ESPN analyst Jalen Rose is more than his legendary college basketball career. He is also a powerful force in his community helping young people achieve their dreams.
The Detroit native rose to national prominence after playing in the Final Four as a University of Michigan Wolverine in the 1990s. He parlayed those performances into an NBA career, and after that was over became both an analyst and a philanthropist.
In 2011, Rose and his business partner Michael Carter, took their giving to the next level by opening the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, an open-enrollment, tuition-free charter school.
“I always felt it was important to try to give back, number one, to my community, but also to the less fortunate, and understand that we need everybody to have opportunities in order to actually have harmony in our country,” Rose told The Undefeated. “My way of trying to influence was through education.”
Rose's leadership academy doesn't only give students a good high school education; it endeavors to support them in college as well. 260 students have successfully graduated from the academy, and are currently in college, the military or trade school. The academy itself currently serves around 415 students.
“We’re basically trying to put [the students] in a position to succeed in the same college classroom and also compete for the same job and career opportunities in the future, so that’s why we call it bridging the education gap. It’s really bridging the financial gap.”
Without the help of state funding, Rose and company raise funds for the academy through the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy Celebrity Golf Classic, as well as by recruiting a variety of corporate sponsors.
“We graduated more than 90 percent of our scholars, with 100 percent of all graduates gaining college, trade, technical school and/or military acceptance. And more than 83 percent have matriculated to college, and that’s significantly higher than the state average. There’s one thing to talk about the outcomes, it’s another thing to achieve them,” Rose said.
