The Suburban Houston-Fort Bend Alumnae Chapter has long been committed to partnering with local schools, parents and youth organizations in our area to promote the importance of education in our community. Delta Academy, Delta GEMS and EMBODI are the mentoring programs used by the Chapter to achieve this goal, while the Scholarship & Awards Committee helps deserving students achieve their aspirations of a college education.

DELTA ACADEMY

Delta Academy was created out of an urgent sense that bold action was needed to save our young females (ages 11-14) from the perils of academic failure, low self-esteem, and crippled futures. Delta Academy provides an opportunity for local Delta chapters to enrich and enhance the education that our young teens receive in public schools across the nation. Specifically, we augment their scholarship in math, science, and technology, their opportunities to provide service in the form of leadership through service learning, and their sisterhood, defined as the cultivation service learning, and their sisterhood, defined as the cultivation and maintenance of relationships. A primary goal of the program is to prepare young girls for full participation as leaders in the 21st Century.

DELTA GEMS

Delta GEMS (Growing and Empowering Myself Successfully) was created to catch the dreams of African American at-risk, adolescent girls ages 14-18. Delta GEMS provides the framework to actualize those dreams through the performance of specific tasks that develop a CAN DO attitude.

The goals for Delta GEMS are:

• To instill the need to excel academically;
• To provide tools that enable girls to sharpen and enhance their skills to achieve high levels of academic success;
• To assist girls in proper goal setting and planning for their futures high school and beyond; and
• To create compassionate, caring, and community minded young women by actively involving them in service learning and community service opportunities.

The Delta GEMS program is composed of five major components (Scholarship, Sisterhood, Show Me the Money, Service, and Infinitely Complete), forming a road map for college and career planning. Topics within the five major components are designed to provide interactive lessons and activities that provide opportunities for self-reflection and individual growth.

EMBODI

The EMBODI (Empowering Males to Build Opportunities for Developing Independence) program is designed to refocus the efforts of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., on the plight of African-American males. Both informal and empirical data suggests that the vast majority of African-American males continues to be in crisis and is not reaching its fullest potential educationally, socially and emotionally. EMBODI is designed to address these issues through dialogue, and recommendations for change and action.

The SHFBAC program is unique in that it uses a peer mentoring model to help challenge young men to make better life decisions.

SCHOLARSHIP & AWARDS COMMITTEEThe Scholarship and Awards Committee of SHFBAC is charged with the responsibility of promoting higher education through scholarships and providing high school students with enrichment skills that will assist them in achieving their goals.For over 25 years, our Chapter, in collaboration with DAAP (The Delta Academic, Artistic & Philanthropic Foundation), has provided more than $300,000 in scholarships to deserving students. Our scholarship recipients have attended schools as far away as Howard University and as close to home as Texas Southern University.