A few words
About Us
Our View
At Access Granted Youth Exploration (AGYE), we empower teens by exposing them to diverse cultures, equipping them with valuable skills, and fostering personal growth and self-confidence. Through partnerships with local communities and organizations worldwide, we create a unique and impactful program that positively impacts the lives of youth from lower income households.
Children cannot dream what they have not seen. Exposure opens their eyes to new opportunities.
We believe that every child, regardless of their family’s economic status, should be allowed to dream big. By providing new experiences to teenagers, we are broadening their horizons and allowing them to create their destiny.
Our Founders
Star Dehaarte
Star Dehaarte is an educator with a passion for fighting inequalities. Through her experiences as a teacher, she has been inspired to provide opportunities for access to students that would not otherwise be exposed. She has a degree in Public & Community Health from the University of Maryland – College Park. Star was previously certified as an emergency medical technician. Having these technical life-saving skills has allowed Star to have multiple job opportunities. This is one reason she is passionate about the youth learning technical skills for potential future employment. Star has broken through barriers of life circumstances based on economic status and environment and strives to do the same for others.
Vanessa Gibson
Vanessa Gibson is a compassionate educator who has dedicated both her professional and personal life to aiding in the development of young people in her community. She has received multiple degrees related to Education and now serves as an assistant principal in Prince George’s County. Being an assistant principal, she is skilled in the space of youth development, personnel and systems management. For 16 years, Vanessa has utilized a holistic approach when addressing youth development through mentorship, exposure, and providing a nurturing community. Her optimism and leadership allows her to facilitate the growth and development of Access Granted: Youth Exploration.
Vanessa and Star met in 2009 when Star sat as a seventh grade student in Vanessa’s math class. Star quickly joined the group of mentees Vanessa had been working with. The relationship has transformed from mentorship to family to nonprofit partners. They have first hand knowledge of how life-changing teen developing programs can be.
Our Logo
The logo is designed to resemble a passport stamp. The symbolism offers double meaning as we promote passport acquisition as well support to students receiving their first passport stamp with our organization. AGYE located in the center of the logo is the abbreviation for Access Granted Youth Exploration and the domain for our website. In the bottom hemisphere of both circles is a symbol to represent the student components of the program. In the green circle there is an open hand with an engineering gear and heart. This symbol represents the weekly classes where students learn skills and engage in community service. The plane symbol in the black circle represents the international exploration students will take to learn about other cultures and to engage in service-learning work.
Our Board of Directors
