When Grace first came to the Amos Youth Centre (AYC) in 2017, she was a shy Grade 6 learner simply looking for a place where she could improve her studies. A friend had told her about the free tutoring classes and the Spelling Bee Club, and with her family struggling financially, the possibility of educational sponsorship gave her hope.

Every young person who walks through our doors comes with hope, hope to improve in school, to be supported, and to dream a little bigger. But what unfolds goes far beyond academics. It becomes a journey of growth, resilience, and self-discovery. Kelly’s story is one of those journeys: a powerful reflection of determination and the life-changing impact of opportunity.

What does it look like when an investment pays off? Not in numbers, but in people, in young men and women who walked through the doors of Amos Youth Centre (AYC) full of potential. At AYC, the return on investment is measured in more than percentages; it’s the lives touched and transformed. Some of those lives have found their way back to where it all began. For Clement, Violet, Christine, and Kalaluka, graduation wasn’t an ending; it was a beginning.

In this blog, we catch up with Maureen, a student at University at Albany in New York who is an alumni of AYC’s Learning & Leadership Center and recipient of the SUNY Schenectady's Joan R. Dembinski '10 Study Abroad Scholarship, thanks to a partnership between the African Education Program and SUNY Schenectady County Community College.