Pierre Rice Jr. Email and Phone Number

I have worked for the Institute for the Study of Children, Families, and Communities (ISCFC) at Eastern Michigan University since 2006. I have worked with the Gear Up Program, where I helped establish the Young Men’s Leadership Program for middle and high school males. The Young Men’s Leadership Program challenges male students, in particular African Americans, to address issues they see in their own community as through empowering them to be the change they want to see. Since 2006 I have helped coordinate various camps, projects and events that focused on developing leadership skills for male students here in Ypsilanti and Willow Run. Another project that I helped facilitate was the TeenBiz Program. TeenBiz (Teens in Business through the Arts) was a program that gave youth business and entrepreneur skills. This program was unique in the sense that it was designed exclusively for special need and “at-risk” students. Through my work with the TeenBiz Program I published my first article Teaching Employable Skills to Special Education Youth: An Empowerment Approach. I presented the findings from this project at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England in 2010.Currently, I work at Ypsilanti High School as the Site Coordinator for the Bright Futures Program. We offer before and after-school programs that attract the non-traditional student. On a weekly basis, my position as Site Coordinator calls for me to supervise a core staff, service providers, volunteers, and the students. Some of my greatest accomplishments have been creating a Youth Advisory Board, increasing student participation, and increasing student’s grade point averages.