The Harlem Education Activities Fund was founded by Dan Rose, eleven years ago. He founded this program because he wanted more young people from Harlem to go to college and further their education. The fund is a non-profit organization that prepares young people for college starting from seventh grade. Besides preparing young students for college, this program also teaches students in grades four through eight how to play chess. The main programs at HEAF are chess and tutoring.


The program has successfully helped many people get accepted at several colleges. Some colleges that students have gotten into are: Syracuse University, Stony Brook State University of New York, University at Albany, Northwestern University, and many others. The program begins college preparation in the seventh grade, and not in the tenth grade like in high school, because they believe seventh grade is when college preparation should start. They think high school is too late to start preparing for college, and that all a person gets from readiness in high school are the basic details, not real preparation.

Courtney Welch joined HEAF when it was founded eleven years ago. She began doing volunteer work, and eventually asked Dan Rose for a paid position at HEAF. Ms. Welch originally worked in business. Commenting on the educational needs of the community, she said, "I believe that education is important, and I don't think there are enough educational supports for kids in Harlem." She also said that the reason she joined HEAF was that, "the money was not enough to enjoy my job. I wanted to work with my real passion, which is kids."

When HEAF was first started it needed about $60,000 in order function. Over the years this program has grown substantially and Ms. Welch has somehow managed to raise $2,000,000 for the program. HEAF does not receive money from corporations, or the government. Due to the incidents of September 11th, many non-profit organizations are suffering. The money that they usually receive is now going to support the rescue workers and reconstruction. For now, HEAF and other non-profit organizations are going to have more trouble raising money to keep their programs running.