During the pandemic we expanded our efforts to help even more people – which kicked off a new program within the Educating Emily Fund called Educating Emily University (EEU). Our initial idea for creating EEU was to help Emily during the difficulties, darkness, and depression of isolation and self-paced online learning without instruction. 

By taking a deep dive into Emily’s world, and sharing her story with others, we discovered there are so many young people across the country that are in similar situations. Worst of all seemed to be that for all the wonderful ways technology allows us to communicate, the world wide web also offers far too many ways to corrupt the minds of our youth and way too many worm holes where the wrong people are sitting in wait to get access to these young minds!

Invested now in this problem, we endeavor to dig our heels in and do something to address the issues and to collaborate on the solutions. In this spirit, we will continue our efforts to build EEU in such a way that it will eventually provide an online environment and community that teachers and parents can trust to be safe, while offering opportunities for young people to participate together in online gaming, role play, virtual reality, and educational alternatives that will help in the pursuit of self-knowledge and encourage growth in values and character development.

Your donations are 100% tax deductible and there is no better cause than investing in our youth – after all, they are the future!

EEU – The Back Story

In July 2021, EEU finished an intensive summer school online virtual learning course load with our very own Miss Emily – who has struggled with isolation, depression, and anxiety for over a year now since being stuck at home from the beginning of the pandemic. As a result, she fell behind in her online classes and she felt so ashamed and hopeless that she suffered in silence.

Upon hearing about Emily’s desperate situation, August Turak immediately put everything else in the foundation on hold to focus all our efforts on surrounding Emily with emotional support and love. Melissa Hawks created an internship program for Lexi Miller, an eager college student who wanted to give back to other young girls and mentor them to better face the challenges head on of being a teenage young lady. 

We established EEU to provide Emily with a support system and human interaction. We began daily instruction using Liberty University Online Academy and Zoom with video school instruction. Melissa spent mornings teaching Emily Bible, Language Arts, and Life Science while Lexi spent afternoons teaching Emily Civics and Math. 

Lexi’s internship goals also included tutoring, mentoring and being a big sister to Miss Emily. Lexi helped lift Emily’s spirits and provided much needed support. Lexi also took time to help Emily understand the importance of knowing what is and isn’t acceptable and of being respectful and grateful to all the adults in her life that truly want to help.