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Rob: Coming up on Rob at Home, the story of a Sacramento program that is changing thousands of young lives.

It's called IYT, Improve Your Tomorrow.

Meet co-founder Michael Lynch.

Michael: Rob, I had this epiphany sort of life-changing moment when I was 17 years old.

I was a freshman at the-- I was a freshman in college, and I got a phone call at about midnight while I was in training camp.

I was living my dream.

Rob: That phone call led to the calling of his life to get more young men of color, to and through college with mentors and guidance as early as the seventh grade.

It's working.

Today thousands of IYT young men are thriving right here in in our region.

Michael: I think if anything, we need people to recognize that when they see a young man of color, don't see them for any deficit narrative that you may have seen on TV or heard.

See them as a young, brilliant, ambitious, hard working person who... who can achieve anything that they set their mind to.

Rob: And treat them as if they were your own.

Michael: Exactly.

Treat them like they were your... your son.

Rob: On Rob at Home.

Annc: And now Rob on the Road, exploring Northern California.

Rob: I am so glad to have today's guest join us right now on Rob at Home.

Michael Lynch, who is the CEO and the co-founder of Improve Your Tomorrow.

Michael, great to see you.

Michael: Rob, it is an honor to be on the show.

I'm a fan.

So, um, I'm excited to be able to have a dialogue.

Rob: Well, I'm excited to talk to you too, and thank you.

Um, first, right out of the gate, I have to say, wow!

Your success rate is huge.

Uh, your track record is proven and the number of people that are impacted by this program is phenomenal.

First of all, what is it about this that is... is so magical with you?

What's the why?

Michael: Yeah.

The why... the why and the success all comes down to... to people.

Uh, like at IYT anytime we begin a meeting and especially when we're talking to someone new or why we do what we do, we always start with the reason behind the program.

Why does it exist?

And for me, it all comes back to, you know, growing up, uh, right in a single parent home led by my phenomenal father, but also recognizing that growing up in a single parent home, you face challenges that are unique.

Uh, growing up in Stockton and Sacramento in communities that had a lot of trial and a lot of tribulation.

You know, we were... we were formed to believe at the time, sometimes we weren't good enough.

But for me, I had so many people around me who invested in me.

And, you know, not only did I have a phenomenal father, I had a village of... a village of mothers, I had coaches, I had mentors who believed and invested in me And then, when I got to college and saw how few people looked like me outside of the people on my football team, I knew that there was something that had to be done to get more young men of color to, and through college.

And Rob, I had this epiphany sort of life-changing moment when I was 17 years old.

I was a freshman at the-- I was a freshman in college.

And I got a phone call at about midnight while I was in training camp.

I was living my dream playing Division One football, and I got a phone call one day that said, uh, one of my friends was shot and killed.

And for me, that was a moment where I recognize that so much needed to be done to ensure that more young men of color had access and opportunity to a better life because coming from the... the neighborhoods and communities that I grew up in, it was so rare to make it a college, so rare to graduate.

And so many young men didn't have an opportunity to... to live or to realize their full potential.

Rob: I'm so sorry about your friend.

Um, and that clearly made a major impact on you.

And so did, uh, what you said, it struck me really loudly when you said surrounded by messages that you're not good enough.

That you saw people who were surrounded by that message.

Uh, that's a... that's a... that's a heavy burden.

Michael: Yeah.

Yeah.

So, like, it's ironic because at the same time you could be surrounded by despair.

But at the same time, you can recognize the beauty in the despair because every day there were people who, despite all the different challenges were doing their best, who were... were raising a family.

You can often just realize, like what if they had what they had down the street or were in a different school district or in a different neighborhood.

If they had the same access to opportunity, could their lives be different?

Could our communities be different?

Rob: The reasons, um, that make no sense, that there aren't equal access.

The reasons that are not fair.

Um, the systemic reasons that have, uh, caused people to be in situations that have more hills to climb, and that is wrong.

You are in a position where you're able to see a lot of good stories and lives changed.

First of all, when will we get to the point where everybody in communities of color, uh, get these same opportunities that you're able to offer with the young men at IYT or Improve Your Tomorrow?

Michael: Yeah, that is a great question, Rob.

And I think a lot of us who wake up, you know, in Brown and Black bodies wonder the... the same thing.

There's this great book by... by Ibram Kendi called "Stamped from the Beginning."

He talks about how the foundation of our country was built upon the modernization of a group of a group of people, Black people, native people, whose... whose identities and lives were taken away.

And that was the foundation of our democracy.

That was the foundation of robbing people of their right to vote, robbing people of land, taking away babies from mothers, taking away liberty.

So, the foundation of our country is based upon systemic racism.

The success that, uh, a small percentage of our country experience now was based upon the... the robbing of other communities.

Uh, so when will we ever get to that place?

I think there has to be a radical, different-- radical-- doing something dramatically different than what we do now.

And let me... let me just give you a quick example.

We talk about COVID and school closures.

Uh, kids who have-- and there is... Like folks know that, hey, listen, COVID and school closures have been bad for a large group of kids, but if you were a kid in a family who had access to internet, who had safe and reliable, uh, housing who had, uh, who had access to food during the school day, who had access to some sort of extra care after school, you did all right in the pandemic, your... your grades didn't drop you.

You didn't... you didn't go from A'’s and B's to D's and F's.

But if you were a kid who... who didn't have access to internet, who didn't have access to food on a daily basis, who were... were living in insecure housing, what you experienced was a drastic decrease in academic learning.

So, we saw it hand in hand when schools began to close and kids began to realize that "Hey, you know, where am I going to eat now?"

Right?

Cause a lot of kids get their food from-- a lot of kids get their food from schools.

So, when we talk about doing something different, the first thing that we have to make sure that... that, the resource allotment, right?

The same thing that a kid can get, who grows up in a middle-class home should be the same thing that a kid who was growing up in a single parent home, in a challenging neighborhood.

Cause that kid, it makes no difference in the sense of he or she didn't do anything wrong.

Right?

They're a product of where they are.

Rob: What is something that-- and this is a hard question, but... but you're doing it at your location, that IYT.

What is something that can be taken from there and done on a large scale?

Michael: The second great thing they did was they made sure that every kid had access to a laptop.

So, to me, it's like phenomenal.

You know, we've been... we've been working in schools now eight years and kids got mostly homework that required them to log in to the internet.

Uh, but the problem was when most of our kids got home, they didn't have internet, or they didn't have a laptop.

So how are you supposed to complete the work?

So, the kid-- districts made sure that kids had hotspots, right?

And then they made sure they had laptops?

And I would say another thing is that the... the school day to me, never made a whole lot of sense.

Like, why do you... why do you make a... a young person sit in, uh, to sit in six classes for six hours per day, every single day?

Uh, like, for a school district to be able to say, you know what, let's think a little different about how we offer our instructional time.

Not every... not every kid learns the best in sitting through a class for six hours per day, six different classes.

How can we re-imagine education to allow kids if they have to be able to work, right?

To make sure they are able to work, right?

To make sure they still have access to extracurricular and A through G's.

To still... To make sure that they can be engaged.

Rob: You have seen so many wonderful programs.

Your success rate at IYT, 99 to a 100% of the young men that get involved in IYT graduate from high school.

That's well above the national average, period.

And if I'm not mistaken, it's well under the nineties for colleges well for your program.

Michael: Yeah.

So, we are... we are extremely fortunate to get, like, to partner with the right people, but also to have an extraordinary staff of-- like, our team members, our mentors and our program managers on campus go beyond what's required of them to ensure that that young people have like, access and opportunities.

The earlier that we can get to kids, the more likely they are to be able to have better outcomes.

So, like, our outcomes are a result of having a phenomenal team of people who just care deeply about young men and care deeply about equity and opportunity.

And our success comes from our partnerships, you know, from our school partnerships, to our, to our community-based partnerships, to our foundations and supporters.

Cause without resources, Rob, you know that you can do anything.

Rob: I also want to, uh, um, talk to you about those young men in the program.

How do you identify who's going to work with you?

Michael: Yeah.

So, when we... when we come into a school site, uh, we do what's called a draft.

And in that draft, we want to draft 50% of the kids who come into the program, they come in with below a 2.0 GPA.

So, we're not... we're not looking for the Freddy's of the world who already have a-- who are already on track and doing well and may do well without IYT.

We're looking for the young people who are struggling academically, who have some behavior challenges or attendance challenges.

And all we need, Rob, is a little bit of want to.

So, if you want to do better then we're going to be able to find that want to, show you some extra love, brought you a mentorship and tutoring and college tours and internships, to make sure your parents have the resources that they need to be successful to ensure that that young person, that young man, that young man of color has an opportunity.

Rob: And from there-- I, by the way, I love what you just said about you don't just go in and take the students with the highest grades, you go for people who are struggling.

And you take them literally by the hand and emotionally, mentally, as well as educationally.

And it's that umbrella almost like you talked about as... as a child, that... that you had many moms in the community, many people that cared for you and you see lives change.

Um, talk to me about some of the stories that you've seen.

Michael: Ah you know, I don't know how long we have to be able to... to tell you about the stories of hope.

The... the coolest part of my job though, is like seeing how the young men that we're investing in, now they are like mentors and leaders in their community, and now they are transforming lives.

I'll give you an example.

We have a... we have a program manager who leads, well, one of our programs at Valley High School, where we first started.

He is 24, 25, one of our senior leaders in the org, uh, he is phenomenal.

He came through the program as a ninth... ninth, and 10th grader he entered.

He graduated college a couple years ago.

He's one of our senior leaders and he has impacted, I kid you not hundreds of young men of color since his time as a mentor.

We have a... we have another young man, when he came into the program, he was 10th grade.

He had literally just immigrated from Mexico, knew very little English.

Uh... uh... uh, so college-- He said his-- he said his highest aspiration when he was in Mexico was to become a mechanic.

You know, college was sort of a thing where he wasn't... wasn't talked about, wasn't realized.

He got into the program.

Grades got up.

He... he also mentored, uh, young men, impacted hundreds of lives.

And now he's an advocate working for an organization called Public health Advocates, where he's helping to work on policy issues for young men of color.

So, w-- we have... we have another young man, this is the last one.

This is one of my favorite stores.

He started as a-- he had a 1.67 GPA when he came in.

Uh, quite kid and he would come in every Saturday, too and not say anything.

I don't think he did much work either in those first couple of weeks when he was involved in IYT.

But you know, he got connected to his fellow IYT brothers.

Um, he got on some college tours, he got the exposure he needed.

Three semesters later, he had a 4.33 GPA.

Got accepted to 13 colleges.

And, Rob, take a look at this, though.

He called me a couple of weeks ago.

He still continued at IYT, you know, he still did that while he was in college, was working for us.

He was a mentor.

He was helping in the community.

He called me a couple of weeks ago.

He said, "Mike, I graduated.

It's official.

I'm an Aggie.

I'm a UC Davis graduate."

First in his family.

He graduated college.

But he has two younger brothers now who thinks college is the only option.

So, it's not that it's not, you know, not that it's not an option anymore, but now it's the only option.

Rob: It's amazing when you see what love can do.

Michael: Yep.

Rob: You started in, was it 2013?

Michael: Yeah, eight years ago.

Rob: You started in 2013 with 17 students.

This school year alone, you will be working with 2000 plus students.

Michael: Yeah.

Rob: That's huge!

Michael: Yeah.

Close to 2000.

And you know, like the funny thing is when Michael Casper and I-- when Michael Casper and I, first, like, launched Improve Your Tomorrow, I mean, we really didn't know, like, what it was going to be.

We just wanted to simply just help other young men of color get to college like we did.

You know, we knew we had some, uh, support that a lot of folks in our community didn't so we said, "Hey, how can we simply pay it back?"

And we were both working like other jobs.

I was working in the state legislator.

He was working in banking at US Bank.

We just simply came together as best friends and like, "Hey, how can we help to serve?"

We came up with Improve Your Tomorrow and when we accepted the first group of young men, we had no idea they were even going to show up.

I remember like yesterday, sitting in front of the career center at Valley High School, Casper and I on both sides of the door, uh, April 6 2013.

And... and wondering if anybody was actually going to show up, like, to that first day.

And we had 17 young men show up.

We accepted 35 and 17 showed up that first day and they made up our... our first cohort of young people.

Many of them have graduated college.

Rob: Wow.

That's amazing.

Um, this is... is such a... a good, uh, real example as to when you can put forward into your community what comes back to the community itself.

Many of the young men that you have worked with have gone back into their communities, um, and become role models for other people in the community.

And will you-- I did a lot of research when it came to this interview and I was looking at the numbers of what is spent on prisons versus education.

And I'm just curious on your thought about that.

Michael: Yeah.

As a taxpayer, uh, like I'm pissed that... that... that there's far more spending on the per student cost on an inmate or, um, a young person who's in juvenile hall or state prison than there is within our education system.

It makes no reasonable sense.

But it does make sense when we look at our society from an historical perspective.

The criminal justice system was largely designed to control Black people after slavery.

Our... our... our... our... our current system of policing was designed in the South to control Black people after slavery.

I mean, after slavery, they created a penal system that, right, that'll how that, if I'm just, uh, I'm identified as a vagrant or don't have a job, then all of a sudden, I end up in incarceration.

Uh, so the... the system when you look at America's roots... it isn't surprising because of also who the predominant body is who's in prison.

It is a Black or Brown male.

So, but as a society, we have to take a closer look at ourselves and realize why do we have so many, uh, people, uh, of one, right, who look a certain way who are from a certain neighborhood or a certain background, behind bars?

It's...

It's grossly unfair.

It's grossly like, uh, it's... it's throwing away bodies who can contribute and to be a change maker, the leaders, the fathers, the mothers that we need to ensure that we have a better likelihood of success for all people.

The best example of how we can think about equality in this country is our schools.

Look at our school outcomes for Black and Brown boys.

I mean, think about, let's look...let's look at the A through G completion within the State of California.

So, the sequence of courses that you need to attend a public university in the States, or a UC or CSU our fabulous public... public institutions in which all Californians pay to have their-- to be able to support this phenomenal system.

In California, you have to pass a sequence of courses, like, in order to attend after high school.

And the individuals who are least likely to pass those sequence of course, are Black males.

Like less than, almost less than a third of Black males are A through G eligible upon graduation.

That's not... not because Black males are not as equally as intelligent or as equally as ambitious or as equally doesn't want to go to college.

It's a result of our public schools and our lack of investment to ensure that... that young people who are... who are products of, like, of our community, have the resources they need.

So, who have the hotspots, the computers, right?

The access to food, to mentors, the college tours, the tutoring, the teachers who represent and look like they do.

That's what they're a product of.

Rob: Are you encouraged today or are you discouraged today?

Michael: The continued racial injustice that we experience in the country, um, like, it's like a recurring trauma.

I know there's still is a recurrent trauma to a lot of people of color, especially Black people.

When you see this stuff, like, you only, like, continue to re-- retraumatize, you know, your... yourself.

So, you have to protect yourself.

You have to begin to ask yourself, like, will it ever be different?

Will it... will it actually change?

And some days I'm like, man, this is tough because I don't see how it can.

Other days, and most days I'm encouraged.

And you know, and Rob, I'm encouraged because of the young people who I come into encounter with every single day.

Who, despite COVID, who, despite racial injustice, who, despite poverty, who, despite society at times forgetting about they exists, they continue to excel.

They continue to push through.

They continue to reach for their dreams.

And like, many of them are reaching-- many of them are not only reach, like, they're grabbing it.

They're becoming college graduates.

They're working a professional job and they're serving others.

Rob: Um, you know, I know that you are getting feedback from many of your students about what has been happening in this world today.

How do you, knowing that how heavy it is for you to carry as a human, how do you turn around and then inspire and encourage your students?

When you, yourself are hurting?

Michael: Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, you have to be authentic.

Like, you have to... to speak your truth, but you also have to recognize that the only way that it changes is with us.

Like systems, right?

So, I want to say government, like systems are run by people.

People are the-- people create the environment, like, in which we live, right?

Almost like policy makers create the... the environments in which we live.

We as individuals, we have an opportunity to be a part of that process.

To... to change and shape the systems that govern our lives.

So, what I point to is like, hey, there has been examples, like, continuous examples of communities that have changed, communities that have progressed.

So, what we do as we point to examples to show of, like, to show hope.

We say, "Listen, hey, like, if that person can do it, you can do it.

And you can do it because you have us.

You have a collective group of other brothers, of other people who... who love you and care for you and want you to be your best."

Rob: What would you say to them for hope?

Michael: As cliche as it is, I will say being the change that you want to, you want to see.

If you look at your life right now, and you recognize that you want a different life, then you have to do something different than the people who have came before you.

So, despite the obstacles that are set in front of you, despite maybe you know, a lack of motivation or lack of resources, maybe all the different issue that are going on outside of your front door.

If you want something different, something different has to be done.

You can't go down the same... the same aisle as everybody else and pick out the same materials and expect a different result.

Rob: And also, what I hear is many of the people that you're trying to help don't even get the same supplies in that aisle that they're walking down to pick from.

So, imagine the deficit that some of these students are already going into what they see as an opportunity, and that's on us.

That's on the adults.

Michael: You're right.

That's on us as adults to change it.

That's on us as adults to... to ensure that... that... that... that we, as people who have resources or networks are... are ensuring that one, that our policy makers are making the best decisions on our behalf.

So, who we are voting for, but also that we're involved.

That we're involved in making sure that somebody else who may not have had the same access to a parent, or a mentor or resource has something, right?

To be able to get ahead.

Rob: Absolutely.

Um, what is it that keeps you getting up every day and doing this... especially lately?

Michael: Yeah, my dad.

Uh, so, I grew up in a single parent home.

You know, my mom left early on when I was a kid and my dad was a person who, um, never gave up, never yielded.

And you know, he had three biological kids himself, but there was a community of kids who called him dad.

There was... there was my friends, my cousins who he helped raise, it was a life of sacrifice for others.

And he got very little in return.

Whatever we had growing up, it went to-- whatever extras we had, or when we had, or if we had enough, it always went to help somebody else.

So, anytime I get down and recognize that, man, this is a really hard job to try to get young men of color who are struggling academically to college.

Um, I mean, I'm hopeful that you know, that I have a, like a dad who, who did it without... without anybody else telling him that he had to do it.

That there was-- that he served, um, that he served and ensured other people had opportunities.

Rob: That's amazing.

What a good man and what a good man he raised.

Michael: Thank you.

Rob: Thank you so much for joining us, Michael Lynch with Improve Your Tomorrow, the awesome organization that is helping thousands of people right here in Northern California, and thus impacting the entire world.

That's huge.

Thank you, Michael.

I appreciate your time.

Michael: Thank you, Rob, for the opportunity.

Rob: Absolutely.

Anytime.

♪♪ Annc: Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld, LLP focusing on business law and commercial litigation is proud to support Rob on the Road Region Rising.

More information available at murphyaustin.com.