Growing up poor in First Ward and Fairview Homes, Griffin learned the value of justice and equity in education. A graduate of now-demolished Second Ward High in the old Brooklyn neighborhood, Griffin attended NC A&T University but dropped out. Soon he was leading a US Army infantry platoon in Vietnam.

He was a finalist for world’s best teacher and he’s won national and state awards for theater education. Now Corey Mitchell of Northwest School of the Arts is The Charlotte Post Foundation’s Educator of the Year.

“I’ve always wanted to be an example to other minorities, that they can do it too,” Polanco said. “I just wanted to inspire them to never let racism or prejudice ideals to deter them from achieving their goals and aspirations. Unfortunately, there are many people out there who believe that just because someone is non-white that they are automatically inferior. Minorities such as my peers and I are in an educational system that is not in our favor. That’s why it’s imperative that we all strive, especially myself, in our studies and not waver.”

Tucker, who has earned a Morehead-Cain scholarship to UNC-Chapel Hill, hasn’t decided on a major, but is already thinking of how to parlay her professional choice – dentistry – into a vehicle for service. “I’m leaning toward dentistry and going to dental school,” she said. “That’s where I’m at right now, but as far as my undergraduate degree, I don’t know which I want to pursue. I was looking at biomedical engineering for tweaking some of the processes for dental hygiene so people in underdeveloped country would be able to have better access to things like that.”

Herschel H. and Cornelia N. Everett Foundation grants the Charlotte Post Foundation $10,000 to continue its after school program at Walter G. Byers elementary school.

Darrel Williams, principal and founding partner of Neighboring Concepts, said he feels a calling to help those in neighborhoods similar to the “physically and socially challenged” area he knew as a youth in Baton Rouge, LA.

Truly caring is the key, Walker said. “You’ve got to genuinely care about all students. You have to believe that no matter where they live, or whatever happens around them, that they have some worth. And you have to convince them.”

"She is very gifted at what she does and she puts everything she has into what she does," Hill said. "That has helped me with being a bit of a workaholic and just working hard in general."