Should a student gain admission to one of the schools with whom we’ve partnered, we will give that school 15% of its tuition up to $5,000 each year that the student remains in good standing at that school. Our support doesn’t end at their high school graduation. We will support our GEMs through college by offering SAT/ACT prep, college & university tours with resume building and financial-aid workshops.