The Dallas Morning News Reports on Brewer Foundation Future Leaders Program (FLP)

June 14, 2024 – The Dallas Morning News reports on the Brewer Foundation Future Leaders Program (FLP) holding a session on mental health for FLP high school students participating in the program’s summer camp.

Founded in 2001, the Future Leaders Program (FLP) provides academic resources and leadership training to deserving students from the Dallas Independent School District (DISD).

Instructor Mayra Salinas-Godsey, an FLP graduate who now works at New York University, taught the class, “Rise & Thrive: Building Mental Strength for College Success and Beyond.” The course is intended to assist students with anxiety about applying for and transitioning to college.

“So like most of you, I know, are first-gen or second-gen,” Salinas-Godsey told the students. “We’re pioneers for our family. We are doing things that they may not have ever experienced before. It’s a little scary.”

FLP intern and graduate Erica Salazar, now a student at Northwestern University, said she advises her peers to give themselves grace.

“I know a lot of these students are top A students, like the top of their class, and they’re doing the best that they can do … but once you’re in college, it’s completely different,” Salazar said. “And if you’re doing your best and you still somehow end up stumbling across a small obstacle, it’s OK. It’s OK to feel stress, and it’s OK not to be OK. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

Read more here.

Dallas Morning News: Never Too Soon to Learn to Lead

June 3, 2006 — The Dallas Morning News (DMN) reports that lawyers John Bickel and Bill Brewer "take pride not only in providing legal service for their clients, but also in taking a genuine interest in the communities where those clients live." The article details the many ways in which Bickel & Brewer are giving back — in particular by developing and funding the Future Leaders Program, which provides "after-school academic resources and leadership training for middle school students from South Dallas and Oak Cliff." 

The report details how the program centers around a public-private partnership between schools and teachers from the Dallas Independent School District and those from private schools, including The Hockaday School, St. Mark's School of Texas, and the Greenhill School.

According to the report, the program, which is fully funded by the Bickel & Brewer Foundation, served 70 students during the 2004-05 school year, but expects to serve about 100 during the upcoming school year. 

"We understand that these kids are our greatest influence," Brewer told the DMN. "You can help a child in seeing themselves and seeing their lives being elevated to a level of them being able to impact someone else." 

The article notes that Brewer's focus on the community led to him receiving the Hero for Children award in 2005 from the Texas State Board of Education.