OPEN GATE Students' Challenge

OPEN GATE students can go either way as they walk an exceptionally fine line between tragedy and brilliance.

Gifted students are at a much higher risk than other students to become depressed, exhibit behavioral problems, drop out, and they even have a higher suicide rate. OPEN GATE students live in low-income neighborhoods with high dropout rates, surrounded by drugs, crime, gangs, and violence. The very same qualities that render these bright youngsters capable of becoming the scholastic, professional, and community leaders of tomorrow also render them equally capable of becoming gang leaders and criminals.

Whether they will lead gangs and criminal activity, or lead their communities and our society to new heights, is up to us. HDF provides the pathway to a better life through education for children who have the capability of becoming society’s greatest leaders or its biggest troublemakers.