[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8197]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 5000 ROLE MODELS OF EXCELLENCE PROJECT

  (Ms. WILSON of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. WILSON of Florida. Madam Speaker, tomorrow 50 Miami-Dade County 
ninth grade boys from various chapters of the 5000 Role Models of 
Excellence Project will visit Washington, D.C. They are all college-
bound and have earned the promise of a 4-year scholarship from the 
program.
  5000 Role Models is an in-school dropout prevention program that will 
turn 25 years old in January 2018. There are 6,000 participants in 
Miami-Dade County, 3,000 in St. Petersburg, and 2,000 in Jacksonville 
school districts.
  The program's goal is to mentor minority boys beginning in elementary 
school, middle school, and high school, all the while guiding them 
along a carefully charted path to manhood and sending them to college.
  Madam Speaker, in this season of youth violence, during which boys 
get entangled in the school-to-prison pipeline, we are proud of the 
project and the tens of thousands of boys it has helped to become 
successful, contributing men in society. For example, Barry Jenkins, 
director of the Oscar-winning film ``Moonlight,'' is a 1998 graduate of 
the program.
  I look forward to welcoming these young men here tomorrow and hope 
you will get a chance to meet them, also. If you do, give them a hug 
and tell them that you love them.

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