Bed-stuy Teen Brothers Raise Funds in Hopes of Sending 40 Bed-Stuy HS Students to Harvard​

Teen brothers, Rusty(17 years old) & River Fields (15 years old), and co-founders of the Rusty & River Fields Foundation are raising funds in hopes of taking 40 inner city high school students to Harvard University to participate in the Harvard Mock Trial High School Seminar Program on Nov. 12-13, 2016. The program will be absolutely FREE to the 40 participating students, with the goal of eliminating any barrier to their involvement.

The duo are aggressively fundraising to raise the $15,000 needed to make this great project a reality. Their non-profit organization, the Rusty & River Fields Foundation, will cover the costs of the Harvard Mock Trial program, of transportation from Brooklyn, NY to Cambridge, MA and back, and of hotel accommodations in Cambridge, MA.

This dynamic seminar will provide the 40 students training in critical thinking, public speaking, debate skills, and civic lessons through an introduction to the justice system. In addition to learning from some of the best mock trial competitors in the country, they will also participate in a student-led college tour of Harvard's campus and engage in a Q&A college panel with Harvard freshmen.
Due to a lack of both exposure and financial resources, some urban youth born and bred in neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy would never get the opportunity to participate in programs like these, which can radically make a difference in their lives, by opening them up to a whole new world of possibilities. The program puts them in an environment that they have probably never been in before. Students attending Harvard University are on a track to become tomorrow’s leaders, and during the seminar, students will have the opportunity to see, study, and interact with this disciplined caliber of students, on their college campus, in their college classrooms, and take home a new prospective on learning, that can build confidence, ignite desire, and ultimately become the seed that unleashes their true potentials.
On Oct. 8th and 9th, 2016, Rusty and River participated in the Harvard Mock Trial High School Seminar Program, where they were both so motivated and inspired by their experiences that they returned home to Bedford Stuyvesant wanting to take 4 local students back to participate in the November session. That number quickly expanded to 10, and before we knew it we had 40 students signed up. This proves the eagerness on the students’ part, but due to no fault of their own, lack of resources creates a barrier to their success.

This project gives Rusty and River the opportunity to build their character, by developing their leadership skills through helping others. It tests their abilities to conceptualize a project, and then take it form conceptualization to completion. In addition to helping their peers, the students, they also get to develop and strengthen their skill sets, and stretch themselves to learn and grow. The brothers understand that to whom much is given much is expected. Therefore, if each one teaches one, we can eventually change for the better our community, our nation, and our world.

Rusty and River know it is short notice and it is a major task that they and their nonprofit organization is taking on, but they feel confident that together, as a community, we can make this happen, as waiting until next year will eliminate some of the students that are already seniors in high school, the ones who need it most, from participating in this amazing opportunity.
Please support this project via the Rusty & River Fields Foundation's GoFundMe campaign:
https://www.gofundme.com/help-teens-go-to-harvard-mock-trial-2tzcnns5

To hear from Rusty & River, themselves, view their YouTube video to hear more about this project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKnY9_9jY0M

Rusty & River Fields Foundation
(www.thefieldsfoundation.org)