"I Have a Dream"® Foundation

The “I Have A Dream” Foundation is working to ensure that all children in this nation will have the opportunity to pursue higher education and to fully capitalize on their talents, aspirations, and leadership to have fulfilling careers and create a better world. We sponsor entire grade levels of 50-150 students in public elementary schools or public housing developments, and we work with these “Dreamers” from early elementary school all the way to college. Upon high school graduation, each Dreamer receives guaranteed tuition assistance for higher education.

We got our start in 1981, when founder Eugene Lang made the extraordinary promise of a college education to the sixth-grade students of P.S. 121 in East Harlem, sparking a national movement that now stretches from coast to coast. Currently more than 3,000 Dreamers are on the pathway to college in 17 states, Washington, D.C., and New Zealand, following some 11,000 Dreamers who came before them. Many of our Dreamers will be the first in their families to graduate from high school and attend college.

We are now developing a new strategy to significantly grow our impact, which will involve working with schools and school networks to drive up student achievement and college readiness on a large and more sustainable scale. We plan to launch this new strategy in the upcoming school year, working with some of the nation’s leading school reformers.