For more than 50 years, the Education and Youth Development division (EYD) has worked to improve educational opportunities for African-American students. The EYD achieves its goal of fostering academic excellence through the development of policies and programs that focus on early childhood education, college preparedness and youth leadership programs. Signature Programs: Project Ready prepares adolescents for the critical transition from high school to college and/or professional work. The Project Ready curriculum is comprised of three key components: academic development, social development, cultural and global awareness. Each component is guided by an Individual College Development Plan (ICDP), which is a set of explicit and personalized student outcomes for achievement. A student’s progress is closely monitored by an advisor through the ICDP process, which provides each student with a clear, incremental and understandable plan of action to ensure their success. Read and Rise engages parents in early literacy development by providing them with hands-on experience and skills to work with their child to build and encourage early reading development. National Urban League Incentives to Excel and Succeed (NULITES) is an annual development forum for urban youth ages 14-18. Each summer pre-college youth and their chaperones gather at the NULITES Youth Leadership Summit for workshops and national presenters featuring topics that include: postsecondary success, career exploration, financial literacy, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The Youth Leadership Summit coincides with the National Urban League Annual Conference to further provide young people with access to Urban League leadership.