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Every week of 40 Acres & A Summer School is built around one core pillar — drawn from the missions of America's greatest HBCUs and brought to high school students a decade before college ever asks them to figure it out on their own.
In the 1800s, Black Americans were denied education by law, by violence, and by exclusion. HBCUs like Cheyney and Lincoln were created because there was no other door open. Two hundred years later, some of the signs have changed — but many of the systems still hit our kids in familiar ways. Underfunded schools. Low expectations. Neighborhood violence. Untreated trauma. Court involvement that closes doors before adulthood even begins.
40 Acres & A Summer School exists to challenge that pattern and offer a different path. Here, students are paid for their time, respected for their potential, and surrounded by a curriculum that tells the truth about Black history, HBCUs, money, mental health, power, and possibility.
WEEK 1
Core Value
Knowledge
Know Who You Are Before the World Tells You
Before students can learn anything else, they must know they are worth teaching. This pillar teaches who Black people truly are — not who they were told they were. Students explore the African origins of civilization, the meaning of Sankofa, and how self-knowledge connects directly to confidence, academic success, and mental strength.
Weekly Activity
The Story of Me — each student writes where they come from, what their name means, what their family has survived, and what they are going to build.
Topics Covered
WEEK 2
Core Value
Knowledge
You Are the Descendant of Kings Who Were Enslaved
The American education system reduces Black history to slavery and a few Civil Rights figures. This pillar replaces that incomplete picture with the real one — ancient African civilizations, Black Wall Street, the full truth of Reconstruction, and the hidden figures who changed the world.
Weekly Activity
The Black Inventors Project — each student researches a Black inventor and presents their discovery as if they are that person. Plus: First paycheck + PFCU Bank Account Opening.
Topics Covered
WEEK 3
Core Value
Knowledge + Integrity
You Are Allowed to Feel It — Now Let's Talk About It
Many of our students are carrying weight that has never been named. Chronic stress. Grief. Trauma from neighborhood violence, family instability, or encounters with law enforcement. This pillar gives students something most have never had: a structured, safe, judgment-free space to talk about what they are going through.
Weekly Activity
The Circle — a structured group conversation where students share what they are carrying, what they need, and what they want their life to look like. Facilitated by a trained mental health professional or counselor.
Topics Covered
WEEK 4
Core Value
Direction
You Were Born to Lead. Now Learn How.
Leadership is not a personality type — it is a skill that can be taught, practiced, and built. Students learn to speak in public without fear, make decisions under pressure, listen actively, and lead with integrity. Historical models include Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, and Fannie Lou Hamer.
Weekly Activity
Mock Town Hall — each student identifies a real problem in their neighborhood and presents a 3-minute solution to the group as if speaking to city council.
Topics Covered
WEEK 5
Core Value
Direction
Black Wall Street Was Real. Build It Again.
Black-owned businesses create jobs, circulate wealth within communities, and build generational assets. Students learn what a business actually is, how to identify a need, basic business math, branding, and how Madam C.J. Walker became America's first self-made female millionaire.
Weekly Activity
Shark Tank Day — each student pitches an original business idea to a panel of community mentors and receives real feedback.
Topics Covered
WEEK 6
Core Value
Integrity
Learn How to Use Money Before Someone Uses It Against You
The racial wealth gap is not an accident — it is the result of specific policies, laws, and systems built to keep Black families from building wealth. Financial literacy is a survival tool and a liberation tool. Students learn budgeting, saving, credit, investing basics, and generational wealth-building.
Weekly Activity
Budget It — each student allocates their weekly stipend between spend, save, and give — and tracks it for the rest of the program.
Topics Covered
WEEK 7
Core Value
Direction
Your Vote Is Power. Your Voice Is Power. Your Presence Is Power.
Black youth already believe in civic engagement at higher rates than their peers. The problem is lack of structured civic education to channel that belief into effective action. Students learn how local government works, their constitutional rights, and how to organize for real change.
Weekly Activity
Community Audit — each student identifies one problem in their neighborhood and writes a formal letter to the appropriate city official requesting action.
Topics Covered
WEEK 8
Core Value
Knowledge + Direction + Integrity
Giving Back — We Were Built by Those Who Served
Service closes the circle. Having received knowledge, direction, and opportunity, each student learns that the most powerful thing they can do next is pass it on. The mutual aid tradition in Black America is one of the oldest and most powerful forces in our community.
Weekly Activity
Each student plans and executes one community service act before graduation — a garden, a clean block, a book drive. They present what they did at the closing ceremony.
Topics Covered
Graduation
Students who complete all 8 weeks in good standing receive a graduation certificate, a framed personal pledge of integrity, and a $500 completion bonus.