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Shepherds' mission is to provide disadvantaged inner city Connecticut youth with the opportunity for a quality high school education and the introduction of a positive role model - a Mentor- who fills a void in their lives. Shepherds solicits tuition sponsorships from individual benefactors, foundations and corporations. Shepherds pairs each student with an Adult Mentor who provides extended one-on-one direction, encouragement and support over the four-year high school journey. Shepherds students must overcome two major life hurdles. The first is graduating from high school in districts where as many as 1 out of 4 students dropout. The second hurdle is to access higher education with ample financial aid to attend. Currently celebrating its Tenth Anniversary, Shepherds' current student population is 90 students across 5 partnership schools serving Bridgeport, Danbury, New Haven and Stamford. To-date, 88 students have earned their high school diplomas, 92% of whom enrolled in institutions of higher learning. Shepherds provides Mentor Training under the direction of Dr. Susan Weinberger. The merits of the Shepherds Mentoring experience were recently recognized by Connecticut Governor Rell in the declaration of SHEPHERDS DAY (1/22/2009).