'Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars' hosts workshop for students entering the workforce

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A local non-profit is helping ease the burden for students as they graduate from high school and transition into the real world.

"Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars" hosted an empowerment workshop on Thursday, where seniors learned some of the skills needed to succeed beyond the classroom.

"Any opportunity to just get ahead and help myself for the future, I want to take it," said Sabrina King, DRDFS participant.

"Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars" has been empowering, coaching, training, and educating high school students for 30 years. Their goal is to ease the transition for students going out of the classroom and into the boardroom.

"My parents both didn't attend college, and they didn't even graduate high school, so being the first one, It was kind of like I felt like I kind of had to," said King. 

Executive Director Christa Funk says it's crucial that students learn how to navigate the highs and lows of corporate America from an early age, which is why they recruit as early as 10th grade.

"So we're doing FAFSA completion, college campus visits, SAT prep, add up all those different pieces that are needed to be successful," Funk said. "Then we walk alongside them in their journey."

On Thursday, 100 high school seniors gathered at Madonna University for a dynamic empowerment workshop led by etiquette and leadership consultant Jacqueline M. Baker.

"We'll be learning lots of things," she said. "We'll be talking about networking, we'll be doing dining etiquette, we'll be talking about interviewing skills, and I'll be, of course, challenging them to think bigger about what’s possible in their lives."

To date, DRDFS has served over 400 students from 16 different schools across five counties, and that's not all. Their "Next Level Scholars Program" guarantees a $4,000 scholarship to every student who completes the high school portion of the program.