Every 26 seconds a student drops out of high school in the United States.  Dropouts earn $1 million less than college graduates over a lifetime and commit 75% of all crimes.  At the same time, employers across the nation continue to struggle to fill rapidly changing jobs across all industry sectors.  Due to economic disparities in urban communities minorities, particularly African American Males, continue to lack proper education and are not adequately prepared to enter the 21st Century workforce.  Since 2011, The Academy for Urban Scholars High School (AUS), an Ohio based alternative high school, has developed innovative educational strategies to fight this disparity. Through our customized educational and job training programming, we engage over 1,000 opportunity youth ages 14-24 annually from Ohio’s most underserved communities. Our targeted population represents in- and out-of-school youth who lack education, have a history of criminal behavior, are unemployed, and lack 21st Century job skills.