On the Friday before Labor Day weekend, women from LEARN South Chicago campus and the surrounding community attended the “Pearls of Wisdom” event. At this event, women presented LEARN’s eighth grade young women with a string of pearls as a symbol of inspiration and strength. Eighth grade is an important year in school for all young adults. It is the final year in elementary school. They are finally the school’s leaders. Students at this time are also preparing to apply for and select their high school, which is a major determining factor in the type of secondary education students receive.

Iyanuoluwa Kehinde was one of the young women who attended Pearls of Wisdom. She has attended LEARN since kindergarten. Her parents chose LEARN for her because they saw how passionate the school staff and teachers are. She loves attending LEARN because the teachers and staff want all of their students to progress and succeed in the future. They provide all of the information that students will need to know in the future in order to be successful. Iyanuoluwa dreams of becoming a CEO of a major company one day. In order to achieve that goal, she’d like to attend Jones College Prep or Walter Payton for high school and then Yale or UCLA for college.

Iyanuoluwa enjoyed and was inspired at Pearls of Wisdom. She stated, “I liked how the speaker acknowledged how us young women feel hurt and encouraged us to be nicer to others. We should be strong and confident in ourselves even through tough times. I learned how to be confident in myself for being who I am and to not let others judge me for being different.”