Volunteer in the Spotlight!

As an organization, we are committed to supporting students by affirming them with positive Black males who are able to expose students to new ideas, thoughts, and practices. Meet some of our most committed volunteers!

Jayrell Cephas

Contributing His Skills to the Community

Jayrell is a Computer/Electrical Engineering student at Morgan University who also works with Northrop Gruman to create programming code. Jayrell was also honored with the 2018 Black Engineer of the year Student Award. During his time at Morgan, he has continuously made himself available to YKLA as a committed resource for our youth.

Jayrell stated, "I believe that the young man at the pre-teen/early teen age is at a very critical moment where every decision matters. I want to help make sure that the one decision that they are away from changing their lives, is always taken to change it in the positive direction." He takes part in building meaningful relationships with students by facilitating restorative practice conversations.

Mr. Cephas also conducted a two week game coding workshop with our students in an effort to translate their love for video games into a translatable skill in computer engineering. As a former College Bound Foundation Scholar of the week, he is doing a great job helping us ensure that our students are College and Career ready.

Roscoe A. Johnson

Fostering Students' Innovative Thinking

Roscoe is a GPS-RF Engineer who works with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to create software and system requirements for GPS receivers Test and Evaluation. Roscoe earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Morgan State University and a Master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California. During his time at Morgan, he worked with a NASA sponsored robotics camp for middle school students and served as a leader in the Fundamentals of Mathematics Program.

Roscoe holds and has been awarded numerous awards for his academic prowess and community involvement from the Great Minds in STEM (HENNAC) awards and The Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) to name a few. Since entering the professional workforce, Roscoe has dedicated his time to creating his start-up application development company and mentoring middle-school aged students about life and the sciences.

Roscoe recently facilitated a cross curricular workshop on app development. Students used critical thinking, math, and science to develop an app idea to tackle an issue in their community. Students decided that they wanted to tackle the issue of lack of exercise and poor eating habits in their community and went through the planning process of developing an IOS App geared to help people reach their fitness goals called, RunItUP!

Kojo Attah

Exposing Students to a Deeper Understanding of Self

Kojo Attah has worked in Education for over 20 years. He holds a Master's in Business Administration as well as a Masters' in Education, and is currently completing his Doctorate degree at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kojo has worked in the public school systems of New York and Baltimore City. As a former athlete, principal, current Muay Thai instructor of 10 years, and CEO of VERITAS Safety Consulting , a consulting group that provides schools with practical solutions for creating a safe and academically nutruring environment, Kojo is very effective in his approach to connecting with students.

Kojo recently presented during our curriculum focus on Knowledge of Self. As a native to Ghana, traveling to many different countries and states, Attah's unique perspective on how Black males are perceived around the world made him particularly passionate about Knowledge of Self. Attah took students on a journey of discovering their identity and outlining actionable steps that reflect the best versions of themselves.