2024-2025
Impact Report
At a glance: Our impact in numbers
100%
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE86%
Pursuing COLLEGE or career+24%
Rise in GPA100%
School Partners Reporting IMPROVED BEHAVIOR9.6/10
Average Parent rating
A message from our CEO & Co-Founder, Michael Lynch
This is the best moment for our work.
Not the easiest. Not the most funded. But the best. Because when DEI initiatives are being slashed and doors are closing for young men of color—that’s precisely when intentional, school-based mentorship matters most.
In 2013, my best friend Mike Casper and I returned to our old high school to start IYT and saw what we already knew: young men full of potential were falling through the cracks — not because they lacked ability, but because they lacked someone in their corner. We had made it to college because a mentor believed in us. We came back to be that for someone else.
Today, we serve over 5,280 students across 80 sites in six states.
We’re building something generational. We can’t undo 400 years of racial inequity in 15 years, but we can create a pipeline where young men of color aren’t the exception in college, they’re the expectation.
And it’s happening. 100% of our seniors graduated high school and 86% entered college or career pathways. The impact of that pipeline generates resounding returns. Every dollar invested in IYT produces an estimated $37 in economic impact. That’s over $535 million in increased lifetime earnings and $487 million in taxpayer savings.
This isn’t just education. This is economic mobility at scale.
But we can’t do this alone. To scale this work—to serve more deeply and broadly across the country—we need partners who see what we see: that young men of color aren’t problems to be managed. They’re leaders waiting to be unleashed. Despite the headwinds, this is the best moment for our work because our students need us now more than ever. And we’re not backing down.
With determination and gratitude,
Michael Lynch
CEO & Co-Founder
Impact on GPA
At the start of their journey with IYT, members were struggling in school, with 1 in 3 grades being D’s or F’s.
By their senior year, it was 1 in 7.
The transition from middle school to high school is one of the most difficult academic challenges in any student’s life. Researchers call it the “9th grade shock,” a well documented drop in academic performance when entering high school, where the share of students with GPAs below 2.0 nearly doubles between 8th and 9th grade.
For young men of color, that shock hits even harder, with the pattern proving particularly acute for Hispanic and Black students (Pharris-Ciurej, Hirschman, & Willhoft, Social Science Research, 2012).
IYT students experience the “9th grade shock” just like their peers, but our data shows that with the support and mentorship offered by IYT, they’re able to change course.
Across all IYT upperclassmen, Ds and Fs fell by 11% and GPAs rose by 1/3 of a grade point; enough to move a student from the edge of academic probation to solid standing for college eligibility.
High School Graduation
In the US, less than 83% of Black and Hispanic students graduate high school on time.
100% of IYT seniors
graduated high school
IYT members graduate because they don’t walk alone. When a student is struggling in class, their IYT mentor is there for every step; not as a tutor, but as a consistent, trusted adult invested in their success.
Parents see it in real time.
“It’s amazing knowing that your child who is struggling has support right beside them.”
— IYT Parent of a 10th Grader
Middle School Outcomes
Our impact starts long before high school.
The seniors responsible for our 100% high school graduation rate didn’t start with IYT as seniors. More often than not, they began as middle schoolers who were connected with an IYT mentor, and told their future mattered.
In 2024-2025, 1,209 middle school students were enrolled in IYT across grades 6-8. Our impact data confirms what broader available evidence predicts: academic gains take hold 2-3 years into programming.
Middle school is where the foundation is built; where we begin to see a shift in how they began to see their future.
“Thanks to IYT, my son has gained a clearer understanding of the importance of completing his studies. He now recognizes that finishing his academic preparation is essential for aspiring to better professional opportunities in the future.”
— Parent of a 7th Grader, IYT Central Valley
“IYT is developing into a game changer for our middle school community.”
— School Partner, IYT Minnesota
Continuation School Outcomes
Our continuation school programming (called Continue to Dream), serves 285 students.
100% vs. 53%
100% of our Continue to Dream seniors graduated high school.
The average graduation rate from continuation schools among young men of color in California is 53%.
The young men in our Continue to Dream program have a resilience that most adults have never had to develop.
Our data shows that 32% have experienced housing instability, 6% grew up in foster care, but all of them chose to keep showing up to IYT, even when the system made it easy to walk away.
91% agreed IYT is a place they can be their true self
“IYT has helped me become a better person.”
— IYT Brother, 12th Grade, Discovery High School
“He’s more confident. He is bold. He communicates more effectively. He sees his ability to go far in life.”
— IYT Parent of an 8th grader
College Going Outcomes
of IYT graduates are pursuing college or a career pathway.
86%
Our latest impact data confirms the importance of College Access programming, particularly in ensuring college remains the primary path for IYT high school graduates.
Through IYT, members have access to college tours, A-G course advising, college application support, financial aid workshops, and guaranteed admission partnerships with universities.
If you work with a college or university, and would like to learn more about creating pathways to from IYT to your school, please get in touch with our team!
The largest share, 68%, enrolled in college, with 49% attending a two-year institution, and 19% at a four-year university.
Our college enrollment rate is 13% higher than the statewide average of 55% for young men of color.
Social Emotional Learning Impact
Our impact data shows:
Members feel more understood, more respected, and a greater sense of belonging at IYT than they do at their school.
Agree IYT is a place they can be their true self.
90%
For IYT Brothers, this isn’t just a program; it’s a place they feel seen.
Across all five measures of belonging, our members ranked IYT higher than their schools. They feel:
More connected to adults (70% vs. 54%)
More respected by peers (73% vs. 60%)
More understood as a person (66% vs. 55%)
And a greater sense of belonging (74% vs. 62%)