ABOUT the W.E.B. Du Bois Society

The W.E.B. Du Bois Society, Inc. is an educational enrichment and leadership development program that rewards the academic accomplishments and develops the leadership and service potential of its members. Its signature program is a network of high achieving black high school students from across metropolitan Atlanta. Collectively, the students both embody and are a celebration of diverse economic backgrounds. Participants hail from public, private and parochial schools. Named for the noted educator, philosopher and Civil Rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, the Du Bois Society rewards, reinforces, and encourages a sustained, exceptional scholastic work ethic. Ultimately, we hold them up as are powerful examples for their peers.

The Du Bois Society's purpose is to encourage and promote a culture of academic achievement and excellence among black children. We actively communicate to the students who participate in the program, and to the broader community of black students in Atlanta, that academic achievement is, and always has been, an integral aspect of being black in America. The principal outcome of the Society is to make excellence in academic achievement as attractive to African-American students as high achievement in athletics and entertainment.

Other objectives of the Du Bois Society include:

• Lessening the social isolation and feelings of conspicuousness often felt by high-achieving black students, by creating a peer group comprised of other black students who share their commitment to academic excellence;


• Rewarding the hard work that leads to academic excellence by providing program participants with access to people and activities that are highly valued, fun and entertaining;


• Challenging program participants by giving them the opportunity to meet, interact with, and learn from black professors and college students from the rich world of higher education in Atlanta, in an intellectual climate that is often unavailable in high school; and


• Foster character-building experiences to develop the leadership, critical thinking and communication skills of participating students.


• Provide opportunities for participating students to encourage, enrich, and inform the lives of younger students to increased their preparedness for learning and their commitment to academic excellence.

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