IHAD tryst with Dallas

When the drop out rates of students in an elementary school in New York became too high, Eugene Lang, a successful businessman and philanthropist, devised a plan to curb this trend by assuring each student graduating from high school with financial resources to pursue his or her college education. This led to the development of the ‘I have a dream’ foundation, which supports the cause of ensuring that all children have the opportunity to pursue higher education.

The foundation empowers children in low-income communities to achieve higher education by providing them with guaranteed tuition support and equipping them with the skills, knowledge and habits they need to gain entry to higher education and succeed in college. The program was started in Dallas by Bill and the late Elaine Farrell after viewing a segment on it on Sixty Minutes. With Eugene Lang's help, they were able to bring the message to Dallas. The first class of almost 1,000 sixth grade ‘Dallas Dreamers’ was adopted in May 1987, making Dallas the first city outside of New York to start an I Have a Dream Foundation program. The adoption of a second class of 1,000 ‘Dreamers’ was in 1988.

The program has ever since met with great success in Dallas with the graduation rate of the students involved in the program. The foundation has provided financial assistance to more than 750 students that enrolled in institutions of higher learning throughout Texas and the nation. Colleges and universities attended by ‘Dreamers’ have included Southern Methodist University, Dallas Baptist University, The University of Dallas, University of North Texas, Texas Woman's University, Grambling State University, University of Houston, Prairie View A&M University, Texas Southern University, Rice University, Langston University, California School of the Arts, Julliard College, Dillard University, Texas A&M-Commerce, Navarro College, Sarah Lawrence, George Washington University, the University of Texas and many more. The IHAD-Dallas board currently has members like Deep South Surplus of Texas, Helen M. Dorsey, Dr. Pepper/Seven Up Inc. James W. Loose Galloway-James Inc. and others.