Our Trusted Sponsors
Our Mission
Reaching Our Kids provides mentoring and academic scholarships to at‐risk San Bernardino County Jr. High and High School students who display academic promise, in order to equip them for leadership, social responsibility, and career preparation.
Program Overview
Many of Barstow’s most academically gifted youth are overwhelmingly exchanging their academic pursuits for the temporary rewards of “street life”. In response to this monumental problem, Reaching Our Kids (ROK) is joining the battle for Barstow’s youth by focusing on protecting and nurturing the academic dreams of the areas most gifted “at-risk” students.
ROK is a local non-profit organization that provides a unique blend of academic scholarships and mentoring to Barstow’s junior high and high school students who display academic promise in the face of considerable social challenges. ROK serves as a vehicle for the city of Barstow to adopt, guide, encourage, and protect the academic aspirations of these young at-risk children.
ROK Scholarships
Unlike most scholarship programs that target young children and distribute the scholarship rewards for college, the ROK scholarship targets junior high students and awards them while in high school. Thus, ROK is one of the only true “High School Scholarship Programs” in the nation. The ROK scholarship is designed to help cover school clothing, yearbooks, letterman jackets, college application fees, and a host of other school-related expenses. ROK Scholars must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5, and complete a customized plan that includes community service, leadership preparation, and multi-level mentoring. ROK scholarship award recipients receive ongoing academic advising, STEM training, and exposure to career opportunities (all designed to prepare the ROK Scholars for success in the nation’s top universities).