Skip to main content

The Young Scholars Program

More than just a scholarship.

Giving

We're fully invested in
these boys for 8 years.
Will you invest
with us?

We’ve been blessed with gifted teachers and a great curriculum, so we feel it’s important to share with our community. We’re going into neighborhoods all over Memphis to search for young boys with exceptional potential and offer them a life-changing education. 

To get the most from this opportunity, students need to start at the beginning – in junior or senior kindergarten – and stay with us until graduation from 6th grade. To ensure we can fulfill this 8-year commitment, we fund our young scholars one at a time. A boy does not begin until we have raised the full amount we’ll need to see him through. This includes much more than average academic scholarships. We provide the full cost of our education.

Our Young Scholars

  • Come from a household with combined income of around $80K
  • Score well on our entrance exam
  • Thrive after graduation from PDS

Our Goal

We know our program works — around 3% of our student body consists of Young Scholars, and we want to continue to grow it by adding 1 to 3 boys each year.

Funding a Young Scholar

Because we believe so strongly in this program, the school is absorbing almost half of the cost involved. We are asking donors to come alongside the school to cover 50% of the cost. The complete cost to fund one boy’s PDS education is $10K a year – $80K for the entire 8 years.

Our Young Scholar Families are Stakeholders

We believe that Young Scholar parents need to have a strong vested interested in supporting their son's education, so we ask them to also contribute financially towards their son's education.

We are looking for commitment, dedication and a passionate desire from parents to partner with us in the education of their child.

A Proven Track Record

We’ve already graduated 15 exceptional young scholars at a total cost of more than $2 million. And they’re all successfully continuing their education at area middle and high schools – Memphis University School, Christian Brothers, Collegiate School, Saint Benedict, White Station, and Woodland Presbyterian.

Here’s how you can help.

When you support the Young Scholars program, you’re supporting Memphis. The boys you help educate have real potential to become our future leaders in government, business, education and social justice. Here’s what we need from you.

  • $350k funds one position in perpetuity.
  • $10K funds one boy for a year.
  • $5K funds a half-scholarship for one boy for a year.

As we said, we believe this program is so important for Memphis that we’re funding half of it ourselves. But that’s absolutely all we can do without weakening our overall financial position. We greatly appreciate any amount of help you can provide.

For More Information

Contact Chris Oliver, Chief Advancement Officer.